Sadly (I enjoyed nap time so much!), it seems it is time to stop giving my three year old her afternoon nap. She and my two year old daughter go to sleep around 8:30 and wake up around 7:30. I have been giving them both a nap around 1:00 and it lasts until 2:30 or 3:00. When my 3 y/o takes a nap it is very difficult to get her to sleep at night and when she does fall asleep it seems lighter. I am taking that as a sign that she needs less sleep. The past couple of days I have let her stay up while my youngest takes her nap. She plays quietly in their room. That has gone well. But, at 5 or 6:00pm she becomes very grouchy, irritable and seems tired. Is that because of the transition or does it mean she still needs a nap?
Also: Do you wake your kids up from their nap or just let them wake up naturally? I have always waited until they wake themselves...but maybe I should try limiting the nap to 45 min or so?
Thanks all for your responses. I will try out your methods and see if perhaps a shorter nap will work. On days that are not filled with exercise and stimulation I will forgo the nap. If that doesn't work I will try giving her a later bedtime. Thank you for the reminder that quiet time/nap routines continue during "school". I hadn't thought of that myself and will continue to make sure that downtime is a part of our schedule. Thanks again.
Sounds like you know the answer. Just give her a shorter nap. You can go down to 20 minutes before eliminating it.
My son decided at about the time he turned 3 that he no longer wanted a nap. He turned into a complete grouch. Over the course of the next 2 to 3 months, it got worse and worse until I decided that he was taking a nap or at least laying in his bed for an hour or 2 every afternoon. Half of the days he would sleep, the other half he would lay quietly in his bed sometimes looking at books. I did not allow toys in the bed because I discovered that if there was nothing to entertain him, he would fall asleep in a few minutes if he got quiet and still and really needed a nap that day. If he did not really need a nap that day, he would talk and sing for the whole 1 or 2 while his sister napped. After the first week or so, my sunny happy go lucky boy came back and the grouch disappeared.
Also, something to consider is that when your daughter goes to school, she will be required to lay down for a afternoon nap during Kindergarten. If you quit having her take a nap now, she will cause trouble for the teacher when she starts school at the required nap time.
You may consider a later bed time. I put my second son to bed at 8:30, but have trouble keeping him in the bed till around 9:30. I wake him at 7:00 for school and he takes a 1:30 nap at school. He is in K-4. I allow him to pay his Leapster in bed until he is tired at night in order to keep him in bed.
My son who is now almost 5 has woke up at the crack of dawn since he turned 3. It might not matter if what time you put her to bed or if she takes a nap at all, her internal clock may be set to wake early. I have even tried to cover the windows in my boys room to hopefully make them stay in bed a little longer on the Saturday, but it has not helped. The sun comes up and my second son is up and he is not happy until he has woke every one in the house. It is quite annoying when you would like to sleep in on Saturday.
I never wake my kids from a nap. But I haven't had a problem with getting them to bed at 8 even if they nap unitl 6. This is rare but it does happen. My kids are 5 1/2 and 3 1/2 and they both still take naps...
If a sleeping nap is making bed time a hassle, but your child still needs to "rest" try doing quiet time in their room or a movie rest (if you are ok with that)...something to help them charge their batteries without "sleeping". We do this with our daughter (5 year old) every few days as long as she is getting good naps inbetween.
Your child will let you know when it's time. Ours first stopped at four and second child stopped at two and a half. They just refused to nap anymore. I miss the naptimes! I used them to get a lot done.
As far as bedtime, have you tried moving UP the time? It's a bit counterintuitive, but that can sometimes help kids go to sleep because they don't reach an overtired stage and put off going to bed.
I would shorten her nap but not get rid of it all together instead of 1.5 to 2 hrs leave it to 1 hr nap and wake her up.
My son whose 3yrs 2mths has a nap of 1-2hrs at weekend.He will only sleep 20-30 mins in his creche during the week.
We thought he was ready to give up the nap a few months ago but quickly re introduced it as he was very cranky in the evenings and not as settled at night.
I have always let him wake up naturally.
Maybe try to be more assertive with night time routine to see if things improve.
Best of luck as I know how much us Moms enjoy this quite time!!
B.
Yes, your daughter is out of the need a nap stage. Sorry, I cried when my kids no longer needed their naps so I understand your sadness. Her grouchiness is normal. I know that I am grouchy at that time both due to tiredness and hunger. Give her a snack around four and see if that helps.
Don't let her sleep (even if she falls face first into her dinner plate) at 6:00. She'll be up until midnight. Everyone will be miserable. Quiet time at her regular nap time is fine, but watch that she doesn't accidentally fall asleep.
Be prepared to have your youngest give up her nap a bit earlier than your oldest. She will want to follow her sister in everything.
We're toying with this one right now too. What we have started doing is having my son lay down on the couch with one of us and listen to quiet music, read books together or sometimes watch a Disney movie. If he's really tired and NEEDS the nap, he'll fall asleep. If he's not, then at least he's rested for a while. We tried just cutting the nap altogether (b/c he was waking up at 5:00 am!) and he would become a terror around dinner time and then try to sleep on the couch.
We go day-to-day and enjoy the quiet time when he gives it to us and the cuddle time when he just needs to slow down.
Both of my boys did that, I pushed bedtime up a bit. I don't remember it lasting too long, but I was probably a bit more lenient (like tv in the evening) and didn't make plans for them later in the day--I didn't want others to suffer thru the transition. :p
Mine are almost 3y apart so we probably had a bigger difference in sleep needs for my 2 than yours, but when my older one stopped napping and we did earlier bedtime I think he liked having sole focus on him at bedtime and me or hubby got 1 on 1 time with baby. If your younger one goes to bed earlier then you do run the possibility of her waking earlier.
As for naps, nothing pains me more than waking a sleeping baby/child! lol Plus, mine would be grumpy basically until the time they probably would have waken up on their own. But many people do that in order to get on a better schedule and I assume the kids' body will adjust if you do that daily.
My younger son napped irregularly this summer and was done with them by the end, as much as I enjoy naptime, it's nice to not have to plan around it anymore and I really like the quiet in the evening with them both going to bed not so late.
WRT Kindergarten, check with your school but I don't know of any here in Eugene that do a nap. They did in preschool but many kids who had given up naps at home were sleeping at school b/c they were just so extra worn out, and if they didn't then it was quiet time like you're doing now.
Trust me we all enjoy nap times. lol. My twin boys stop taking naps at home when they were about 3 1/2 or 4yrs old. One boy will tell me if he is tired and I just tell him to grab his blanket and lay on the couch. I figure if he is truly sleepy then he will fall asleep. My other son, no matter how tired he is, he always says "I'm not really really tired", and will go go go until you make him go to bed at night. My boys usually get to bed about 9:15 and wake up around 7:30. I do send them to daycare twice a week and they are required to lay them down and if they fall asleep then fine, but they have to be quite. But when they do take a nap then I am not getting them to sleep until 10 or 10:30. When my boys took naps I used to let them sleep as long as they wanted for the most part because we didn't really need to keep a routine, but they have started preschool and we to get to school earlier so they need to be in bed a sleeping sooner. So I guess my advice would be to just limit her naps to an hour and see how she does. You can adjust it from there. Good luck. There is definitely not a science to it.
