Naps - Naperville,IL

Possibly put her down for her nap a bit later...maybe 20 to 30 min later. She might like to unwhine in her crib. I think naps are so important. All my kids napped. My oldest stopped when he was 4 yrs and 2 mo. My middle son stopped a couple of days before kindergarten started ( he was 5 1/2 yrs) and my daughter still naps she is 4 1/2 yrs and will nap until she starts kindergarten. She usually naps 2-3 hrs 5-6 days a week.

Personally, I think if she's playing quietly by herself and then going to sleep on her own without a fight...count your blessings!!!! Let her do it. Unless it's creating issues with bedtime, enjoy the quiet afternoon!

My son does this and then fights lie crazy when we try to get him to actually sleep. He does need the nap still, just hates it.

I would say put her down EARLIER as in closer to 12, children get over active when they get over tired, so my experience is that if they have a hard time going to sleep (I do daycare) to move nap time earlier by at least half an hour and it's like a miracle - the kid that moved around for 30 minutes now goes to sleep in under 5 minutes. My nap time start goal with my current group is 11:45, if they go to 12:15 I am in trouble!

I had the same problem with my now 3 1/2 y/o daughter. She would play for at least an hour, remove all clothing & diaper (even the messy ones). :( So, I put her down an hour later which improved. We then had problems with getting her to bed at night at a reasonable time. At 2 1/2 we decided it wasn't worth the fight, and she stopped taking naps altogether. She has 'rest' time on the couch around 3pm. every day. She gets 12 hours of sleep a night & this just works for her. Some kids stop taking naps at an early age. Maybe try a few days of an earlier bed time, and that will make up for not taking naps. Good luck!

My 2.5 year old is basically on the same schedule as your daughter. He goes down around 12:30 and sleeps 2.5-3 hours. Someone below said this is a really long nap but I think some kids just need more sleep than others. He has always slept a lot and if he doesn't get it he is really cranky. When he sleep this long, then he is happy and easy-going. You could try putting her down later and see if that helps but if she seems tired at 12:30-1:00, I'd stick with your schedule. You don't her to get overtired and then be resistant to falling asleep. That's funny about taping her diaper on! Great idea!

Don't put her down if she's not showing signs of being tired! If she's not ready to sleep until 2:00, then put her down then. We go back-and-forth about this topic with our 2.5 yr old all the time b/c he does down "like clockwork" at daycare at 1:00, but at home on the weekends it's more like 2:00. As long as she isn't cranky, then it may be time to shift her schedule!

BTW- that's a really LONG nap for her age. Is she active enough during the morning? Maybe try "tiring her out" in the morning so she'll be tired earlier. If you add it up... she's spending 4 hours in her crib in the afternoon-probably not a great thing!

Just to respond about the length being too long... my two year old daughter also takes three hour naps. We went through the same "problem" of her playing for an hour before falling asleep, tried moving around the nap time and ended up finding that usually if we put her down around 2 or 2:30 she'll go right down. Naps are important and some kids (most, actually) need more sleep then the general public thinks they do. If the hour of playing and then long nap is working for you and her, keep at it.

Hmm...it sounds to me that she is still doing pretty well with her nap time. If she does some quiet playing before going to sleep does that mean she isn't napping for very long or still the same? Here are a few napping experiences that might be interesting for you to check out but sounds like a very normal/common situation..

http://www.theskinnyscoop.com/search/nap?utm_campaign=the...