He77 no, we won't go

NAPS!

Why won't my two take naps anymore? It seems that every day that I'm home with them, they refuse to take a nap. Is it because Mommie's home that they want to stay up and play?

When did yours stop taking daily naps?

 

We actually still take daily naps. I changed from "naptime" to "quiet time" so that I don't require sleep but they must be quiet. I would say that 90% of the time, they both fall asleep after about 30 minutes at the most. Depending on their attitudes and their assumed need for sleep, I will give them each a small, quiet toy or book to bring to bed. That has worked for over a year now. I don't anticipate ending naptime or quiet time until they both go to kindergarten next year. HTH!

 

Mine went through a short phase (well, Amy did) at just about that age of not wanting to nap. Most of the advice I got here was "keep up the naps, it's just a phase," and they were right. After a few weeks of struggles, she settled right back into napping again, and in fact her naps actually got longer. She didn't give them up for real (and even now it's not consistent) until after age 3.

You might need to establish some naptime rules -- I don't know what your current strategy for getting them to nap is. If they are in the same room, you could separate them if at all possible. You also might need to leave them completely alone for quite some time before they fall asleep. And there may be some days when they just don't nap -- but stick to your schedule and keep putting them down. Good luck!

 

My 2-yr-old still desperately needs his daily nap - he is not himself without it. But, he did this to me this weekend. I left him in his crib for 1.5 hours, and he talked and played the whole time - never took a nap. So, we went to dinner around 5:45 (15-minute car ride) and of course he fell right asleep - little stinker!

I know he is tired, but sometimes it's just hard for him to wind down, I think.

 

Ditto! Occasionally mine fight it, but we keep the routine and they sleep 1 1/2 - 2 hours each afternoon.

 

Good to know. I just put them down for a nap, I think that their normal time just wasn't agreeing with them today since they woke up so late. No screeching as of yet.

My main rules are: Two hours in your bed. You can talk, jump, play, but just get out of my hair for two hours. 99% of the time they go to sleep, but for the past two weeks Royce especially isn't going to bed (or nap) as usual.

 

My boys are closing in on 4 years old and they still take naps. My almost 5 year old DD takes them as well. We call it "quiet time" and I allow them to have books, but all usually fall asleep within 30 minutes. The exception is the almost 5 year old. She sometimes falls asleep, sometimes reads the entire time.

I wouldn't give up. I have a feeling it's just a phase and they still need it (Mommy too!).

Good luck!

 

My girls are going through the same thing right know. What gets to me is their not sleeping through the night and because of that they have been sleeping later in morning so naps are not working for them. then around 4:00 0r 5:00 they are sooooo fussy. But last night they fell asleep at 8:30 (EARLY FOR THEM)and then woke up early so I dont get why their not sleeping. Right know their in their beds and still not sleeping been in there for almost two hours. I miss my 2-3 hour nap breaks and happy babies

 

It's funny though, I remember being in private school at 3 years old and boycotting naps myself. I would lay on the cot for the entire time and never fall asleep. Eventually they started letting me up and "helping" in the kitchen, washing cups for snacktime.

 

I think it's the age thing. My girls were never nappers, but they went to bed early without complaint. I keep my grandsons and I'm not sure which needs the nap worse - them or me. But to get to the point, when they hit two years old it was like pulling teeth to get them to lay down for a nap. I resorted to going in with them, rubbing their heads, scratching their backs - anything - until they went to sleep. Now I just do as another poster said - I put them in their bed, and will turn on the TV very low and tell them as long as they stay in bed and are quiet I will leave the TV playing, but if they get up, come out or get loud - the TV goes off. Nine times out of ten once they get in and slow down long enough, one and sometimes both fall asleep. If one sleeps, the other remains quiet to get to watch the TV. Whether they sleep or not, it gives them down time and gives me time to take care of a few things. The baby (one year old) is trying to phase out his two naps to one. He's beginning to skip his morning nap, but he's pretty cranky if I make him wait until his brother's nap time, so this week has been pretty rough. By 12 today he was a bear and a walking zombie. He'd like to nap around 11, but I do lunch at 11:30. I don't really want to do one lunch for the boys and a second for the baby - anyone else have that problem? I'm hoping that we can get the nap time/quiet time in sync for all three.

 

My DD has been staying awake through naptime maybe once a week for about a month or two. She doesn't cry, so I leave her up there for 1.5 hours whether she's sleeping or not. Just in the past two weeks, I've pushed naptime back by about an hour and I think that is helping some.

 

We had that same problem right about two years old. Cricket boycotted naps for two full weeks before she got tired enough to sleep again and Piper boycotted on and off. I found that once they started napping regularly again, their night time sleep got pushed back by about 1/2 hour. From time to time now my girls (it's always both of them) will refuse to nap, but I think our nap routine helps. We have lunch, change diapers, walk into bedroom, read two books, everyone into bed, forehead kisses, sing one song, I walk out.

And when all else fails, I send the girls outside to run around for 20 minutes before lunch so I know they'll be good and tired!

 

Oh my goodness My 2 are NOT wanting to nap right now and by 7pm they are so over tired and it is really not much fun.

 

I had to give up Emilie's nap at 3y4m because she was taking forever to fall asleep at night. But Trevor still takes at least a 2 hour nap every day. :good: Hopefully it's just a phase for you. :hug:

 

I'm so glad this was asked! It was going to be my first official question when we get here in two weeks. I'm going insane with the nap fights. When I leave them in their room for "quiet time" they pull everything off the shelves and scream. Two days ago they got into the wipes and put them all into the only drawer I didn't have a lock on. Today they broke another lock off the drawers. I sat outside their room for an hour and a half before I went downstairs to finally eat lunch and all he77 broke loose! UGH! I'm SO hoping this is a phase for us too! Just 2 weeks ago we had 3 hr naps each!