what do you do when they won't nap?

britishbride05

Normally I can put abby down in her room for a nap and she'll fall asleep.  But days like today, she kicks the wall, talks and plays, and just shrieks occassionally.  She's not crying or anything.  I just ignore her and go back in an hour.  Either she cat naps or she stays awake.  But then she doesn't get an actual nap.  Should I take her out of her room and play with her more and then put her back down?  Some days she's just not tired at all... What do you guys do when (if) this happens to you?

taxbride

At that age, when Cedric wouldn't nap, we would let him crash early (if he would).  Some days he fell asleep eating dinner, and we would just carry him to bed early.  That was a welcome relief and a nice quiet evening!  Just try to avoid the late afternoon nap if you can, or you run the risk of an even later bedtime than normal.

Tania

MrsTweetybride

Ahh this is frustrating! L did this to us today (see my FB post lol), but he finally fell asleep! There are times where we'll ignore him as best we can. We'll leave him in his room and we'll stay downstairs. We may interject every now and then to remind him it's nap time. If he's too wired and really doesn't want to sleep, we'll tell him he doesn't have to sleep, but he has to rest for x amount. He usually ends up falling asleep within that time (today it took him about an hour though). If he just absolutely won't fall asleep, we'll wait a determined amount of time (about an hour and a half) and then just get him up. Even when he doesn't sleep, he still rests, and lately, it seems like he needs less and less sleep. Sigh. I'm going to miss nap time when it's gone!

MelanieJH1016

If she's not crying, i would just leave her in there until she's done and starts crying or calling for you. Then just try to put her to bed earlier. I wish that was my problem. Zoe screams bloody murder if I try to put her down for a nap. When she's exhausted, I stick her in the stroller reclined and walk it around the house until she falls asleep and then park it in her room!

ANJ410

If she doesn't become extremely cranky by late afternoon, then there really is no reason why she HAS to nap. At that age if Nicky didn't take a nap he would start crying and have a meltdown around 5:00 and it would last all through dinner and his bath until bedtime, so he absolutely had to have a nap no matter what.  If he didn't fall asleep in his crib, I would throw him in the car and take him for a drive.

Over the winter while I was pregnant, he had stopped napping on days that we stayed in all day and he was fine, so I just let it be.  But since Adrianna has been around, he's been getting up in the morning with me anywhere from 4:30-5:30 am and has reverted back to being cranky and hyper in the afternoon if he doesn't nap, so after lunch I pack the two of them up and take them for a drive.  I let him nap for about an hour, then either run errands or take them to the park, etc.

britishbride05

ANJ410:

If she doesn't become extremely cranky by late afternoon, then there really is no reason why she HAS to nap. At that age if Nicky didn't take a nap he would start crying and have a meltdown around 5:00 and it would last all through dinner and his bath until bedtime, so he absolutely had to have a nap no matter what.  If he didn't fall asleep in his crib, I would throw him in the car and take him for a drive.

Over the winter while I was pregnant, he had stopped napping on days that we stayed in all day and he was fine, so I just let it be.  But since Adrianna has been around, he's been getting up in the morning with me anywhere from 4:30-5:30 am and has reverted back to being cranky and hyper in the afternoon if he doesn't nap, so after lunch I pack the two of them up and take them for a drive.  I let him nap for about an hour, then either run errands or take them to the park, etc.

first:  omg adrianna is ADORABLE!!!!  i hadn't seen a picture of her yet, she's so cute!!

ok, yeah, Abby gets incredibly cranky.  She was crying and fussing all day, throwing fits.   I'd put her in her room to nap, she'd get quiet and she was jus tplaying with her toys, so I didn't bug her.  After about 45 min, she would start screaming and crying, so I'd bring her out.  The crappy part was that we had to go to a family reunion at 7 pm, so of all days for her not to take a long nap, or a nap at all, today was the day.  We even loaded the girls in the car at around 5:30 so we could drive around and they could sleep about 2 hours until we got there... nope.  wide awake.  ugh.