need nap advice for 3 year old and new baby on the way

llamakins

My son just turned 3. Most days he will nap for 2 hours, but 2-3 days a week, he doesn't nap at all. He stays awake and plays in his room. We have a "wake-up clock" that turns from red to green when his nap/quiet time is over. This has helped keep up the routine of quiet time/independent time each afternoon.

When he naps, he is up late. My husband gets home late, so this has worked okay for us in the past, but I am nervous about this schedule when the new baby arrives. 

We are starting 2 AM preschool in a few weeks. Do you think I should encourage him to drop the nap totally and just have quiet time?  Or should I fight to preserve it since I'll need some more rest time when the baby arrives?

Not sure what I should do.

Thanks!

KL777

I personally would let him nap if he's tired.  I like the wake-up clock idea.  I need one of those.

Stacyc625

honestly- I wouldn't do anything drastic yet.

we went through the SAME thing when Gisele turned 3 and we had the new baby. it was a short lived spurt and she went back to napping. The days she does nap I push her bedtime back by A LITTLE- and spend some good quality time with her when the baby is down for the night.

3yr olds often have spurts of not sleeping/napping (and fighting bed time causing a lot of drama) which runs concurrent to growth spurts. For us it all shook out and things went back to normal.

mbritto4

Mine hasn't napped since around 2.5, but when she was a young 3 we still did "quiet time" where she would sit on her bed and look at books. Sometimes she crashed and napped if needed, other days she just decompressed a bit. I honestly don't get down time with a preschooler & infant, except when MH is home. When LO was brand new MH took her from about 6-9am so I could sleep and did breakfast with DD.

CarolinaDaisy

How late is he up when he naps? And what time does he usually go to bed and wake up when he skips his nap?

Every child is so different. I wish my 3 year old would nap most days of the week....he is totally wild in the afternoons without it. We are lucky to get 2 naps a week from him.

And he dropped his nap on his own.....right after the baby was born. So I wouldn't worry about it and definitely don't force him to drop it! You can limit the time to 1 to 1.5 hrs if you want to keep bedtime on the early side.