Nearing the end of naps

My boys will turn 3 next week. I've been in denial for about a month or so now with naps. Lately I will put them down at 2:00 and it will take them a good 60+ minutes to do down. Then when I do wake them, they are crabby. To top things off, they are getting toddler beds for their birthday so I know that will add to their napping boycott. To be completly honest, I know they really don't need them because we have been having issues with very late bedtimes; they just are not tired. :lazy: With bedtime, I have tried putting them to bed at their usual 7:30 or let them stay up until 8:30 and it still takes them a long time to settle down.

So, for those of you who have kids that no longer take naps, how do you fill those hours? They will be starting preschool next week; 4 days a week from 12-2:30 but it's the other days that I worry about, especially the weekends.

Once the weather gets nice it won't be such a big deal but now I'm dreading it. :faint:

 

Mine play together really well, so the majority of their day is about them playing. In the beginning at lunchtime I will feed them and then pop in a movie for some down time. But mostly, mine just entertain themselves or I'll sit down with them and play games.

 

We have quiet time if we're at home. They go to their beds and read for an hour.

 

Mine still take naps, but I know my plan is to do the same as the other TS poster just wrote -- to have an hour of downtime in their bed to read books.

 

I usually plan errands after lunch. We go to the grocery store or library. If they are at the sitter's house they either play outside or do crafts inside. We usually have TV/quiet time while I make dinner around 5. Bedtime is between 7:30 and 8pm. Or the rare occasion that they do nap during the day, I plan to have them up later since they aren't tired by 8. We usually have extra play after dinner, then a 'slumber party' (dvd while laying in their sleeping bags in the den) after baths. On nap days they go to bed between 9 and 9:30.

Giving up naps is a transition, but not as terrible as I anticipated.

 

We're getting there too, I'm getting tired of the 9pm bedtime. My main issue though is that dh comes home after 6pm so I don't know how they would go to bed before 8pm anyway You're golden with those preschool hours though.

 

We have quiet time watching a movie in the afternoon to decompress.

 

a good friend told us in the childcare industry, children are required to have a nap or quiet/individual play for 1 hour a day until the age of 5!
She said you deserve a " lunch break". So whle they dont have to sleep, they do have to go to their room and either play babies, or read books, lay quietly, etc etc.
I plan to go with that theory

 

First real day of no naps and lets just say I'm glad the day is over with. :faint: Not even 6 months ago they were taking 4 HOUR naps and still going to bed at 7:30 and waking between 7:30-8:00.

It's just VERY hard getting used to no real breaks. I looked forward to at least 2 hours to myself and even a nap myself every now and then. Those days are now long gone.

Around 4:30 they were just horrible because they were so tired (and bored also). But the good news is that I put them down 15 minutes ago and they are asleep. :woohoo:

 

yeah for success. We do 1 hr of TV watching. IT is the only time mine watch TV and it gives us all a break.

 

Just to throw this out there, I recently thought my guys were done with naps because we were experiencing the same issues here. (not wanting to go to bed etc). I tried letting them go without naps and by 5pm they were crashed out in the middle of the living room (which never happens!) they were also horribly cranky. Friend of mine asked about their activity level in the winter- So we stepped that up a notch, and told them they dont have to nap just be quiet. They've went back to napping and sleeping 8pm-7am Every night. Thank-goodness! Mine will be 3 in 6 weeks. so, hows their activity level ?

 

i remember when we DID cut out the naps that we had to bring bedtime REALLY EARLY for a few days as they adjusted to no naps (which as a previous poster put, were taking 60 minutes to get maybe 30 minutes sleep). So we were putting them to bed at 5pm!!!

Nowadays they go to bed between 6pm to 6:30pm and wake up 6am. Yes I miss nap times but GOD do I love having the evenings back again to relax!!! DVDs are a help and they also go to a Montessori school in the mornings.

 

I did movie time with my oldest 2 kids in the afternoon, they'd get a snack and juice cup and have to sit on the couch and watch a movie with me. That meant I could snooze if I needed to Or read my book or whatever.

I guess I'm kinda lucky, since my kids only hap 60-90 mins on a great day, I don't get much time to decompress during the day as it is When they do give up naps I'll be implementing the "movie time" like i did with my older kids!

 

Mine would never go down at 2p, by then they would be overly exhausted... Have you tried putting them down around 12:30?
Mine are still taking naps but there are some days that one doesn't and they still have to stay in their room and read or play quietly in their bed.
Good luck!

 

I'm going to ditto this. Mine go down at 12.30pm usually, and the days they nap later because of school, they are up until 9pm. They are also super crabby if I wake them up, so I let them sleep. If I put them down at 2pm they would be up until 10pm at night probably...

How long do they nap? Mine still nap 2 hours, skip naps about once a week, sleep 10 hours at night (more when we skip naps).

 

Well there is no way I could try letting them nap at 12:30 because they start preschool this Wednesday from 12:00-2:30 four days a week. I used to put them down at 1:00 and many days they would talk/play until 2:30-3:00. Same thing with 1:30 so that is why I pushed it back to 2:00. I'm finding no matter what time I put them down it takes them a good 60-90 minutes to fall asleep.

My one son who stays awake more during their naps is doing fine without them. My other son will not, no matter what take a nap without his brother in the room. He has been this way ever since they were babies. But even he takes a good 45-60 minutes to fall asleep for naps.

 

ahh that makes sense why such a late nap I agree about getting them out.. maybe after pre-school taking them to the library or a mall to run around?
Hopefully they are going to bed a bit earlier at least...

 

My girls are 5 and still nap during the week

 

Ditto this, my 5 years olds have a quiet time each day STILL. (1-2). They sit in bed and read (in two different rooms). One of my DDs just stopped an hour nap a few months ago. Other DD has not napped since she was 3.5. We changed it from nap to quiet around age 4.

We all need a down time and they are used to the routine. It works for us.

In all day K next year, they will have a 30-40 minutes 'read & till' quiet time post lunch, so I figure it is good to be used to it!