How did you know it was time to drop the day sleep completely?

[nurseymum]

Definitely felt guided by DD's behaviour when it came to that last day sleep... Found that she was more than happy to be out and about, and we would often lose track of the time and then realise "oh it's 3 o'clock already!" I did go through a stage of her wanting to have a nap at about 4, and in short this was pretty disastrous - she would either think it was her night sleep and stay sleeping, waking at 4am or she would wake up invigorated and not go back to bed til 10pm In the end I felt a bit cruel, as I would make it my mission to not let her fall asleep, and boy did we have some terrible witching hours around 5-6pm. But honestly it didn't last long, she adjusted and started going to bed no dramas 6.30-7pm and sleeping really soundly. Think from memory this started happening for us at about 3, and by about 3.5 it was gone... Think it all depends on the child though aswell, DD hasn't kept still since the moment she arrived

[~Kaz~]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I don't have baby brain but I'm tired so I won't remember who said what but yes, we're looking at going from one sleep to NONE!! He has never been a great sleeper. Ever. And it's hard to describe what he does because it constantly changes and I know that's normal to some extent but there has always been some issue with sleep. He usually wakes at least once a night, even now at nearly 2.5yrs and we've had some really rough periods with lots of waking (and staying wake for hours on end!) in the past If we were home, or got home over lunchtime, I could always count on him to have at least one decent day sleep though (unless we were out all day and then he would stay awake for hours watching the world, no pram sleeps ever, even as a newborn, and only occasionally car sleeps). Aside from those really busy days, he's only ever not slept at home a handful of times up until he turned two in March. Since then he has gradually stopped having a sleep most of the time when at home. If we're at home all day then he gets in and out of bed a few times but rarely stays there long. Sometimes he does still sleep and I don't worry either way. His night sleeps continue to frustrate me at times but I'm pretty relaxed about day sleeps. I haven't tried to purposely settle him for a day sleep since he was 6 months old and just went off tired signs and then he got old enough to say he was ready/wanting to go to bed and it seemed to work because he'd pretty much always sleep at home.

He is still having a sleep at daycare and it is usually 1-1.5 hours. As far as I know he's only ever not slept there once or twice. I have them waking him after 1 hour now because he was catching up on his night wakings and sleeping 2-3 some days!!!!! but our evenings have been totally ferral lately and he is staying up an extra 1-2 hours and wanting lots of cuddles etc which is doing my head in as I'm tired (back at work) and just want my own space and he is lying all over me for hours That sounds really mean doesn't it?

ARgghh, I know I'm not explaining this well at all. He is so hard to describe sleep-wise. Sometimes he can daysleep and still go down ok at night but usually not. Sometimes he doesn't have a day sleep and then he may or may not sleep well at night. There is no pattern or predictability in his sleep. (That's actually the bit that does my head in the most, I never know if he'll go down at night or not and then when he does, I never know if or when he'll wake me up again).

Anyway, I'm really tempted to drop the day sleep at child care but because of the lack of pattern I'm not sure what to do. I think he goes to sleep because its part of the routine and also I suspect they pat him or sit with him or something?? I have told them he goes off without help during the day at home (if he's going to) and said they don't have to do that from my point of view. I thought they'd stopped but something they said this afternoon made me think they are still sitting with him to help him settle. On the days at home with no sleep, sometimes he is fine all day and other times we have had some horrible afternoons like nurseymum described above where he is ready for a sleep at 4 or even 5pm and I know he'll be up in a few hours and ready to party. I've kept him awake and copped the screaming and then whinging, I've let him sleep 30mins and then copped 45mins of screaming and crying after waking him and then he didn't go down until late that day anyway

Anyway, sorry for the rant. I'm not sure how I expect you guys to help me work it out when I clearly have no idea what's going on myself I think I'm just feeling like I must be mad for purposely cutting out the daysleep after all the sleep issues we've had.

[catherinemoses]

Hi Kaz, What a pain!
Do you have any kind of night time bed routine going?
For example, ours is usually a bath, then put on jammies, the then tidy up their toys, then have some stories, and then settle into bed and kisses etc.
I know that a bed time routine really works for us and that we have more problems if we haven't put them to bed quite right!
I hope you find something that works for you, poor sleep and not enough you time is really hard, esp when you are working too, Hugs.