How often does your ~2yo skip naps?

FeistyFille

Having the boys in the same room has been great, but naps on the weekends are getting tricky.  They just want to talk and play, and I think they are too stimulated to sleep.  My idea was that they were going to stay up there until they slept dangit!  But it can be almost an hour until one of us goes up there to lay down the law and sleeps on the floor in there with them.  Naps are great, but I really don't want to have to do that every time.  WWYD?  Just let them skip the nap and deal with the wrath later?  Leave them up there no matter how long it takes?  At what age do they start skipping naps without the fallout later in the day?

mlf625

Could you separate them for weekend naps?  Put one in a PNP or bed in another room?  The few times we've had to have DD and DS share a room for a nap at a hotel or something, it's taken at least 30-45 minutes for them to settle down and go to sleep.

To answer your question, pretty much never.  DS is 2.5 and the only time he's skipped a nap is if we're traveling at naptime.  Otherwise, he always sleeps at naptime. 

MrsMillerTime

It really depends on what we're up to but DD skips her nap maybe once a week.  This past week that we've been at my parents place she's probably skipped her nap 3-4 days, though.  We make a point to let her have "quiet time" in her room for at least an hour (longer if she'll stay in her crib without crying out) and that is usually enough to keep her from completely melting down.  We do make a point to put her to bed earlier on those days when she doesn't nap.

jakbtx

my oldest starting skipping his nap just past 2 yr old after my #2 was born. it was incredibly hard. basically from 2yr-3.5yr his naps were 50/50 and the afternoon fallout period lasted til 3.5. we would guage daily, is it worth it to deal with a crazy afternoon and early bedtime, or force the nap no matter how long it takes...

if you can separate them for napping and it works, I would go that route!

 my #2 is almost 3.5 yr now and he still rarely misses a nap! 

(my boys are 5, 3.5, 1.5yr).  

joyco

The boys RARELY skip a nap.  Sometimes it takes for.bloody.ever for them to fall asleep, like if they're all jazzed up from MDO or a really awesome playdate and I'll just make a rule that I put them in cribs at 1 or 1:30 and I will not retrieve them, even if they never sleep until 2 hours from that time.  If they don't fall asleep until 2p and wake up at 3, that's fine.  Sometimes they'll fall asleep as late as 2:30 and will sleep til 4 or 5.  That's fine too, because buttheads are still going to bed at 8:30. 

 

So, in conclusion, yes.  Leave them there no matter how long it takes.  If their naps are usually 2 hours, leave them in there for 2 hours, unless they start FLIPPING out.  This can be their "quiet" time, whatever they decide to do w/ said quiet time is their deal.  KWIM?

My niece is 3.5 and she skips naps often and is just now getting to the point where she won't have a super meltdown around dinnertime if she's skipped one.

Abrooks

A was awful about napping - especially on weekends.  It was a chore to get her down. She stopped napping pretty much right at 3.  But it was not uncommon for her to not nap or nap shorter on the weekends - no matter what we tried.  I still would do time in their room - if they don't sleep, they don't. But I'd make them at least have quiet time.  And maybe w/ the summer coming up you can get them out and about to wear them out in the morning so they are good and ready for a nap once it's time.

Duckie07

DD rarely skips naps, but it's definitely getting harder to put her down for a nap.  Apparently, she's a great napper during the week, but not so much on the weekends.  We can definitely tell a difference in her on the days when she gets a decent nap versus the days she has fought her naps and maybe gets a 45 minute sleep in.  Same goes for the days when she fights her nap and ends up falling asleep later, thus waking up later.  Both evenings end up with someone in tears. 

If they were good nappers when they were in separate rooms, I'd probably go back to that and see how they do before giving up on naps all together.  Good luck!

ali-1411

Ha.  Layna skips naps every day   She gave them up back in December...so around 26 months.

I'd leave them up there as long as it takes.  Maybe they'll get used to it and start falling asleep quickly.

jml5q

DD skips lots of weekend naps. We always make her stay in her room though for 1.5-2 hours for quiet time, where she typically just plays or reads to herself.

 the only reason we got naps this weekend is because one of us laid down in the bed with her until she fell asleep. and that's a horrible habit that won't last long in our house.

luckily if DD misses her nap she's fine for the evening. sometime's she'll fall asleep in the late afternoon though, especially if we go anywhere in the car.

no real advice though, but i guess it's "normal" for them to be fighting naps. DD certainly is.

bobcatsteph

DD sleeps 2-3 hours every weekday at daycare.

