Hi Moms,
I'm hoping to get some advice. My son has never been a big sleeper, 9-10 a night and most days a two hour nap (for at least the last year or so). He is 2 1/2. My trouble now is he will wake up around 7:30-8:00 and not get tired until around 2-3pm. Since he sleeps for two hours during his nap, this puts him waking up after 5pm most days. Which in lies my dilemma, he's not tired or ready to sleep until about 10:30 or later! He'll just toss and turn. I've toyed with the idea of just cutting them out completely but love that time to get stuff done around the house, workout, etc. Plus somedays when he skips a nap he clearly needs one, he's crabby or hyperactive, or both!
This puts us in a terrible cycle of sleeping late, taking a late nap, going to bed late. My hubby is getting really tired of it aide we have no free time together, and I totally understand that.
I've thought about waking him up at 7am and getting our day started and hopefully that will prompt him to nap sooner. Has anyone had this same issue? I've also tried limiting his nap to one hour but when I wake him up he is very crabby. He really does need this nap but I'm not sure how to give it to him without him staying up all night.
Thanks in advance!
S.
It's not good for his development to not have naps at 2 1/2. You'll need to start letting him have very active time of a morning so he'll be sleepy earlier. If not then just start waking him up from his nap earlier so he'll go to bed sooner. Don't drop the nap until he's much older.
When my children were almost ready to stop taking naps but not quite completely there yet, I used to put them in the car and take a 20 minute drive to the store in the early afternoon so that they could nod off a bit in the car and wake up when we got to our destination. It was just enough of a nap to take the edge off for them but not so much that they were unable to go to sleep when it was 8 p.m. and time for them to go to bed.
I know what you mean about not wanting to give up that two hour nap time. I was sad when we had to drop ours as well.
This is a tough transition, no way around it. My daughter went through a very similar process to what has been described by previous comments. There was a 2 or 3 month time frame where I would do the "car nap" that others have mentioned, which was really not that hard for us since we live in Estacada which is a 30-45min drive from shopping. We would just leave for errands later in the day (1ish) so she would fall asleep on the way home. 30-45 of sleep would take the edge off in the evening, then she would go to bed by 8pm instead of 9:30 or 10 (which was happening with the regular naps at the end). On days when she was really wiped out (super active morning) I would bring her in and let her nap longer on the couch, but that was only once or twice a week. Yes, it's been hard to let that afternoon break go but getting our evenings back has almost made up for it. Now that she is in preschool I get that break while she is at school. In the end, it's kind of nice to not have to arrange our day around naps, and now at 3.5 she rarely takes more than a 30 minute car nap even on busy days. Upside to that...she is in bed and asleep by 7:30 several nights a week!! That is very very nice. Good luck, our nap transition took nearly a year to get from every day naps to no naps but it's all worked out ok.
reschedule your day a little bit. get him up by 7. let him play etc feed lunch and have him down for a nap by 1130 or 12 at latest. (this is the norm nap time for most daycare homes and centers) then get him back up by 2 at the latest. his bedtime should be around 730 or 8 and jsut because he doesn't go right to sleep is not a reason to not put him to bed. put him to bed and make him stay his body will adjust to the new schedule. good luck
Im having this same issue right now...My daughter is 28 months old (so just shy of 2.5)
I will be interested to see the rest of the posts. My daughter flips out if i put her down for a nap at 1. I give her 15 mins and then end up getting her out...so I stopped doing that. What I am doing now is I make her have quiet time on our lazy boy or the couch and put in a movie and have the volume really low and the room is dark...give her 1.5 hours of sort of resting and she usually falls asleep in the middle of it. I then wake her up at 3 so she can be in bed at 8.
However Daycare does not have this problem during the week...its only me on the weekends.
I had the same thing with my son when I wanted to wake him early from a nap, he'd get really cranky. Softening the waking helped. So for example after 50 min of napping, go in and open the door and blinds to let in light, then 10 min later turn on a cd/radio, then another 10 min later you go in and straighten up his room, put away clothes or something. Inevitably my son would slowly wake up during this process so it wasn't as startling, seemed to help, good luck.
My son dropped his nap at that age. You can either wake him earlier (I don't reccomend waking...my son was always crabby if I woke him) and then go for an earlier nap. Or, you can institute an earlier bedtime and do afternoon quiet time where he can cuddle on the couch and do something he likes like watch a special video. If he is sick, doesn't sleep well the night before, or had a very big morning then he might still need the nap but I hear you, it is a vicious cycle.
Our nap time was 1-3. At 1 they would lay down and play or something, they just had to be quiet. Eventually they would fall asleep. Then I would wake them gradually starting about 2:50. Open blinds, vacuum the living room, turn on the radio or CD, put away clothes in their room, pull blankets off, etc. We did the same thing at bedtime. Bedtime was 9:00. We read a book, said prayers and I was out of the room by like 9:10-15. They had to be quiet and eventually would fall asleep, usually by 9:30-45. They would wake up by 8:00 in the morning, usually between 7:30 and 7:45.
This is now we did sleeping. I hope it helps you.
Have you tried putting him down for his nap earlier? If he's sleeping two hours for a late nap, he probably could sleep at least a little bit for an earlier one. At the very least he won't be running around and getting more tired and cranky.
Otherwise, yes, maybe try waking him up earlier in the day.
My boys all gave up their naps around this age too. My DD manged to nap until a month and a half before her 3rd B-day. I know how you feel though- it is really hard not getting that time to ourselves that we are used to having. On the bright side, its' preparing you for what it's like to have 2 (in case you were considering it) because you never have that time- LOL. When baby naps, you still have another one that needs you. But it's all good :)
I used to also do what Laurie D. did and take him for a ride so he could take a short nap. Once he fell asleep, I pulled into the McDonald's drive through and got myself a hot fudge Sundae. I'd sit in the parking lot, have my snack, and listen to the radio or read a book or magazine. We didn't do this every day- only when he needed it. Every 2 or 3 days at 1st, then less and less. This only worked with my 1st and 4th though. (with my 4th, my next youngest was in Kindergarden).
I know it's hard, but it's just the next stage you're entering. It'll get easier though :)
