Monday, January 23, 2012

Ahhhhh!

I think naps are coming to an end with my three-year-old. Seriously, I don't know how I'm going to do it without a nap break. I feel like crying. Fellow Moms, how do you handle your pre-school age kids when they are done napping?

6 comments:

Carolyn said...

All my kids were done napping by 2 so I'm jealous you got till 3. With Alex I tried doing "quite time" where they were in their bed not napping but reading or coloring. Then I did afternoon preschool so they would be gone and the baby could still sleep. Now I just power through errands until one, or both (or all 3 of us) crash till the school kids come home. Good Luck!

Lindsay Griffeth said...

Oh, I feel your pain! Right before Nate turned 3 he was DONE.

I tried "quiet time" without using the TV but we ended up arguing the entire time because he wasn't going to play by himself for that long.

This may be terrible but we had a little portable mini-flat screen TV with a DVD player in it so for a long time he just laid in his bed and watched a movie. I figured at least his crazy little body was resting a little bit! But then even that got old and now he knows that I get "mom time" in the afternoon so he just needs to occupy himself.

GOOD luck. It's not a very fun transition, that's for sure! But he'll probably crash at night a little earlier more often! Nate's usually in bed between 6:30pm-7pm.

Endless Days and Northern Nights said...

When Sophie dropped her nap she had a a little quiet time to help her transition. It was just time in her bed to read books. On days where she was exhausted she would sometimes fall asleep. I love that she doesn't nap now. It's been a year and she sleeps from 7 p.m. to 8:45 or 9:00 AM! Once we got the baby on the same schedule it was divine! So much time at night to get stuff done and actually relax. On days when they need to stay up late they happily take a nap around 4 and it works out great. Good luck mama!

kat said...

Julia is already trying to stop napping and she has only been 2 for 2 months. I don't know what to do either and she will NOT do a quiet time and play by herself. Let me know if you find any good solutions.

kat said...

Julia is already trying to stop napping and she has only been 2 for 2 months. I don't know what to do either and she will NOT do a quiet time and play by herself. Let me know if you find any good solutions.

Amanda P said...

I know every kid is different, but I've used a lot of info from Happy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. At around 2 1/2 Asher stopped taking his naps, and was really becoming a nightmare because he was overtired all the time. One thing that the book says is that if your child is giving up naps you can try and put them to bed super early like 5:30 or 6 and it may somehow restart their naps again. Sounds strange I know, and 5:30 seemed too early for us, but we did start getting Asher down by 6:30 and it really did restart his naps. Just a thought. Now he is 3 years and four months old and still takes naps most days, or stays in his room for quite time. Like I said, all kids are different, and Carson really might just be too old for naps, but just a thought. But what do I know! :)