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sleep questions/poll
Does your 3-4 year old still take a nap? If so, for how long?
What time do they go to bed normally?
Do they fall asleep unassisted, or do you have to stay and lay with them/rock/rub their back, etc?
DS still fights bedtime most nights. This started right after he turned 2 last summer. We've tried CIO, incentives, everything we can think of. He hasn't fallen asleep without someone laying with him or rocking him in almost a year. Some nights the battle goes on for 1-2 hours until he's finally asleep. Nap times are equally difficult and some days I give in and we just have "rest time" watching a movie instead of actually sleeping.
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Re: sleep questions/poll
wow, that sounds rough. it sounds like you've already tried everything.
my dd goes down for a nap every day at 1 and i get her out of bed at 4. sometimes she just lays in her crib and sings/reads a book for a little while, but she normally sleeps for about 2.5 hours. then we begin he night routine at 7:30 and she's out by 8pm.
she does go to sleep by herself, after we read a few books and she has a couple of other little routines (closing her blinds, laying her animals down for a nap too).
i'm sure you've tried it, but what about putting a book in bed or a little album with pics of family. my dd loves to look at her family album. also, someone posted the other day on a thread how much they liked a super nanny book about putting kids down for bed/nap.
good luck!
Blake will be 3 next week and he naps for about 2 hours everyday (though it can range from 1-3 hours, and on rare occasion - not at all).
He wakes up around 6:30-7am. Naps from somewhere in the 12-3pm time frame, and goes to sleep around 8-8:30pm. (FWIW, Maren was on pretty much the same schedule at that age, too.)
We always snuggle/talk for a few minutes after stories. He does try to keep us there when it's time to go to sleep, but we resist. We tell him it's time for bed, all of his friends are in bed, his sister is in bed, and we need to get to bed too. If he has a particularly hard time we'll talk about something fun or exciting to look forward to the next day (this can sometimes be as simple as having triangle-shaped waffles for breakfast or something), and that he needs to go to sleep so he can wake up tomorrow morning.
He turns on his music night light thingy and I tell him he can read books by himself if he's not tired yet. Sometimes this isn't enough and he'll stall, cry, or get upset, but we say our regular goodnight dialogue and head downstairs. He quiets down and will talk to himself (or his stuffed animals) or read his books until he falls asleep.
In your situation, it is possible he may be outgrowing his naps. I know of several kids who have cut out their naps around 3, so it's definitely not out of the realm of normal (though kind of a bummer!) As for bedtime, maybe if he does cut out his nap completely he'll be so tuckered out at bedtime that there won't be a fight? I know Maren (at almost 6) is wiped out by 8 or 8:30pm since she doesn't get a nap during the day. She's usually out faster than Blake.
Good luck. Sleep issues are so tough!
Our older daugher dropped her nap right when she turned 2. I know it sounds crazy, but she was never ever a napper. She just turned 4 this summer.
Because she took no nap from that age forward, it made bedtime super easy because she was ready to sleep by the end of the day.
*ETA* I'm a bedtime Nazi and try to spend less than 10 minutes each on putting the girls to bed. But I SAH with them and therefore I'm D.O.N.E. by bedtime and am only focused on keeping to our schedule and getting them down for the night. I'd say that for the most part, the girls fall asleep very easily on their own.
With regard to his napping - some children need a lot less sleep, and I can say this because our younger daughter takes a 2 to 3 hour nap every afternoon and she's 28 months old. Their sleep needs are completely opposite.
Is he in a crib or a bed? Does he get out of his bed if you don't lie down with him? You could try the Super Nanny trick of putting him back in bed each and every time until he gets it. That sure doesn't look like much fun though!
a good friend of mine just started doing this with her 3.5 year old, too. she naps at MDO 3 days a week but on the other days, when she is home, no nap and it has made bedtime a lot easier for them.
i was inspired by her success and tried to have T not nap one weekend and it was a nightmare. by 5 oclock he was too evil for it to be worth it. BUT There are some weekends when he doesn't nap (and some days at school) and i think it just varies by his needs. kids are so weird with their opinions! lol!
but i am glad it worked for you. basically i just wanted to respond with the stories above for anyone else who decides to follow this path and not have it work. we always tend to think something is wrong when a plan goes great for one kid and not our own, so i thought i would put operation no nap failed for us but has been good for others