So my 22 month old is a very active boy. He has always had an amazing schedule and went down for a nap at the same time and wanted to. Now he is just wanting to play, and has a lot of energy at his normal nap time. He has not been going down at all, so I put it a little later and now its like one day he naps for three hours, the next day he quietly lays/plays for an hour but does not go to sleep. He is okay during the day when he does not hap, but it seems like about an hour before bed he is very touchy and wobbly, which seems to say he still needs to actually sleep. I plan on still doing quite time in his bed whther he sleeps or not, since he is fine with it ad I feel his body needs to be calm for a while. I am just not sure if he is ready to drop the nap or on the way to making the process or just having a rough couple weeks? No changes really other than that at all. Any words of wisdom??
I say keep doing what you are doing but on days he doesn't nap put him to bed between 30-60 minutes earlier. My son just turned 3 but for about 3 months hasn't been napping either :( even though he really needs it too. So when he doesn't nap, which is mostly every day, I put him to bed between 7-7:30 and he sleeps like a champ and doesn't wake up earlier than 7. If he really is tired he'll still sleep to the same time and be fine.
Kids need to keep a nap all the way up to school age if at all possible. They still lay down to take naps in Kindergarten. So if he doesn't still nap it's harder on him.
But! A lot of kids don't need them anymore and it's nearly impossible to get them down. I would still be trying to get him down until at least Christmas Break is over. The darker evenings may make it where he'll start going down and sleeping earlier.
Mine have all quit napping or I have removed it by that age.
Quite time doesn't work in my house. There are 8 kids...nothing is ever quite lol
When naps go by the wayside I just put them to bed earlier and enjoy my evenings.
I think you are doing just fine in your thinking. Keep having him take quiet time, and if it ends up being naptime, that's fine. Always have a specific wake-up/get-up time so that you don't mess up his night time sleeping, though. (That's the only change I would consider.) You don't want him being wide-awake at midnight...
Dawn
I am a big fan of quiet time. If he is not napping but playing quietly, consider yourself lucky! He is still resting.
My daughter stopped napping for me and just me. Just screams in her crib so I kinda gave up :-(
