34 Month Old Trying to Give up Nap

Hi J.,

I have a 32 month old who sometimes seems to be trying to give up her nap, too. And, like you, we know by her mood later that she needs the rest. The only thing that has worked for us is using some kind of motivation for taking a nap. She goes to daycare and we remind her to sleep but sometimes we offer a reward for sleeping like going to the park or watching her favorite show. With a couple reminders it has worked really well so far. Sometimes I notice, too, that she needs to be alone playing in her bed for quite a while before she will go to sleep. Hope this helps and good luck!

i have 3 small children, my oldest is 34 months as well. they all share a bedroom, so nap time is tricky. i put them down about 12:30 and sometimes i still hear my oldest talking/singing etc until 2pm or after. mostly he eventually falls asleep but sometimes he doesn't and then i pull him out (about 2:30) so that my other 2 can get an uninterrupted sleep. try giving him a little longer to fall asleep, especially if he isn't crying. A.

my daughter just turned 2 and currently (on a "normal" day) she wakes around 8-8:30, goes down for her nap around 12:30-1:30 and will sleep 1-3 1/2 hrs (depending on how much we've done during the morning, and/or if she had a nap the day before) and she's put in her bed/crib 8-8:30. there are days that i just can't get her down for a nap, but then it's absolute hell the rest of the day and part of the next day. sometimes at night it will take 5 min for her to fall out while most nights she lays quietly and doesn't actually pass out until about 30 min - 1 1/2 hrs...she's an odd child according to the rest of my friends' kids schedule, but i honestly don't think ANY of them have the same schedule. my ex's kid has stopped his nap since he was 1-1 1/2 and my closest friend's kid has just turned 3 and ALWAYS takes a nap. it really has to do with each child, they all have their own schedule, but i do what i can to try and keep my daughter on her schedule whether she likes it or not.

Hi-
It seems fine. keep in mind that they could be going thru a growth spurt and want to just be quiet....Uless they appear
to be exausting themself. Talk to your pediatrician.

my daughter gave up naps at 33 months when we stopped nursing. it was rough for a few weeks but given that she now goes to sleep around 8:30 pm it's ok (she used to go to sleep much later no mater how long her naps were. i think she had been ready for a long time to give up naps but i wasn't). now she will only nap if she's sick or she falls asleep in the car. it depends, but most days she's up by 7:30

Hey J.,
you are not alone...lots of kids try to give up their nap too soon! Stay firm with his naptime and routine and you should be okay...does he go to preschool, or have something regularly that interfers with his naptime? You can always play a lulaby cd during his nap and tell him when it's over he can get up...that should buy you 45-60 minutes and on the days where he is really tired he will fall asleep...at our house we do all out stuff in the morning...cleaning, playgroups, shopping...get them nice and tired and then we are home for lunch and a nap( I don't miss our naps, they are to important to us all)...my preschooler(4) goes to school 2 afternoons a week so on those days he doesn't nap but he does every other day...and he like your son falls apart if he doesn't nap regularly. All kids stop napping at different times but if he is cranky and tired later in the day without one,I would keep naps going.(especially with other kids in the house who are napping). It's a true gift teaching your child how to have down/quite time...these days so many kids and grownups are way to overscheduled...keep trying, even if it's every other day he sleeps! Best of luck! C.

J.: You have no idea how lucky you are that you have managed to get your son to take naps at nearly three. I have three small children and each one tried to rid themselves of that afternoon nap shortly after they turned two. My children like your son very much needed that nap to rejuvenate and improve the MOOD. You can always tell by your childs behavior when they need to sleep or have not had enough. I used to cuddle them and often just the quiet time and the relaxation that comes with laying down would get them to drift off. It would get me to drift off too on occassion! If you can't manage to get your son to sleep even by cuddling him he may really be ready to lose the nap. My suggestions would be to change his bedtime and stick to a strict schedule. Children rely heavily on strict schedules. What I did with all three of my children was to move up the bedtime say to 7:00 pm- do the tubbies, read a book, maybe a little cuddle and talk and off they go. Most times a warm tubby and the days exhaustion was enough to have them fast asleep before the end of the book. Good luck!

I still put my kids down for naps/ rest time. My oldest is 7 and uses the time to read, my youngest 5. He takes two books to bed with him. he just gave up his nap this year!! They go down at 7:30-8pm and areup about 6:30/7am. My husband and I feeel that using teh hour of rest time allows them to rest and regroup theri bodies if needed. Anf if they don;t need teh quiet time to "fade" its a good time for independent quiet time.

