My 27 month old daughter's sleep patterns have been really wacky off and on, and lately it is becoming more frequent.
She used to take an afternoon nap around 2:00, but now she is energized right up until around 5pm, at which point she zonks until midnight or 1 am. Then she is up for 3-4 hours before finally going back to bed for a few more hours and then getting up at her normal time (7-ish). (She's *killing* me! lol)
She is still getting a normal amount of sleep, it is just broken up into odd chunks.
I am wondering if she is in transition trying to drop her nap and going to bed earlier to get all her zzzz's in at night.
I do recall that around 16 months she had some unusual sleep changes, and the end result was dropping from 2 naps down to one.
Did your child go through something similar when giving up nap time?
Any thoughts or insights on toddler sleep-wackiness? Any thoughts on easing this transition (for me or her)?
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
It's the very same with my daughter right now. Giving up a nap, causes a time of sleep confusion. The good news is, it's a limited time until a new sensible pattern is established.
For now, you have two options: Waking up your child during her late afternoon nap at about 6pm, which will result in some crankiness, but also get her to sleep better during the night with a pretty late bedtime (9 or 10pm). Or try to keep her awake for another hour or two, and get her to sleep at 7pm. Both ways, she'll be likely to sleep through better, giving you some more rest as well.
I think it is this:
"I am wondering if she is in transition trying to drop her nap and going to bed earlier to get all her zzzz's in at night"
try skipping the nap/keeping her up longer in the afternoon instead of going to sleep at 5pm.
also I noticed when my kids would have an off schedule sleep day, they would sometimes get into that habit of that odd schedule unless I did something to get it back on track (like keeping them up until a more reasonable sleep time)
good luck! lack of sleep is hard on a mommy!