I still need naps. Not me sleeping. My daughter sleeping. Only my daughter doesn't seem to think so! Yesterday afternoon she did get a nap (from about 2:30 to 4:30) and afterwards she was so happy. We went to the post office, and on the way there, she was saying cute things like:
"Mom? Target is a place for little girls to play."
But then, in spite of my attempts at running off her energy, and even though she got to bed on time, she didn't go to sleep till nearly 10. Yikes.
I'm just not ready to give up naps, but I need to figure out how to get her to sleep in the early afternoon so it doesn't wreck havoc with her night-time sleep.
Any ideas for an almost-3-year-old?
7 comments:
Tammy, I remember the feeling when my boys were young. They went to bed every afternoon at the same time and had to stay there with eyes closed for 15 minutes. (They almost always fell asleep). I was told" I not tired" and I told them I was and they needed to nap. If you set the time in their minds sometimes all you have to do is point to the clock.
Tammy, I don't know about a 3 year old, but Miss T seems to do really well if I lay her down between 1-1:30. This allows her to still have plenty of time to both sleep/talk to herself, and then play off the energy without messing with bedtime. Days I try to lay her down later in the afternoon don't work. It's got to be almost immediately after lunch.
Just sympathy here. The girls usually take a good 1-2 hr nap in the afternoon, but then they lay awake in bed until 10 or 11. Not ideal, but at least I get my afternoon downtime.
We stopped naps around 2.5 years because they simply didn't work any longer. Caroline would sleep for three hours and then be up very late. Waking her up for a shorter nap did not work. We finally decided that we valued our evening time more than the afternoon nap time.
I sympathize. Caroline is on the very short end of the spectrum with sleep and always has been. When I read about people who put their kids down at 7 and they don't get up again until 7 the next morning... I cannot imagine. My life would be so different I can't even wrap my mind around it.
We always have done a rest time for at least an hour immediately following lunch. I tell them they don't have to sleep, but they do have to lay down in bed and be quiet (So like now, the school kids will read or color in bed). I have a sound machine that has a timer and it will stop after an hour. When it stops, they are free to get up. I didn't want to use a timer that would wake them up if/when they fell aslelep. So far, Andrew still naps every day (With a very RARE exception) and William is about 75% of the time.
I put Miss E down for a nap every day between 12 & 1, depending on when I get her lunch fixed. She doesn't always sleep, but she is quiet. I am beginning to run into the same problem of her being up until all hours of the night though... Not much help am I? ;)
Sounds like a common problem! I've tried "everything" but so far if it works it only works for one or two days. :) I'll keep trying and maybe one day soon I'll come up with something that will consistently work! HA.
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