To Nap Or Not To Nap?

[nofeea]

(That is my question...!)

DH wants me to eliminate DD's nap in the hopes of an earlier and easier bedtime. I am highly resistant since I CHERISH naptime ;) and also because I know that at 2 1/2 she still gets tired in the afternoons. I know that naptime will have to go soon, but I was hoping to keep it around a little longer...

Any of you have 2 1/2 year olds who still nap? How long are the naps, and what time do they go to bed?

My current idea for a compromise is to just limit naptime... (No more tiptoeing around and hoping I get a 4 hour stretch!!:P )

Thanks!

[psophia17]

To Nap!

I don't have a 2.5 year old, but I'm going to keep DS's naps going as long as I can manage it. I took naps in kindergarten, so I see no reason not to keep DS's going until at least that long. Also, if your DD needs to have a nap, won't she fall asleep one way or the other?

What I would do is have a scheduled naptime. Give 1.5 hours, and then wake up the bambino...we do that with DS when his afternoon nap goes long, and it works out for everyone. I don't know if it'll still work in a year, but hey, I'm going to try.

HTH!

[amp]

I would still try to nap, but maybe cut it shorter.

I know that there are kids out there who are more like 3 & 4 who nap.

Then again, there are some 2 yr olds out there who won't.

I guess it just depends on your kid.

I'd try adjusting the nap length first, and see if that works. Otherwise, you may end up with a very, very crabby toddler by 5pm!

[kellyotn]

My story is a bit different, but it might relate. My DD was terrible to get down for naps, and for nighttime too. For naps, I was spending 1-2 hours to get a 1-2 hour nap out of her. Then we'd start again at nighttime. Ugh.

At around 25 months, I just gave in. We started doing a "quiet hour". She'd lay on the couch alone and I'd do other things nearby. (It was simply easier for her to lay on the couch during the day than in her room alone.) I'd spend that hour doing normal things, ya know - clean, take care of her brother, work, etc. :-)

If she falls asleep fine, if not fine - but she stays quiet for an hour or a bit more.

She's now 2.5 and she seems to be an every-other-day napper with this plan. If she naps, bedtime is bumped back to 8. If she doesn't nap, she falls asleep **easily** by 7 and doesn't exhibit undue crankiness. So, I guess we just kinda stumbled blindly on how to arrive at the best sleep routine for her.

I still get an hour minimum of "quiet time" during the day, more if she actually sleeps. And, we have a much easier time at night now too. :-)

[Sarah1]

I wake Audrey up after 2 hours. These days she naps from around 2-4, goes to bed around 8:30-9, and wakes up around 7:30. Lately, I've been thinking of waking her up after 1.5 hours, because some nights she even has trouble falling asleep by 9, and a bedtime past 9 for her is just too late for me.

I can't see eliminating naps altogether, because most days, she absolutely crashes into her bed at naptime, exhausted. Of course, there are exceptions, and we have days where she doesn't nap.

HTH :)

[Marisa6826]

Well, what time does your DD go to sleep now? Eliminating a nap does not in any way ensure an easier bedtime. In fact, if Sophie's missed her nap, it almost GUARANTEES a horrible bed time and likely night terrors from being over tired.

She's 2-1/2 and takes a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon around 2pm. She goes to bed for the night usually 8 or 8:30pm and sleeps about 11-12 hours.

If you DO decide to experiment without a nap, do it on a weekend so your DH will have to deal with the consequences!! :P

-m

[cmo]

DD is a couple months past 2 1/2, and still naps for 1 1/2-2 hours a day. I've noticed her naps getting a little shorter lately, so perhaps the end of naps is on the horizon (eek!). My sister's 3yo doesn't nap anymore.

Have mercy on us all! :-)

[lmintzer]

My 4 year old still naps, though the naps are getting a bit shorter, and he will sometimes skip one and just come out of his room after an hour.

It's really a kid-dependent thing. Does your dd seem tired? There is no way my son could have skipped his nap at that age.

Typically, he goes down about 1:30 and is up by 3:00. He goes to bed for the night at 8 (this has gradually crept later--it was 7:00 at one point) and wakes up about 6:30 a.m. So roughly 10 1/2 hours at night, 1 1/2 during the day for a total of 12.

Not bad, and this was coming from the world's worst sleeping infant.

4 hours seems quite long at this age--I would think a normal nap length for a 2 1/2 year old would be more like 2 hours. Definitely don't her him sleep past 3 hours before you want her to go to bed (not past 5 if she goes down at 8, etc.).

What kind of bedtime issues are you having?

[KCR4]

My DS #1 is 3.5 years. We had the same problem. Now this is our plan: His no-nap days mean he is in bed, all ready and with books read, at 6:45 pm, or at the latest, 7 pm. He is asleep instantly. On days when he needs a nap due to evening plans or poor sleep the night before/illness, bedtime is a real struggle. He just can't fall asleep. Limiting the length of his nap does help some, but it can be really hard to wake him up and he can become very grumpy. Warning: avoid car travel on no-nap afternoons! Good luck! (oh, he tends to wake up at 6:15-6:30 am regardless of when he went to bed even he is fell asleep at 6:45 pm!)

[kristine_elen]

Most days, Jack naps for 2-3 hours and he is 2.5 years. He just moved into a twin bed, so naptime has been a struggle and sometimes he ends up back in the crib. But he obviously needs to nap because he's not a happy camper on the afternoons he doesn't nap.

We have no trouble at bedtime on days he's napped, unless it's a very late nap and he doesn't get up until 6 p.m., like today. In fact, I've read in several books that when kids are overtired, they have a harder time going to sleep at night b/c they're so wound up.

I can't see purposely getting rid of a nap. I CAN see trying to keep the child napping for as many years as possible!

ETA: He goes to bed around 8:30.

[Rachels]

I got a lot of pressure from friends not to let Abigail nap when we went through a really difficult bedtime stage about six months ago. It was hard. The thing was, if she didn't nap, her nightttime sleep was a total disaster and the day was miserable too. Eliminating her nap wouldn't have helped at all.

Right at her third birthday, she pretty much gave it up on her own. Now if she falls asleep, it's because she really needs to. Bedtime is a bit later, but still easy enough, and she sleeps well at night. Likewise, missing a nap doesn't completely wreck her nighttime sleep anymore, although it still does make for much fussier late afternoons.

Follow her cues! It's not an instant transition.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02
New baby coming in October!
(Holy smokes, it's a boy!!!)


"When you know better, you do better."
Maya Angelou
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_amethyst_36m.gif
Nursed for three years!

[nofeea]

I logged on last night to check this thread and just then, DH came over to see what I was looking at. I opened all of your responses with him reading along beside me (Risky...I couldn't preview and show him only the messages supporting my opinion!!;) )

Your answers were just perfect- Amazingly, most of you described schedules that closely matched my DD's and you pretty much reinforced what I've been thinking.

Once again, BB Boards to the rescue! For now, our naps are safe! :)