2-year-old refusing to sleep....

0 votes

So I understand that this is a pretty common problem, so perhaps I'm just looking for sympathy...  And new advice I haven't heard before? 

We have always been very consistent with our son regarding sleep -- he has a routine that we follow every night, and his afternoon naps are always around the same time.  We have rarely missed these.  And for the most part, he's been great -- he's been on a single afternoon nap schedule for at least 6 months now (2 hours early afternoon), and we put him to sleep around 7pm and he gets up around 6:30am.  Mostly. goes to sleep when asked (we figure he had been brainwashed from early on....  but we were wrong.)

In the last week, he's decided that he doesn't need his naps, and he doesn't need to go to sleep at night when we put him down.  The first day, he talked for two hours during his nap time, and after seeing no end, we got him at the end of his "normal" nap time.  The second day, he talked for two hours, and just as we were ready to go get him, he fell asleep for 45 minutes.  The third day was the same.  And it really hasn't gotten better since (though instead of talking, he cries as soon as we try to leave the room).  At night, he's decided that he doesn't want to sleep either.  Tonight, for example, we put him down as usual around 7pm, and he talked and kicked his legs against the side of his bed for an hour or so before we stopped hearing from him.

I don't think the issue is that he doesn't need his sleep -- at daycare, he takes his 2-hour naps, and on days where he gets less sleep, he tends to sleep a little longer there.  I think he's just realizing that there's more to do than sleep and wants to participate in what we're doing.  We are trying to stick to the same routines that we've been using.  I've also tried suggestions from message boards online (e.g., instead of forcing the nap issue, just tell him he needs have "quiet time" instead).  Nothing seems to be working.  The other thing that I've heard people say is that this is "just a phase" and will pass.  But how long is this phase - when is it time to give up and try something radically different, if at all?

Thanks for any suggestions.............  Or sympathy...

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Anonymous

Apr 19, 2011

2 Answers

  • 0 votes

    How have things been going? Is your little one still refusing naps? I hope it's a phase. Mine also went through this phase at a similar age. We just stuck with the routine and eventually he went back on schedule. I don't know how things are at your house but at ours it's usually pretty quiet. I found that my son was curious about what we were doing or lonely or something. So it helped him if I would mention what I was about to do. You take a nap now and I am too, in my bed! Or Have a nice nap, I'm going to wash the dishes now, and then I would make a racket cleaning up. At bed time, he would whine less if I stomped downstairs and he could hear me walking away despite his cries. Or maybe he was quiet so he could hear what was going on.
    sweethi

    bounce, bounce ... hop, hop
    Seattle, WA

    May 16, 2011

  • 0 votes

    Thanks for asking!  A week or two after my post, he settled back into his routine.  So I'm glad we stuck it through, painful as it was for a bit.  Periodically, a day here or there, he still resists napping (he even talked through one of his naps last week), but overall, he's gone back to the routine.  Our house is usually pretty quiet too.  We've tried different approaches at nap time and in the eveining -- keeping the house quiet like it usually is, or making some noise so he's confident we're still around.  Not sure in the end which is better....  I can't complain, though - we seem to have it easier than many of our friends!
    Evelyn

    Los Altos, CA

    May 21, 2011



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