nap questions!

[lmh2402]

DS i think (god help me!) might be fairly close to giving up his nap

out of seven days a week, he ends up skipping about 2 a week lately.

and by skipping i mean, he gets put in the crib. but he never sleeps. he just talks, babbles, sings and then eventually yells. (like right now, actually)

however, on the days when he does nap, he's sleeping for about 1.5 hours. sometimes 2-2.5 hours.

so i don't think his body is really ready to just give up that sleep, but you can only lead a horse to water...right?

anyway, my questions are:
1. if he goes in for a nap, but doesn't take one...however, he's in his crib in the dark, resting...talking/babbling/etc... do i put him to bed early?

on days when we miss the nap b/c we're out and can't make it home, i always put him to bed early. but i'm not sure if quiet/resting time should enable him to stay up until his normal bedtime?

2. how do i know when to just stop trying with the nap?

2a! if ends up dropping the nap, well too bad for him (and me), but i'm still planning to "enforce" quiet time. in his room. how do i do this? and for how long do you suggest doing it? meaning, am i expecting him to play quietly in his room for an hour? 15 minutes? do i just keep putting him in the crib in the dark? if i leave him loose in his room, it's a joke to think he'll stay there. it just won't happen.

3. out of curiosity, how old was your DC when they stopped napping all together?

thanks. pray for me. i'm not ready for no nap. really, really not ready.

[MSWR0319]

DS is about 6 months older than yours. In Jan he suddenly stopped napping. We still made him go to his room. He had to lay there quietly for 20-30 minutes in the dark. If he called to me after that I allowed him to get up, stay in his room, and look at books. After he'd been in his room a total of an hour he was allowed to come out. He tried everything to get to come out. Holding his pee till after he got in his room, yelling, etc. I calmly would tell him he needed to stay in there. I put his potty in there also. He has a gate on his door, so he can't come out. Last month he started sleeping again. I'd say 5 or so times a week he sleeps aout an hour and a half. I knew he wasn't ready to give nap up yet, he was just trying to be in control. It gets really ugly when he doesnt nap. On days he doesn't get a nap, whether he "rests" or not, he goes to bed early. If he actually sleeps then he gets to stay up later.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I would keep putting him down and, at the very least, you all get some much needed down time. Don't give that up! I regret that with ds2 we didn't continue quiet time (we did with ds1). We only altered bedtime if obviously super tired.

Ds1 stopped napping around 4yo. Ds2 stopped around 2.5-3.

[Momit]

My DS is 3.5 and still naps for about 2 hours a day. I will be watching the advice others have for you, since I know naps will not go on forever...

[AnnieW625]

DD1 started doing that at 2 yrs. 3 mos. old and we moved her to a twin bed and she continued napping until she was about 4/1/2 when a friend at preschool told her that 4 yr. olds don't nap. I also think she continued to nap because she took a nap at daycare during the week. She would however go through phases where she wouldn't nap and then the following weekend she'd nap again.

[scrooks]

My dd still naps but is starting to give it up at almost 5. On the days she doesn't sleep she plays quietly in her room for 1-1.5 hours.

[okinawama]

My son started nap dropping around 2yrs 8 months, and now at 3yrs 1 month he takes a nap about twice a month. I do make him stay in his room for about an hour so that I can have a break and he can "rest", but he rarely naps. I try and get him to bed about 30-45 minutes earlier on days he doesn't nap, however, as the summer draws closer, we find ourselves out of the house more often in the evening, and getting him in bed by 715ish is difficult.

[acmom]

My DD gave up the nap right around 3. She started taking a lot longer to fall asleep at naptime, but then would sleep for 2-3 hours if she did sleep. We would often have to wake her, which made her really grumpy and made falling asleep at a reasonable hour at night very difficult. We finally decided the nap wasn't working and transitioned to "rest time". After this transition it made falling asleep at night much easier for her. During rest, we read her stories, then put on a CD in her room that is about an hour long and she can play quietly (books, drawing, dollhouse, babies, stuffed animals, etc.), but she needs to stay in her room until the music ends. It took a little while for her to adjust, but now she rarely leaves her room or calls for anyone. On days she is really tired, she will lie down and fall asleep during this time (probably once every week or two), but most days she just plays. I find the downtime helps both of us!