2 1/2 Year Old Not Sleeping! o_O

Our DS is the same age. He is in bed at 8pm and wakes at 6:30-7:30 am like yours does, and as late as 8ish on the weekends. He gets a 90 minute nap/ quiet time at daycare 3 days a week. When he is with my parents two days a week, he naps anywhere from 1-3 hours sometimes as late as 2 or 3pm -5 or 6. The same is true during weekends with us. The late naps have never been cause for him to go to bed any later. Hubs explained, and we have found, sleep is cumulative. A late nap, doesn't seem to give cause for any less sleep.

We have only the occassional night waking. Main difference being, ours is still in a crib, so he usually wakes, puts a mobile on or talks to himself and goes back to sleep.

I haven't offered you any tips, but I hope that our experience might help set your expecations.

F. B.

First, if she falls asleep in the late afternoon, only let her sleep 20 minutes. Wake her up. That will solve your night time issues.
Nap time-quiet time should be at 1pm. This way if she falls asleep, you can wake her by 2:30 or 3 and she will still go in at night. If she sleeps, great. If she doesn't, so be it.
My son was 3 when he gave up his nap. My daughter was 8 months old. Yes, I cried. Then I instituted quiet time.
Good luck!

My son has the same issue with naps. If he misses it or something wakes him up, he has a bad day and often falls asleep in car when we go somewhere afternoon. It's a bad habit, but I often rely on driving him to sleep for naps and then trying to rush him to bed without waking. It only works 75% of the time, but naptime is my only break!

The transition to NO naps is a nasty one for sure! Some kids still nap until they're 4....mine were all DONE by the age of 2.

What I would do is move up her bedtime, at least until she's gotten used to missing her nap. Or, you could move her naptime later in the afternoon and wake her up by 3pm; that way she still has 5 hours until bedtime. Hopefully that's enough time to tucker her out again :)

The night wakings are likely due to her being overtired. Once she settles into her new routine of no naps, she should go back to sleeping a solid 12-14 hours. Overtiredness is also the reason she's fighting to go to bed at 8pm. Overtired children do NOT sleep well. They become more stimulated by little things and then get cranky.

Sleep begets sleep. A well rested child will sleep more restfully. So your first step is to figure out how to get her more rest - either by moving back her nap and waking her up at 3 or by moving up her bedtime. My 2.5 year old goes to bed at 6:30. Kind of inconvenient, but it's better than having a miserable child who melts down all day long!

Ditch the nap completely. If she falls asleep in the late afternoon, make it a short power nap. Not 2 hours. Then put her to bed regular time. If not willing to get rid of nap, put her in at around 1pm not 11:30am.

It's entirely possible that she's trying to drop her nap. My oldest had completely dropped hers by the time she was 2 1/2. Now, to be honest, it was VERY ugly starting out. She wouldn't sleep during nap time, but she'd fall asleep while I was fixing dinner or something. I would wake her up as soon as I noticed and BOY was she nasty. It was a nightmare. Eventually, though, she got used to not taking that nap (and she also stopped falling asleep late in the afternoon) and things settled into a new routine.

As for the night wakings, I'm not sure what advice to give. Do they seem to be associated with anything (needing to go to the bathroom, nightmares, etc) or just random?

Hope things smooth back out for you!