normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

DD is 2.5 and (from what I remember)

Her afternoon nap is easy. 95% of the time we give her a bottle (she still takes bottles before bed) and she gets into bed by herself and just falls asleep with the bottle in her mouth (not looking forward to the orthodontic bills!)
Heck yesterday she told my wife "Im tired" and asked for milk. My wife brought her into the room and gave her a bottle, she was asleep 5 minutes later.

Bedtime - mom has to be next to her in bed (if Im there she cries for mom) and even after finishing the bottle she rolls around bed or tries to get out of bed and just basically hangs out. If we stop her she just starts crying.

Its not like shes more tired for the nap.
She wakes around 7am and sleeps at 1pm (6 hours)
Then she wakes around 3 and sleeps at night around 9 (well we start trying to get her to sleep at 9, she sleeps around 10:30 because of the struggle)

Why is it so much easier at the afternoon nap?
Do all kids dislike sleeping at night?

Re: normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

I would say the nap is messing with bedtime. Could you shorten the afternoon nap and see what happens

normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

I think the nap is too long and too late. I would try limiting it to 1 hour.

normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

Really? I always heard "the better they sleep during the day, the better they sleep at night"

But its about 6 hours from waking to nap.
Then 6 hours from waking from nap to bedtime.

So its about the same length of time.

And isn't it bad to wake them?
They wake up all groggy and cranky.

Re: normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

I'm sorry -- this wasn't your question, but you are putting her to sleep with a bottle of milk? In addition to braces, you are asking for tooth decay... its really a habit to stop ASAP. Substitute water if the bottle is absolutely necessary for soothing.

Now back to your actual question... it may be time to push through, skip the nap, and do earlier bed time.

normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

I think you should shorten her nap to an hour or an hour and a half at most. When DS takes long naps he gives us such a hard time at night.

normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

Dd is the same age and we had to shorten naps to no longer than an hour. There's also days she'll just skip the nap

normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

My DS is the same age. Unlike the others, I think her bedtime is too late and she's overtired. DS wakes between 6:30-7:30. Naps from 1-2:30/3 and then goes to bed at 7:30. Whenever we put DS to bed at 8:30/9, he's a TERROR.

Re: normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

Re: normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

Re: normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

Sounds overtired to me, I'd try a bedtime 4 hours after waking from the nap, so I'd start the routine around 7 in your case.

normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

>>but you are putting her to sleep with a bottle of milk? In addition to braces, you are asking for tooth decay... its really a habit to stop ASAP

Yeah.
She's always asking for "Milk...milkie...MILK" and she cries until we get it to her.
Recently she's woken up around 3am and asks for it also.
I know...we're enablers.
=/

For those of you with shorter naps.
Do you wake up your kid if they sleep past the hour mark?
In the past we've tried waking DD up but she is grumpy if we do.

Now, the Problem with starting the bedtime earlier is...we're not even home yet!
My wife gets home around 7:30 (if its a good day), I get home around 8ish.
Usually my wife eats dinner while I keep the kids occupied.
Then I watch DD while my wife feeds DS.
Then I watch DS while my wife tries to get DD to brush her teeth. Then tries to put her to sleep.

Message edited 11/22/2016 5:11:08 PM.

Re: normal? afternoon nap - easy / bedtime - hard

Ok, you didn't ask but stop the milk habit, especially with the 3am wake-up, I'm not a nice enough Mom to put up with that.

I am hooked on naps, I have resisted the idea of giving them up with both kids, and, instead, had them take a tiny one.

DS, 3 1/2, wakes up around 6:30, naps from 1:15-1:45, I wake him up. He's not ready to get up, could probably sleep at least an hour more, BUT I want him to bed at a decent time so that I can veg on the couch. So he is in bed at 7:30, he's not sleeping right away, but he knows he needs to stay up there and wait for sleep. DD, 6 years old, wakes up between 5:30-6:00 (ugh, she's always been an early bird and napped up until 5 1/2 years old!), gets in bed at 7:30 and pretty much falls asleep right away.

We're kind of sleep nazis. We did CIO at an early age, never allowed kids in our bed, never allowed a bedtime bottle, and tell our kids they can't leave their beds until an adult gets them (unless they're vomiting or bleeding), and so far it's given us decent sleepers. I know this doesn't work for everyone though. Everyone does what they can. If you're looking for your child to go to bed earlier definitely cut the nap shorter.