my 3.8 year old dropping her nap?

[TahliasMom]

i'm so sad and i knew this day was coming. but over the last few months dd has been skipping or taking short naps at preschool. on the weekends she still would nap 1-2 hours. but bedtime has been horrible. we start the bed routine at 7:30, in bed by 8:00pm and finally asleep by 9-9:30am. The last two days she skipped naps and by 8:10pm she was out like a light! Guess it's over? DOn't get me wrong, it's nice to be able to take day trips and not have to plan eveyrthing around nap time but I'm going to miss my hour of sanity. DD is very spirited (hyper, SPD,whatever you want to call it) and I used that nap time to recharge and sometimes nap. And DD is usually up at 7am. That's 13 hours of non stop DD! (insert little crazy face here)

[KrisM]

Yeah, it's a tough change for the mom. DS dropped naps about a year ago, at 2.5 years. If he napped, he was up until 11pm, even if they were only an hour early on! I much prefer asleep by 7:30 and then I have my evenings. He gets up at 6-6:30, so it's a lot of time!

I do have an hour of quiet time. I can't do it in his room or he will fall asleep and then it's horrible at night. Usually, we do a craft project or read books while DD naps.

[belovedgandp]

Yes, we're all about quiet time. I'm so jealous you kept them as long as you did. Mine was skipping naps at 2, was at quiet time by 2 1/2, hasn't taken a nap even as frequently as once a month since before 3. He's now 4. When he started battling quiet time at about 2 3/4 I was pregnant, double ugh. We usually really restrict TV time. I needed my rest, so that was the one time a day the TV could be on. We DVR everything. We'd watch in my room on my bed. I'd fall asleep during the opening scene of Sesame Street and not wake up until Elmo was saying good-bye. There were times when I'd want to use my TV time in the morning to get something done around the house or sleep in a little more, but I'd always regret it come afternoon time. Now that he's older. We are back to more of a quiet time in his room - books, Lite-Brite, Kid K Nex - solo.

[SnuggleBuggles]

It was hard when ds gave up his nap! Butm we adjusted. I discovered that all the places we like to go (museum, science center...) are much less crowded during nap time (like that 2-4 window). I love having those places be less crowded so there were some positive things.

I found that the naps came back for a few spurts here and there so they may resurface (start of a school year, season change). Enjoy them when they come back!

Beth

[fauve01]

yep sounds like you're done with naps. omg, i am so jealous you got them til age 3.8!! my dd dropped nap at 19 (yes, NINETEEN) months. at 3.8, yours will understand quiet time, and you can use a reward system to enforce it. :-)

enjoy the earlier nighttime sleep.

anne + DD 10-03

[geochick]

My ds will be 4 on Monday. He has been slowly weaning himself off naps, but we still do 1hr quiet time in his bed each day. He gets to read, play Leapster, rest, etc. during that time. About 2 of 7 days he falls asleep. Don't give up completely.

[TahliasMom]

Thank you! DD always loved her naps and held on to her second nap until 16 months. I am trying to look at positives too because now we will be able to do daytrips. I am also going to keep quiet time as they do that in preschool. i'm going to redo her room this weekend and add a small bookcase so i can put some of her books there, blocks, etc for quiet time. thanks again...