Toddler having trouble falling asleep all of a sudden

[acmom]

DS will be 3 in a month. He has always been a great sleeper- goes to bed easily and rarely wakes up during the night. We recently took the front of his crib and changed it to a toddler bed. He made the transition very smoothly and did really well for over a month. Then we went on vacation and he started having trouble falling asleep at night (we did bedtime around 8, but he was still awake in bed past 10). We figured it was a vacation/unfamiliar place issue. But the trouble has continued in the week or so we have been home.

He still naps, usually at 12:30 for 2 hrs (he wakes up pretty early in the am, usually between 6 and 6:30). We stopped doing naps with DD at about this age bc she was having trouble falling asleep at night, but she was napping later in the day and often had trouble falling asleep at nap time too. DS is a tired cranky mess by noon many days and is almost always asleep at nap time within 3-5 minutes of getting in bed, so am I guessing he isn't really ready to drop nap.

Any ideas for getting back to good sleep at night?

[brittone2]

We went through this period with all 3 kids right around their 3rd bday. I encouraged DS1 to drop the nap at that age, and after a few weeks, bedtime was much easier. Before that, he was going down easily for his nap, but was a bugger to get to sleep at bedtime and was up til 10 pm (and pleasant!). With DD I tried, but she was not ready. We tried a period of no nap, and that was a bit rocky. She was a bear in the late afternoon, and that didn't ease up after a few weeks (in contrast, with DS1 it was rocky for a few weeks but then things smoothed out). We did quiet time and she napped at least 50% of the time, and she resumed napping from 3.5-4.5 at least half of the time. DS2 just turned 3 and still falls asleep if we drive for more than 15 mins in the afternoon, but is transitioning well to no nap and is going down more easily at night. If he naps even 30 mins in the car, it is much more difficult.

I think it is part of the transition...some kids are ready, some aren't, but that limbo period can be rough (late bedtimes if they do nap, crankiness if they don't nap).

eta: travel often throws things off for a week or two for us, depending on how long we were off schedule.

[Momit]

We went through a period at that age where DS would not go to sleep, but in his case it started immediately after we transitioned out of the crib and into the toddler bed. It seemed that the freedom to go wherever he wanted was so exciting to him that he had the wanderlust big time - we'd find him asleep in the hall, on the floor in our room, wherever. He also started wanting a drink, to use the potty, to turn different lights off or on. It finally passed but it took a couple of months. It went away before I really figured out how to deal with it.

DS was a napper then and still is now - I have never felt that napping interferes with his night time sleep although I know others here disagree.

ETA I totally agree with PP that vacations/travel can really throw off your schedule. We often spend the same amount of time getting back on track after a vacation than we spent on the vacation itself, but our travel often involves crossing multiple time zones

[mm123]

We're going through a similar transition with DD2, who turned 3 in March. At daycare, she naps for 1.5-2 hours, but then we can't get her to settle down until 9 or 10 pm at night. On the weekends, when she refuses to nap, she's cranky in the afternoon, but then she goes right to sleep at 7 pm. I still prefer the no-nap days, but hopefully the transition will work out more smoothly soon.

[fedoragirl]

If you don't want to drop nap time, you could do quiet time instead. You could read to him or watch TV or let him do it independently. This way, he's still getting some rest from physical movement but he's not sleeping so hopefully, he's tired by bed time.
Or you could cut his nap shorter gradually and see if that helps.
I was very opposed to dropping DD's nap because I wanted DS to nap and he's sensitive to any noise in the house. But she dropped her naps and would not sleep so I gave her books and puzzles for this time. She does great, most of the time. And she sleeps very well at night.

[KpbS]

It sounds like he has outgrown the nap. I too would encourage some quiet play time followed by some reading time or watching a 30 min show to have a rest time with an early 6:30 bedtime until he has fully transitioned to the new routine. It will probably take a couple of weeks but then might sleep a bit longer in the mornings and go to bed about 6:45-7 pm.

[acmom]

Thanks for all the suggestions. My DD does quiet time so that is my plan with DS eventually too. I know the nap won't last forever, but I am unsure how I can change it to quiet time now bc he falls asleep so fast and so easily at 12:30. He has access to books and toys in his room, but doesnt use them, just goes to sleep- he is usually asleep by the time I walk downstairs and turn on the monitor. I don't want to do quiet time outside his room bc that would mean the end of quiet time for DD in her room too, as there is no way she would be ok doing it when he didn't have to do it in his room. She does quiet time happily for an hour every pm now and I don't want to change that.

I am not entirely sure the nap is the true issue either since it started so abruptly with vacation and he really appears tired at bedtime (7:30ish), yawning, rubbing his eyes, etc. even with the nap.

Has anyone had any success with trying to shorten the nap and wake them up after a certain amount of time or by a certain time of day?

[fedoragirl]

Has anyone had any success with trying to shorten the nap and wake them up after a certain amount of time or by a certain time of day?

Yes, and it worked after a few days. DD took 3 hour naps. DS took an hour nap in the afternoons. Since he is much younger and unable to control his impulses, I would have spend considerable time to keep him quiet. DD was also falling asleep much later due to long naps. So, I shortened them to half the time. We did it in 30 min. increments.