[*CrazyCatLady*]

My DD is 2 and 4 months. In the past month or so I've noticed that it's really hard for her to get to sleep at night on the days she has slept. She's never been much of a sleeper and her whole life I've been tearing my hair out trying to find ways for her to get the amount of sleep the books say she needs.

Lately she will sleep for 1 - 1.5 hours in the day, and is usually awake by 2 or 2:30. Then at night it will take her 1.5 - 2 hours to go to sleep. This drives me insane.

In the past couple of weeks she's had a few days where she's decided not to have a day sleep. On these days she will usually (but not always) be pretty grumpy while she's getting ready for bed, but go to sleep within 30 mins.

On those nights she will be asleep before 8 and wake up most days at 6:30-7. Obviously it's less sleep if she's taken longer to go down.

So given this situation, would you drop the day sleep? i feel like it's a trade-off for me, I'm reluctant to give up that little bit of peace in the middle of the day (and we're TTC so it'd be nice to be able to nap in the 1st trimester once I do get PG), but I'm not sure if the 2-hour-long bedtime battle is worth it.

WDYT?

[XieXie]

Drop the sleep. My DD dropped hers about the same age, as we had the same problem at bedtime with her lying awake for hours. It's not really fair trying to force her to go to sleep at night when she's just not tired.

[LoveMy3Kids]

We had the same thing happening and dropped the sleep. It worked well. Now she's out like a light most nights not long after going to bed instead of being awake for hours.

[cinnabubble]

I'd drop it. A 10pm sleeptime does nobody any favours.

[kirtyw]

My son (2 and 4 months) is at the same stage. He fights his day sleep. If he sleeps (2-3pm) he's awake for at least an hour (asleep by 830 last night... after an hour of 'joy'). If he has no day sleep he's out to the count about 10 seconds after he goes to be at 7. I am just being selective... he has a nap on monday (as he has swimming lessons that morning and is exhausted). If he sleeps in until after 730 I won't try for a day sleep. Up before 7 and I'll try. Sometime I just organise to be in the car at nap time.. so he has a 30 minute nap.. other than that we have a 'quiet time'. Today we watched a dvd. Other days we read, draw, or he plays by himself in his brother's room (where the toys are kept!).. With the TTC I don't know... I know I can face an afternoon with a grumpy toddler if I've had a restful evening/night before... I hate the mucking around in bed.... Having said that he does still NEED a nap a few times a week... transition stage!

[Sunshineandsmile...]

My DD is 2.5 years and I put her down about 1.30 (we did have some issues but was putting her down earlier before) for around an hour and a half, she goes to bed around 7idh and falls asleep by 7.30/7.45. Mostly sleeps till around 6.30. I found changing the time I put her down helped enormously. She gets grumpy if she doesn't have her day sleep.

[RunDMC]

I am in 3 rd trimester so I am trying to do everything possible to preserve the nap. So have in the last few weeks started the following.

DS is 2.8

We do a dedicated active morning activity of at least 45 mins before lunch - swimming, soccer, ride to the park, long walk amongst the other things we need to do- shopping, banking et al.

I find that if he goes straight down after lunch he will go straight to sleep, but if I leave it until 1.30 he will struggle for 30/45 mins before going to sleep. Will sleep 1.5/2 hours. Have to wake him up.

In the evening before dinner we do at least 30 mins (if DH is home they do at least an hour) of bike or scootering in the driveway. Sometimes I am so tired that I sit in the chair calling out 1 2 3 go for him to run up and back.

Then dinner, bath, book, bed. Into bed by 7:15/30/45 and most nights off to sleep within 20 mins after talking or singing to himself. Wakes up 7:00/30/45

[Earth-Angel]

i'm going to agree with RunDMC with the whole excercise thing. I think why kids used to day sleep for longer in the olden days was that they were much more active then most kids are these days. Less activity means less sleep needed for repair and recovery.

My DS who is 32mths old mostly has a day sleep of 1.5-2hours. But we normally walk to playgroup or around the neighbourhood which is a few kms every day and then if he's slept late (which is 3pm) then I usually get DH to take him to the park after dinner and run him around for 30mins before bath and bedtime at 730 and he's generally out in less than 15mins.

[Therese]

I would also drop it. We dropped the day sleep for the same reason and although I missed it, I didn't miss the battle of bedtime that we had when she did have a day sleep.

[spannah]

Could you try just shortening the nap to just one sleep cycle (40-50mins)? Wake her up at that point and see how the evening goes.