How strict are you about naps on weekends?

MomtobeNJ · February 2014

I've always done whatever I can to preserve DD's nap "schedule" on weekends. She is a pretty good sleeper and never misses a nap (only at daycare, on occasion). She usually goes down between 11:30 and 1 pm and sleeps around 90-120 minutes. If possible, we plan to hang around at home or run quick errands in the morning, go home for nap, and save any big plans for afternoon/early evening.

Without a nap, she is a terror by 3 - 4 pm. She will fall asleep in the car if she's tired enough, but almost never stays asleep once we stop. Literally, when I shift the car into Park in the driveway, her eyes pop open. So weird.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if many of you still do the same. Second-time moms, when were you a little more flexible with naps and timing? I know some of you have babies that will sleep anywhere, but that has never been my DD. She will not sleep on the couch, in my bed, on the floor. Even stroller naps are rare and very brief. So I feel like I need to make sure she has an opportunity to take a good nap at home.

MarisaKathleen · February 2014

Last weekend we messed up nap and Nancy refused to go back down once we got out of the car after only 25 minutes of sleeping. It was the longest evening ever and we ended up putting her to bed before 7pm.

She has to get a nap in on the weekends, be that she first goes down at 1230 or something. I don't care what time she takes it, but she has to take it sometime late morning/early afternoon.

melody921 · February 2014

DD LOVES her sleep. She would never skip a nap, but she would fall asleep if we were out and about. We can't skip a nap for her bc she would be an exhausted, grouchy mess. As it is, even with a long nap, she is often in bed by 7.

BeebopandBuddy · February 2014

I started getting a little bit more lax with naps for Maya when she started playing around more in her bed during naptime or fighting me on them. That's when I knew that, while she still needs some sleep, she isn't desperately tired and could probabbly wait a little longer to go down if necessary.

We are more relaxed about napping on the weekend. Usually they nap 12:30-2:30 during the week. We try to get them down by 2:00 at the latest on the weekend. We try not to be too set to the schedule because we go out of town a lot and it isn't always possible to be so structured.

watercolor5 · February 2014

I also have a DD who will not nap just anywhere and she usually takes 20 min or more to fall asleep, even after a pretty long bedtime/naptime routine.

That said, I will manipulate her schedule somewhat to fit in activities that are important to me. Ideally she goes down around 1, right after lunch. In reality, I'll put her down anywhere between 12:30 and 3, and try to make sure it's at a time when she can at least get an hour/ hour and a half. If there's a birthday party at 3, I'll do an early lunch and get her down at 12:30. If there's a family get together at lunchtime, she'll get her nap at 2:30. I try to still make sure her physical need for sleep is met, but I also try to make sure she doesn't miss out on social get-togethers.

Holly_1007 · February 2014

Colby naps every day between 12 and 12:30. I do my absolute best to plan things around this. We have a birthday party at 11am this Sunday and I'm pretty nervous about it. I always planned my day around keagans nap. If I had a long distance to drive I would plan on doing that during nap time ( my parents are 2.5 hours away, I make the drive during nap time)

tyrannasaurusjess · February 2014

I can't imagine that our house would still be standing if we let Jasper skip a nap. Kid needs his nap! The *only* exception to this is when he goes to my ILs, usually like once every other week or so. They have a hard time getting him to lay down, but his mood doesn't seem affected much by it. I can't even imagine they are telling the truth, but they never complain about him being a terror or anything so maybe I'm wrong.

MomtobeNJ · February 2014

Thanks for sharing and validating my nap paranoia. Lol. I have some family members whom I love dearly, but seem to think I should just drag DD all over the place on weekends and "when she sleeps, she sleeps." And they do have kids, so it's not like they're totally clueless. When I was at their house for a holiday and she started getting cranky close to bedtime they told me to go upstairs to their bedroom and put her to sleep. Yeah, it doesn't work that way.

And don't get me wrong - obviously there are holidays and special occasions and other circumstances where you do have crazy days and naps suffer. I get that. But I'm not going to PLAN for that. She's a year and a half old, going to daycare all week and still growing. She needs her sleep.

AKB090609 · February 2014

DD is pretty flexible, as long as she gets an hour she's fine. Normally she has lunch at 12 and nap starts between 12:45 and 1. She sleeps until 4 if she's in her crib, we don't go anyplace unless there is an hour of drive time for her to sleep. Which means on weekends we run errands in the morning, come home for lunch/nap, and do house projects in the afternoon when she is napping.

MRoxy0628 · February 2014

I agree with others. I'm not as strict on the exact time of the nap as I am that she gets at least one nap per day on the weekend. Like others children, if she doesn't nap, she's very cranky. She also doesn't sleep 12 hours at night, so I think it's important that she gets some sleep hours in during the day.

MommaP12 · February 2014

My mom used to razz me about being so strict about naps with DS that I think she learned to leave me alone with DD.

I do anything I can to preserve naps. I considered Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child my baby bible for both kids treating sleep as important as eating. I work around their naps as much as possible doing exactly what you do - run errands early and attend family parties/get togethers at like 4pm after her nap (and DS nap when he napped.). Nap paranoia is good in my book!

