Bedtime getting later and later...

I'm not too sure how to deal with this!

My kids were morning nappers for the longer time, until 2 they wanted a morning nap, then were fine with bedtime at 7pm. Then they started fighting it so I pushed the nap back to 11.30am, and they started sleeping a bit longer and bedtime moved to 7.30pm...

Now they don't want to nap until 12.30pm at best, nap until 3-3.30pm, then refuse to sleep even at 8pm... resulting in screaming for 30 minutes when we put them in bed. This stinks because dh and I get hardly any free time anymore, although at least we can all have dinner together now, and it's nice to only have to deal with them alone for 3 hours in the afternoon (which is way too long already some days)... They wake up around 7/7.30am usually.

What I don't get is that 90% of the time they nap for 3 hours, so they need the sleep, right? It's awesome for me, but that's what messes up bedtime - the problem is that I can't really wake them up from their nap because they are CRABBY when I do. I'm getting them some night lights hoping that it will help some in case one of the reasons they are screaming at night is fear of the dark (thanks for the posters in the other thread for pointing it out!).

Those of you who have been there, how long does this phase last and how long before their naps get shorter? They're almost 2.5. We're still in cribs and they are totally not ready for toddler beds.

 

:tomato: This is when I knew it was time for my girls to give up naps. ardon: Sorry

Once we gave up naps, bedtime was a breeze again, but those late afternoons were a bear (still are sometimes). They still nap maybe once every 2 weeks and then I know bedtime will be between 9 and 10, and wake up is 7ish no matter what.

 

This is exactly what is happening with mine and the only thing that is helping is really wearing them out after nap and before bed. If I don't do that then they are up till sometimes 9 (in their cribs) chatting away. We do a lot of water play and running around and that really seems to help.
Good luck!

 

We had a similar situation a few weeks ago, but we did not have bedtime screaming, just chatting/giggling/bouncing for 30-60 minutes after we left the room.

Our previous nanny instituted a 3-hour naptime (12:30-3:30pm) and if they woke early, they would either babble/chat or often times, fall back asleep for another 30 minutes. At one point, they were taking 3.5 hour naps...and these were the nights that they were up playing/laughing (driving me crazy!) after lights-out.

With our new nanny, she asked if she could shorten their naptime from 12:30-2:45pm. For the most part, they only sleep a little over two hours now. We have a little bit of crankiness right before bedtime, but they are falling fast asleep!

If you decide to shorten naps to get more night-time sleep, you will probably have to deal with the crankiness after nap until their bodies get used to sleeping less during the day and more during the night.

GL!

 

I would shorten their nap to about 2 hours and see if that helps.
You are right that they need a certain amount of sleep, but you can (up to a point) decide when that sleep is. So you can let them have 3 hours in the day if you're happy with them being up later and sleeping 11 hours overnight or you can limit them to 2 hours in the day and get that hour back as an earlier bedtime for 12 hours overnight sleep.

I had to shorten naps for all of my twins and they did get cranky at being woken up. Something that I found helpful was to give them a snack as soon as possible after they woke up to give them an energy boost. I would also wake them as gently as possible, in fact I tried to get them to wake themselves. What I did was go and open their bedroom door 10 minutes before I wanted them awake (to let in a little light and noise from me moving around), then 5 minutes after that I'd go in and open their curtain/blind a bit which let in even more light. Normally they'd wake up within the next 5 minutes but even if they didn't they would at least have stirred a little and wouldn't be so difficult to rouse. Then I would let them just sit quietly on the couch for a bit until they were ready to have their snack and play.
The other thing you could do is to shorten the naps gradually-wake them 5 minutes earlier every few days-so that they can adjust as you go.

Good luck!

 

This is what I was going to say! But, if you don't want to give up naps completely, I have had some luck when the older ones were little with just putting a limit on how long they nap. With my oldest, before she gave up napping altogether, I had her only napping 1 hour in the afternoon. It seemed to be enough to keep her from getting cranky, but not enough to mess up bedtime. It just takes some trial & error to find that magic amount of time that works for you & your little ones!

 

One of my DDs naps maybe 3x a week and we still put her down for quiet time. The other DD needs her nap! However after they turned two when the "non-napper" actually took her nap the nights were crazy! It would take her over an hour to fall asleep. And the napper would wake in the night playing, laughing, and sometimes crying! So for the past two weeks I shortened their nap from 2 hours to just 1.5. Sometimes they are upset and I feel bad but they had the nap/break they needed. Things have greatly improved! Though the crankiness is sometimes overwhelming :headbang:

 

I try to only let mine sleep for 2 hours at nap, unless I know they didn't get a good night's sleep. They are usually up around 7am or so. They nap from 1-3sih. I've been putting them down at 7:30pm. Sometimes, they fall right to sleep. Sometimes, there is a party going on up there. I have one that usually falls asleep first. The other one usually stays up reading books and playing. She is usually asleep by 9. I'm finding that there bedtime has been getting later and later this summer, since we are out doing things later. I can't wait for fall to get back on a better schedule.

 

A&R only get 2 hour naps. I know at least one of them would want a longer one, but I need them in bed by 8:15 so I can go to bed early (I get up at 4:30 in the morning). So I wake them up if they're sleeping longer than 2 hours on the weekend just to try to keep them on the same schedule. I think they only get two hours at daycare too.

 

At that age mine stopped taking naps. They should need 12 hours of sleep if they have a 2-3 hr nap then they probably need 9-10 hours at night. Not fun to get to that stage. Mine were taking long naps fine but bed got later and later. I would rather have no naps, with a quiet time than later bedtimes. You have to decide which you prefer.

 

I'd say to try to shorten their naps. If they are crabby, maybe you can go in and make s small noise, or open their door and make small noises outside their room... then let them wake themselves up somehow...

anyway, ours used to nap from 1p to 4p. we've cut it back, even to waking at 3p but they are still not ready at 7p for bedtime. so we're trying to move it back to at least 2:45p and next week I may try 2:30p...

 

At the beginning of summer the boys napped from 1:30 to 4:30 & went to bed at 8:30pm with a wake up time at 7am. Now our sleeping schedule is a MESS. They are waking up at 6/6:30am, napping at 3:30pm to 5:30/6pm if at all. We are putting them back in bed by 9pm but they are not settling down until much later. On no nap days they will go to sleep right way around 8pm. Our problem is climbing out of the cribs & playing with each other, toddler beds are on the way, and the sunlight in the morning as well as evening. I am hoping naps will settle down again in the fall but I am considering that naptimes might be over for us. SO SAD! As much as I need the quiet time they just are not getting any good sleep this way. And they are miserable if they don't nap & miserable if they do on this schedule!! Good luck, I hope it settles down for you soon.

Loralyn

 

Oh yeah if they only napped at 3.30pm there's no way I'd still let them nap, lol.

They're driving me nuts in the afternoon as it is so I can't imagine dropping their nap for now... at least I get some peace!