2 1/2 Year Old Dropping Nap

Twelve hours is a good amount of nitely sleep for a 2 1/2 year old. So, unless she's getting cranky or tired during the day, she may be done with naps. You may need to consider finding her a good pre-school/MDO program within the next few months if you want that time to yourself during the day. You might also consider getting up at 5 am to have those early morning hours to yourself. That is the only way I got work done when my kids were younger and I was trying to work from home. Also, you can work a few hours after she's in bed at nite.

The days that my 2 1/2 year old son doesn't take a nap we have "quiet time". He can play in his bed, read books, etc... but he has to stay in his room for one hour...or until the timer goes off. Sometimes he falls asleep, but other times he just plays quietly until time is up.

The best way to get a child to nap no matter what age is to keep them active and always busy while they are awake. Make sure they get a snack mid-morning to keep their energy up until naptime. At age 2, your little girl just needs one nap for about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon. My other trick is to keep their bedroom or napping room dark and cool. After a hard day of playing and activity, my kids are practically begging for a nap and going into a cool, dark bedroom is so comforting it makes me want a nap too! Good Luck!!

All my kids stopped at about 18 months...so you got a year more than me...

Most kids cut them out at some point. You can let her sleep less at night, but that is about your only option and that really isn't good for her.

Welcome to toddlerhood! ;)

Maybe you should take her out to the park in the am let her run and stuff ! That would wear her down some !
(maybe) ! My son was a great sleeper at night & also would always take a am / pm nap ! But he woke up at 5 or 6 am every morning !.........keep the sugar out too !
I have a friend who has a 2 yr. Old and she never naps during the day either, some nap & some don't !
Good luck !

I feel your pain!!! My daughter is 2 1/2 as well and she has been having a hard time with naptime lately. She shares the room with her one year old sister and her sister notices if she's not in her bed. So somedays it's really rough around here. So lately I've made a rule that she has to stay in her bed for at least an hour and half. I give her the option to pick out a toy or book that she wants to take to bed and play with. Sometimes she falls asleep and sometimes she doesn't. She's usually up playing within 45 minutes if she doesn't fall asleep but by then my other daughter is asleep and she just plays quietly in her room until she gets brave enough to come out. It works really well most days (not everday) and I still get an hour a day to have some down time for myself.

M., I can sympathize! My son, 3 in December, will not nap on the weekend at all. If he doesn't nap he's got one serious attitude. Friday when I picked him up from pre-school he wouldn't nap because I told him we'd go to Target after I picked him up in the afternoon. *sigh*

Driving around used to work on the weekends, which would give me some quiet time to at least read the paper or watch TV, just relax. Not so easy to do when I'm sitting in the car.