My DD is like yours - she won't sleep in random beds/laps and she may fall asleep in the car if we go to visit a relative far away or something like during an hour drive, but she is a WEIRDO who will just randomly wake up in the middle of the long drive! It drives my DH nuts, LOL! He's like "what baby wakes themself up from a car nap?!" I guess mine and yours MomtobeNJ!

Hyaline · February 2014

Yes, but I haven't indefinitely suspended going further away from home on account of naps, either. That is, if we're around home, we work around the nap schedule, but if we want to go visit my parents or friends a couple hours away, knowing it will affect DD's schedule, we still go. She won't nap anywhere but at home, but will sleep in the car--if possible, we try to schedule trip time for nap time. But it's not foolproof.

I just accept that if we spend the weekend somewhere my child will not nap and will be cranky by evening. Some kids will nap anyplace, and that's great for them. Mine won't, but sometimes the tradeoff is worth it to us.

hmp1 · February 2014

Usually I am pretty strict about being home for nap time. Last weekend, it was beautiful and we wanted to get out and enjoy the day. We didn't get home until after 2. Leo went down around 2:30 and I woke him up (which I usually never do) at 5. He was having a blast when we were out so he never got cranky until we got in the car.

James still needs a nap but fights it sometimes. If he is fighting it, I will plan a quick errand to run with him and drive around after until he falls asleep. He will stay asleep in the car while I shut the garage door and go inside. I roll down the windows and keep the door open between the garage and the kitchen while he sleeps.

BillyMollyEmmy · February 2014

DD loves to sleep. She sleeps all night and then naps a good 2-3 hours during the day. We try not to miss naps because she really seems to need them.

redneckmomma25 · February 2014

I need her nap time as much as she does. Yeah it's a pain and I feel we are somewhat limited on what we do one weekends but I would much rather not deal with and I'll napped G.

LyndseylovesHugh · February 2014

I plan outings around her nap schedule. If it is off by half an hour or something it is not a big deal, but there is no way she could skip a nap. She will rarely fall asleep in the car and if she does she will also wake up as soon as I put the car in park and will not go back to sleep, so if she is tired in the car I do everything I can to keep her awake until we get home.

jenndub · February 2014

Looks like I'm in the minority here. Sawyer gets dragged around to dance competitions, soccer tournaments and tee ball games all weekend. That poor girl is rarely in her crib for a nap on a weekend. But we've been torturing her this way since birth so she falls asleep anywhere. If she falls asleep in the car, I can take her out of the seat and lay her in the stroller. She wakes up for a second and falls right back asleep.

I would advise you to do whatever works for you and try not to worry about what other people think. If they don't have a problem/criticism with one thing, they will with another. Do what you need to do, they can worry about their own lives. This also gets easier to do when you have more kids. You get too busy/exhausted to give a shit about what your Aunt Tina thinks.

Kissty · February 2014

I'm with the majority here. LO MUST nap on the weekends. Usually 12-2ish. We had a few times where he didn't go down until 2 and got woke up at 4:30 by the latest. He also will not sleep just anywhere, he wants to be home. I've also heard the criticism and I don't care. I am not going to suffer through an evening just because I was too selfish to make sure kiddo could nap. He will sometimes fall asleep in the car. But it has to be right at nap time for that to happen. Forget about car trips unless you don't mind him screaming after the 1 hour mark. If sleep happens he is awake within in an hour.

MrsManny · February 2014

I do my best to keep the schedule, but don't stress too much. He has gone a weekend day without a nap and it wasn't too bad, but I do try to be home for naps.

Flamingemu · February 2014

We don't generally leave the house on weekend until after she wakes up from her morning nap. We are transitioning to 1 nap so she still goes down early and sometimes gets a 2nd. Usually she is up by 12, lunch, then out the door. She is much happier if she sleeps in the morning.

juliane2004 · March 2014

We're even more strict on naps on the weekend. Most of the days in the week are out at school (3/5) so she misses those naps, so the weekend naps are a nice break for her and us.

linzeek44 · March 2014

We do whatever it takes to keep his nap. He sleeps crappily at daycare since they put him down late. At home we put him down between 11 and 12 and he will sleep two hours.

This weekend we are on vacation and we planned a morning activity, took him back to the hotel for a nap (napping now), and then will go back out. Not convenient but worth it.

enjoylife · March 2014

We didn't stop being strict with ds1's nap until he was 2 1/2 and he could drop it or be short napped and not melt down by bedtime. He was similar to pp only able to sleep in his own bed, occasional car naps but would wake at the 1 hr mark. Maddening. Ds2 is still transitioning from 1-2 naps per day. I find that I've been more lax since we have had activities for ds1 that ds2 just learned to kind of sleep on the go. When he's tired I can transfer him from car to stroller to bed, so for him we aren't as strict but that's because he can sleep. So I say do what works for you to keep your sanity, and this period of time is pretty brief before you know it the naps will be gone and they'll be running wild from dawn til dusk

cece673 · March 2014

We stick to the same schedule on weekends as we do during the week. Sometimes I wish I could be more easy-going and less uptight about naps, but the truth is that everyone is happier when DD gets her normal nap. So we run errands in the morning, then she naps from 12-3 and we'll go out again in the afternoon.

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