My 21 month old son has been refusing to nap for us on the weekends. He will take a 1.5-2 hour nap during the week at our sitters house. When we try and put him down for a nap on the weekends he will sleep in his crib for 20 minute or so and then be up. He will not go back to sleep in his crib but will sleep for another hour and a half on one of our chests. He has been cutting teeth (the canines and they have SUCKED). We thought that might be part of the issue but the teeth have cut through now and he still did this last weekend. We have tried to just let him cry it out and it doesn't work. This is only a nap issue. He's sleeping great and night and goes down without a fuss. If anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it.
He is with a sitter all weeks. He wants to be with you! My granddaughter did same thing. It's like she knew it was the weekend. Time to party with Mom and Dad. Enjoy the extra time with him.
He just wants to snuggle with you. Our 5 years old comes into our bed in the middle of the night every time the schedule changes. I teach, so when I'm off, I pick them up at school and get to spend extra time with them. When I go back to work, he starts finding his way into our bed again. After a couple of weeks, he's back to sleeping in his bed for the entire night.
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that kids (even little ones) have emotional needs, too. I would let him finish his nap on your chest. Use this time to watch a movie or read a book or take a nap yourself. He needs you. This is a great way for you to deepen that bond with him. It will pay back enormously in the future.
I have this problem with my children too. They are older than your child, but they did that when they were younger too. I found that sticking to the same schedule as the sitter would work sometimes. Other times I would have them lay with my on the couch and we would get some nap time together. (I am that mom that is all about napping with them) Now they don't take naps, but those bonded naps really helped us both because they got sleep and the extra time with me that they were wanting.
Good luck!
His body should be on that cycle and it doesn't matter if he wants to stay awake or not. He can fight sleep all he wants because his body will win out. It's used to taking a nap at that time and he needs to stay on that cycle.
Make sure you're doing a similar schedule. For instance have lunch around the same time they do at the babysitter's house. If she lays him down at noon every day then it's likely he'll go down around that same time but if it's half an hour later then he may not sleep the same.
Look on the bright side: short/no nap=earlier bedtime!
