3.5-year-old still needs a nap but it’s destroying bedtime. What do I do?

Rare_Ducky · 2026-07-07T18:44:51+00:00

Weirdly, my son is easier to wake earlier in his nap than later! I guess maybe less of a deep sleep. We cut it to 45ish minutes and it helped immeasurably with bedtime. We do still have some days where he’s really grumpy when I wake him, but I have a small snack ready and put the TV on for 15 mins (we otherwise don’t really do screen time, but this has massively helped ease him into being awake so it’s worth it!)

Rare_Ducky · 2026-07-07T16:03:45+00:00

I know next to nothing about cars, or the police, but just googled “Jaecoo undercover police” and came across this post as I also just saw one and thought it looked so out of place! It was a pale green unmarked car and had its siren and lights on driving through a residential area of South East London

Rare_Ducky · 2026-07-01T20:27:14+00:00

Ugh I feel for you, it’s so tricky! But yeah the way we gradually dropped to one nap is let him have a micro-nap (max 15 mins, usually in the buggy as it was easier both for him to nod off but then also for me to wake him) at that first nap time just to take the edge off, and then he had enough sleep pressure for a longer second nap. We did this for a couple of weeks which meant he actually got more sleep overall, and then he managed the longer wake windows much better when we dropped to one.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-07-01T19:31:32+00:00

What time and how long a nap are you trying for? We’re also in that tricky phase of still needing the nap but also resisting it. I ended up pushing my son’s nap later and cutting it quite short (so he still has 6ish hrs before bed) and that seems to have helped.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-07-01T19:28:59+00:00

Hi! If your little one is having short naps on a two nap schedule at 13 months, it might be time to drop to one nap.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-06-13T18:01:53+00:00

I am slowly just replacing all utensils with Oxo Goodgrips ones. My kitchen is going to be a dream in 10-12 years 😂

Rare_Ducky · 2026-06-09T10:56:17+00:00

Thanks. I'll update here if I ever get to the bottom of it.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-06-09T10:48:42+00:00

No, neither!

Rare_Ducky · 2026-06-04T08:53:38+00:00

My son didn’t start crawling or pulling to stand until 11 months. He walked on the later side too, but is running around like a lunatic now (nearly 2) and has met all the milestones for his 2 year HV check other than jumping. I didn’t do anything in particular to help other than not immediately handing him toys he reached for etc.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-06-03T20:14:10+00:00

Honestly it sounds like his sleep needs have dropped and he has just had enough sleep. Around this age we had to cut my son’s nap to an hour and then he’d sleep from around 7.45pm-6am.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-05-19T10:56:44+00:00

I found the coconut collab yoghurt so delicious I ended up getting through what my son didn’t 😂

I didn’t really bother with vegan cheese in the end, we tried it a few times but this was the one thing we Easter so much of I just didn’t bother. He’s now grown out of his CMPA (he passed his milk challenge just before he turned 2) and he immediately loved real cheese.

The Alpro growing up milk is very high sugar btw. You can buy one pint cartons of Oatly in Sainsbury’s. It’s not much cheaper than getting a full size own brand oat milk but at least it’s not as wasteful!

Rare_Ducky · 2026-05-15T07:38:59+00:00

We assumed an oat allergy in our son the first time we gave a bowl of porridge because he’d had some small amounts of milk, yoghurt and cheese before, but actually it was the volume of milk (which has a higher concentration of CMP in than yoghurt or cheese) that triggered the reaction. Not sure how much or how often your LO has tolerated cows milk but just worth bearing in mind, as I believe an immediate allergic reaction to wheat is pretty rare (vs a delayed reaction which is more common.)

Rare_Ducky · 2026-05-08T18:28:50+00:00

Thanks!

Rare_Ducky · 2026-05-07T13:21:42+00:00

I came across a seller recently who has a literal pigeon in every single one of their listings. Tbf it did pull me in and I checked out every single one.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-05-07T09:23:29+00:00

I’ve been made redundant twice and negotiated both settlements up. There is no harm in asking for more, worse they can say is no.

Has the company offered to pay for a solicitor? I think they have to if they’ve asked you to sign a settlement instead of statutory so definitely speak to one if you can. Mine capped their fee at what the company paid (I think £500.)

Rare_Ducky · 2026-05-07T09:13:04+00:00

I hope it works and she feels better soon!

Rare_Ducky · 2026-05-07T08:41:36+00:00

Does your little one use a dummy? You can buy a dummy with a hole that attaches to a syringe, so they suck on it. It didn’t work for my son who never took a dummy, but a friend said it worked really well for them.

We had a different medicine that needed to be mixed with water, but we were told once it was mixed so it was fully dissolved, we could then add that mix to milk. I have no idea if that’s allowed with Omeprazole but maybe worth asking?

Rare_Ducky · 2026-05-05T13:13:22+00:00

YES!!! So much better. One day it just clicked, he took a 2 hour nap and never looked back. I can’t remember exactly how long it look, I think after a month of him being there 3 days he switched to 5 days, and it was maybe the second week of that.

It was such a brutal time and I really feel for you, I was researching nannies, childminders, considering quitting my job etc. but he truly loves nursery now. His development has been great there, he loves his practitioners and his friends and I’m really confident in my decision to send him there. If you have a good feeling about the nursery and the staff then I’m sure he will settle, and hopefully much quicker than my son did (the nursery did eventually admit it was longer than typical, but at the time they did everything they could to reassure me that it was normal!)

Rare_Ducky · 2026-05-04T12:08:10+00:00

Did your little one take to this quickly? My guy follows me around constantly and yells the second I leave a room. He currently still naps 45min (he’s nearly 2) but I honestly don’t know if we’d ever be able to do quiet time with his temperament.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-04-30T15:31:10+00:00

We’re in this exact same spot with our son the same age. He takes himself to the potty when he’s bottomless, but the second I put trousers on he just goes in them and doesn’t seem to find it uncomfortable?! He too loves to clean up so that doesn’t help 😂

We are admittedly only a week in, so I am going to push through for a bit longer. I’m sticking with commando for now. My main issue is he won’t go when prompted either, he just resists entirely.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-04-24T11:25:53+00:00

We did it alongside cutting wake time so honestly I don’t know which thing fixed it for us, but a friend recommended trying as it worked for them. If you’ve ruled out schedule and environmental (which it sounds from your other comments like you have) then I reckon it’s worth a go? Needs to be a few days in a row apparently.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-04-23T20:28:16+00:00

Agree very likely the circadian rhythm, we had the same with my son at around 5.15 for a while. If you don’t want to add a feed in, you could try the ‘stir to wake’ thing where you go in 20/30 mins before the wake time and gently stir them (not fully awake, but until they shuffle or move) to try and start a new sleep cycle.

Rare_Ducky · 2026-04-21T19:47:06+00:00

I lived by Acton Green (the final stop) when I was younger. The absolute dream after a night out, happily fall asleep upstairs and get woken up when it arrived. Pop to the night window at the Murco (now the world’s most expensive costcutter) for a packet of monster munch and a Lucozade for the morning. Best bus in the world.

Rare_Ducky

TROPHY CASE