WWYD if you were me re: naps?

femmegem

My DS has always been terrible about naps. He fights and fights them. Once he's finally asleep he sleeps for 2.5-3 hours, but getting him to go down is AWFUL. He screams and cries and struggles (the only way I can get him to fall asleep for naps is to rock him), and quite honestly I'm ready to give up. Lately I will put in the attempt and then give it up before I get too frustrated, but I hate it. He hates it. It's bad. Sometimes he screams and cries for awhile and then just drops off to sleep, but a lot of the time he just never falls asleep.

The main problem with just giving up is that he really needs a nap every day. it's now a little after noon and he's already really tired, but I know what will happen if I try to rock him.

The past few weeks when he's home he says he's tired and will go into his crib willingly just so I won't rock him to sleep. LOL. Then he hangs out and has a grand old time in his crib. He doesn't rest at all. He's in there now playing and talking at the top of his lungs.

He falls asleep at night on his own without a problem, but during the day he just can't gear himself down enough to fall asleep on his own. I've tried rubbing his back and head (that's how they get him to nap at school) to no avail.

He still naps at daycare 99% of the time. Sometimes they do swaddle him, though, to help him calm down. I've never tried swaddling him here.

The big plus of him not napping is that he will go down early for bed, which is good. But it's not a lot of fun hanging out with him when he's so overly tired.

Anyway, this is long and rambling as my posts always are. But WWYD? Would you just give up on naps? It's already become something of a power struggle and I'd just like to stop it but feel guilty.

eshaffer

OMG Femme, I could have written this post word for word...in fact I almost did today! DS is doing the exact same thing..he still needs a nap, and will go down for everyone else, except for me. So on days he's with me, he just won't nap, then he's so cranky towards the end of the day.  Once he does finally fall asleep for a nap (if he takes one) he'll sleep between 2-3 hours, but then he's up really late at night.  I'm on the verge of just giving up.

Andrewsgal

I am sure you have tried everything, but when DD started resisting naps we pushed her naptime back and it worked great. She now goes down at 2:00 usually asleep by 2:30 then we have to wake her up at 5:00 so she goes to sleep at a reasonable hour.

Temp374386125003286

I guess I would tell him that he doesn't have to sleep but he does have to have quiet time in his room.  That is what we do with Kyle.  he can have books and one or two quiet toys and he can play quietly. 

The thought of him being swaddled seems odd to me.  No offense, but when I think of kyle being swaddled at this age I just laugh!

eshaffer

With me, if DS napped until 5pm, he'd be up until midnight. If he gets up any later than 3:30, he's up until 10pm.  It's insane. 

Richardsmom_817

My daughter does the same thing has Andrewsgal...goes down around 230-3, I wake her up by 5 if she isn't up yet & she will still go down around 730-8 just fine, but I know all kids are different.

femmegem

I thought the swaddling was a little odd, too, but knowing my child and having struggled to get him to nap for pretty much his entire life I can totally see why they do it. He has such a hard time calming himself down, and sometimes when I'm rocking him I have to hold him tightly so that he stops moving nonstop and keeping himself awake.

femmegem

FWIW, I'm not a napper at all. Whenever I feel the urge to nap I think of a million things I need to do, and I'm off and running instead of napping. My mom says I stopped napping when I was 18 months. So I'm actually thrilled DS has made it this long. LOL.

My DH can nap anywhere, any time. He would nap for a minimum of 2 hours every day if he had the choice. In fact, he's napping on the couch right now. I hope our next child takes after DH in that way!

femmegem

Oh, and I've tried getting him down at all different times. He often starts looking tired around 10 or 11 in the morning, so I've tried to get him to nap then. Nope. He naps around 12:30 at school so I try after lunch. No luck. I have tried a later nap at times, too. He's pretty inconsistent. Sometimes he goes right to sleep when I rock him around noon, sometimes not. Sometimes he'll go to sleep later, sometimes not.

The early naps never work anymore, though, even though he looks pooped by then.

MarchMom06

Sam's a little older than Alex (just turned three), but I gave up on the naps. He will sometimes fall asleep at school, which then kills his nighttime sleeping, but it's not worth the effort for us.

CTFandme

Is he not napping because he's wound up? Have you tried calms forte?  It's a Hyland's product so it's homeopathic, not medicine.  If you've ever used the teething tablets, it's the same thing. They dissolve under the tongue.  We use them at night when we've been busy all day or on the road and ds is overtired or wound up.  It's worth a try.  you can get them at target, CVS or whole foods. good luck!  I love a good nap! 

melmax

It's frustrating, I deal with the same thing.  I gave up....it was too difficult to fight with her, and JUST like your DS, she still needs the nap, she just won't take one. THe only way she'll sleep is if she's in a stroller or in the car (where she's sleeping right now).  This all started suddenly about 3 weeks ago when she climbed out of her crib. She was a great napper, would put her down awake and would go out for 1.5-2 hours. But ever since we had to put her in a bed--forget it, she will NOT go in there.  So i just give in...no use fighting it!  I try to stay home the later part of the day when she starts to get cranky from no nap- if we're out, it's a total nightmare.

femmegem

Yeah, he zonks out in the car or stoller, too. But by some miracle I actually managed to rock him to sleep about 10 minutes ago. It's amazing!