nap advice

sarabean

Ladies, when did your kiddos drop their naps altogether?  My DD is two years and 3 months.  She has only been actually sleeping during naptime about two days out of seven.  The days she doesn't sleep she plays in her room fairly happily for awhile, but I am feeling guilt over her wandering around her room in the dark by herself.  Also, she gets pretty destructive, pulling all the books from her shelves, any play items are strewn across the room, any clothing she can reach gets dumped out of the closet.  I make her help me pick it up when it is time to get up, but it is such a PITA to do this everyday. 

 

I am loathe to give up the nap altogether because we have an infant and if she is sleeping too then I get a few minutes alone to myself to nap or shower or whatever.  If DD2 is awake and I don't get that alone time at least I can spend that time focusing just on her. 

 

One day last week a rescheduled dr.'s appointment caused us to miss DD1's afternoon nap altogether and she was a disaster by the evening.  Just weeping for no reason, so I think she does need the sleep, or at least the quiet time.  She has always been a pretty good sleeper and is still sleeping about 11 hours a night without any problems.  I thought about dropping the nap and trying to get her to bed a bit earlier, but it is just close to impossible with our evening routine (infant is clusterfeeding most of evening) and then my H would barely get to see her at all. 

 

Any advice?  Thanks!

victoria1212

DD gave up her nap about 2 months ago and sadly, it has not returned. At home and daycare, she does have quiet time for one hour where she plays in her room. I really don't have any advice because I honestly thought she would nap until kindergarten and it was kind of a rude awakening to think she would be up from 7am to 7:30pm without a break :-)

The days she has napped make her whole night time routine harder because she is not tired at 7:30pm and fights the whole going to sleep thing.

Sofka

DD is 34mo and she doesn't nap on weekends anymore, she naps *most* days at daycare. I think after 2nd bday is fair game for dropping a nap, sadly!

 

leb2be

DS went through a period of giving up naps.  We have always continued to do quiet time in the afternoon.  He goes through periods of time that he doesn't nap more than a couple of times a week and then he'll nap everyday.  Every kid is different, but I am glad that I have always maintained this time.  I think it's good for him to have this downtime and alone time.  With that said, he has never been a wanderer and stays in his bed for the most part even if he's not sleeping.  Maybe she can pick one or two toys to have in bed with her, but other than that she can't wander around the room?  Don't feel bad about giving her this time to herself- even if she doesn't sleep.

Hey Jellisy

DD is 29 months and naps at daycare and during car rides on the weekend but will no longer go down for a nap on weekends.  She will do quiet time in her room which still seems to refresh her.