Hi there~

My 22 mo old has only been napping about 40 minutes a day when he used to do 3 hours!!! I think he's getting 2 yr old molers & is uncomfortable. I've heard that you should tell them that it's rest time & leave them in their room whether they sleep or not. Most of the time they'll end up sleeping out of boredom if nothings bothering them. I know its no fun when they don't nap!!! And as for mine he still goes to bed around 8 & wakes up around 7:3.

Good luck~

H.

My daughter is 30 months and gave up naps about a month ago. Putting her down was pointless because it would upset her and eventually make her more tired in teh end when she never fell asleep. I know by her moods a nap could still definitely be helpful to her but I cant force her to sleep ya know. So, instead of napping in the afternoon I set her down on the livingroom couch and let her watch a movie. She enjoys this because her TV time is limited and she really relaxes while she is watching. She normally goes to bed in between 8:30 and 9:30 and sleeps in til around 10am every morning so she gets the sleep she needs at night. If you aren't cool with teh TV idea, some parents are against it, you could also read for a good hour in the afternoon, that way he will still be getting teh relaxation in. Good Luck, I fought this battle with my daughter for a while before I gave up!

My daugther gave up naps at 26 months (UGH!) It took a long time for her body to adjust to less sleep, but no that she's 3.5 yrs old, she wakes up around 7ish, has "rest time" (quiet play time in her room or mvoie on the couch) for about an hour, and goes to sleep around 7:30ish. I would def. encourage the "rest time" in place of naps- right away.

My daughter turned 3 in Dec. She has been fighting naps for months. Some days she will, most days she won't. She won't usually go to bed until 9 and lately is waking at 8. That doesn't seem like enough sleep. I think I may try putting her to bed at 8 and see what happens. But I have heard multiple times that even if they don't nap, that wuiet time is very important. Good luck with yours!

Hi J.-
at about 30 months my son gave up his nap. I fought it for as long as i could i kept putting him in for one and leaving him in for an hour but he wouldn't fall asleep. he would just lie there singing and talking. After a month or so i knew that i needed to implament a new routine. So my son who used to wake at 8am and go to bed at 8:30 and nap from 1-4 (yep three hours) was waking at 8 and going to bed at 6:30. He was cranky for about 2 months b/c he still really needed that nap but there was no way of getting it. so around 6 pm we got thr "Ugly Baby" the baby that cried over everything, fell constantly. So at 6 pm we started books, and quiet time. After a while his body adjusted to not having the break mid day and he was ready for bed at 6:30 slept great and now that is his schedule. Also, dinner time changed from eating dinner with us to eating dinner at 4:30 pm. Hope this helps. If you have any other questions you can email ne ____@____.com

That is about the age that my daughter started resisting naps. Like your child, she would only nap if we were driving in the car around 3pm, and she would fall asleep that way. I would then carry her in the house and put her in bed and she would sleep for a good hour or so, showing me that she was definitely tired and still needing the nap, but she would just not take one willingly anymore. I started just having "quiet time" for her once a day, so that she had at least some down time built into her schedule. I would have her go in her room, and she could look at books, listen to books on tape, etc., but the rule was that she needed to stay in bed during that time. Anyhow, her routine was bedtime around 7:30-8pm, and she would wake up around 7am every morning.

My daughter was getting resistant to naps around her 3rd birthday and the doctor told me that was totally normal. Then about a month later we stopped the pacifier and now she won't nap unless I lay down with her and even then sometimes she won't. I notice that she is generally fine for a couple days without a nap and then can use one on the 3rd day. But when she doesn't nap she is in bed an hour earlier, which is fine with me!! I think it's totally normal and if he is happy and not cranky, don't worry, but maybe for awhile try a nap a couple times a week.

my daughter gave them up at this exact age -- which was also 2 weeks after i brought home a newborn! :) i tried the "stay in bed and play quietly," even let her watch movies in my bed in hopes of her dozing off. it turned out that she'd call me in so many times (because she really wasn't tired), which was interfering with the baby nursing/sleeping, so eventually i stopped trying and gave up. she was crabby for a few weeks, but like when she went from 2 naps to 1, it didn't last long. bedtime moved up a half hour or so, and she's fine now. good luck!
--S.

Both my daughters gave up their naps at 24 months. It was a very grouchy transition, but they were even grouchier when I "forced" them to take a nap by driving around in the car or pushing them in the stroller. I think this transition time is always hard and results in grumpy kids. Sounds like introducing quiet time as you are is just the right thing to do.

Sounds like you are doing exactly the right thing.
You are listening to the rhythms of your son's needs/development. As you know most kids eventually give up the afternoon nap, it's a sign of maturation, he's growing up!
No need to compare him to others, you seem to have it figured out, your son is an individual!
N.