She skips a nap most weekends because we're out and about all the time. She'll sleep in the car or go to bed early that night. Her weekday nap time is right in the middle of the day and we don't want to sit around at home waiting to go somewhere while she naps. Luckily she falls asleep pretty easily in the car and is usually fine without a nap if we're doing something entertaining (swimming, at a park, etc.).

balihaigirl

Pretty much never.  L loves to sleep and if he misses his nap I pay for it later.  But he only sleeps 8pm-6:30am during the night so he usually needs a good 2-3 hr nap every day to get the amt of sleep he needs.

The only time he really misses naps are if we're traveling, or if he's with his sitter & she's out and about running errands (and that's part of the reason we're moving him to a center next month).

Emer

FeistyFille:

Having the boys in the same room has been great, but naps on the weekends are getting tricky.  They just want to talk and play, and I think they are too stimulated to sleep.  My idea was that they were going to stay up there until they slept dangit!  But it can be almost an hour until one of us goes up there to lay down the law and sleeps on the floor in there with them.  Naps are great, but I really don't want to have to do that every time.  WWYD?  Just let them skip the nap and deal with the wrath later?  Leave them up there no matter how long it takes?  At what age do they start skipping naps without the fallout later in the day?

DD is almost 4 and has a terrible time when she skips her nap.  DS is 2 1/2 and handles it much, much better.

DS skips naps once or twice a week, but will sometimes take an hour to go down when he does nap.

I like the idea of separating them.  I would probably put both of them in different rooms, so I didn't feel like I was kicking one of them out of their room.

luluAXA

DS doesn't really skip naps either.  Sometimes I have to go in his room a few times and put his toys away and tell him to "lie down and go to sleep".  But eventually he does.  And yes he's cranky without a nap and will have to go to bed early if he doesn't take a nap.  I can imagine how hard it is with two in one room b/c my son is in there playing with himself for an hour sometimes.

keado

I'm interested to see if anyone has feedback to your question about what age evening overtired fallout ends . . . DD naps about 50 percent of the time now, but we still pay for it in the evenings. 

I'd still let them have quiet time in their room.  They probably need the time to regroup.   She naps for about 45 minutes a day and it takes her about 10 to fall asleep, so if she is not asleep within an hour I go in and get her, and we resume the day. 

NoVA-grl

What time do you usually put them down for their nap?  Would it be possible to put them down a little earlier?  C sometimes takes awhile to wind down but he will eventually fall asleep.  Sometimes he rolls around and plays in his crib for over an hour before he finally falls asleep.  But even if he sleeps later, we always keep his bedtime the same and he is still good about going to bed.

Nessia

DD needed her naps and would meltdown in the evenings without them. She took naps until the summer she started kinder. Now she's asleep by 8:30 and could stand to go to bed earlier. DS doesn't normally nap on the weekend even though he sleeps at daycare. He doesn't have meltdowns and goes to bed around nine. Th e reason he can get away without naps on the weekend is that he sleeps in until 8:30/9:00 on the weekend. Basically it depends on the kid. If DS would sleep until 9:00 am every morning and not get woken up at 7:00 for daycare he probably would have dropped naps completely by now.

maribel922

NoVA-grl:

What time do you usually put them down for their nap?  Would it be possible to put them down a little earlier?  C sometimes takes awhile to wind down but he will eventually fall asleep.  Sometimes he rolls around and plays in his crib for over an hour before he finally falls asleep.  But even if he sleeps later, we always keep his bedtime the same and he is still good about going to bed.

  This.  When JM has trouble going down for his nap, it's usually because he's overtired (usually after school or a fun playdate.  too much lately! ).  My biggest advice would be to stand firm on the nap.  Keep trying!  So many other parents have told me they wish they would have fought harder when their little one was fighting giving up a nap.  My DS1 ebbs and flows on his nap.  Sometimes he takes it.  Sometimes no.  It stinks battling him out for the nap every day, but if he doesn't nap, he's a BEAR. He will fight me for a while, then come back around.  The times when he will go for a week or two straight napping again make it worth it!  They really need a nap at this age, so don't give up.  Even if it's just quiet time for an hour, they need a break and I think we do, too!