3year old sleep/nap problems

Ok, I have a question for parents of 3 year olds....did you ever stop an afternoon nap? If so, did it make your nights easier with getting them to go to sleep? i am not sure where i have gone wrong, but naps and bedtime are a constant struggle for Mckenzie know she is tired at naptime, which is always after lunch and mothers morning out, but she fights it so hard and ends up keeping Morgan awake too. So then they are both awake and cranky, and the only way for them to fall asleep would be for me to nap too. I have separated them at nap time, but that hasnt worked either. i know i have let them get into the habit of going ahead and getting up if they arent sleeping, but by 5:00 they are killing each other and their 18 month old sister.

Night time is another battle. They use to be better sleepers, but now check to make sure I am here, wondering why I am up.....I can't get anything done at night and I know she needs her sleep. What do I do? They have a routine and are in bed by 8:30 but someone ususally gets up and it's every night. I have got to fix this before i go back to work in the fall or I will be a crazy zombie :wacko:

 

1st of all I don't have an answer for you I just wanted to sympathize with u as I'm in the same boat. My girls just turned 4 last week. They stopped naps at about 2 1/2 just becoz they totally refused. But have always woken up all through the night. 2 nights ago woz the 1st night ever that they have both slept thru the night (we marked it on the calendar), but last night woz a nightmare again.

I'm thinking maybe its a habit?

I'll await everyone's answers with you

hugs


amanda

 

We have the same problem with nap/bedtime. (It doesn't help that her room faces west and if the sun's out it's directly in her room despite the blackout curtains!) I now have DD having a quiet time in her room during the babies nap time and that seems to have help the bedtime issue. Some days she still naps and if she does she's up past 9:00 (in her room but awake). I try to limit naps to an hour if she does fall asleep - she's a grump when I get her up but at least it's better than the fight at bedtime. Days with no naps, she goes to bed with very little issue - she's worn out

We have also tried giving her a couple of books to look at in bed before she goes to sleep and that works on the nights where she's had a nap but I do usually have to go up and tell her it's time to go to sleep. Some nights she puts them down and goes to sleep on her own.

Good luck!

 

If mine don't get a nap they are totally cranky by about 5pm as well. I tell them they have to stay in their beds at naptime even if they don't want to sleep. Sometimes they'll chat for a while or read a book or two but they always end up falling asleep. I would just try to stay consistant with your routine. Sometimes they'll just fo through a phase where they will not sleep as well and then it will get better on its own. Good Luck sweetie.

 

If she's dropping the nap, she may need to go to bed a whole lot earlier- like 6:30/7:30 for a while. It stinks as far as evening activities go but it may be all that helps. You're unlikely to be able to get her to sleep later in the morning, so the only place she can make up the missed nap is at night.

 

I am a big fan of the no daytime nap routine. Our girls gave up their daytime sleep at 2 and 5 months over the Christmas holidays. On no-sleep days, they go to bed at 6:15 pm. They will still wake at night sometimes, for a whole variety of reasons - illness (they've had colds for eight weeks now), nightmares, or a wet nappy (Alice will ask for a new one and it's much easier to quickly change her than to refuse and have her distressed and confused - if wet undies are yukky in the daytime, how come a wet nappy at night is okay?). But our evenings are totally our own - I love my girls but I love a bit of time with my husband, too! On daycare days (Monday and Friday) Claire in particular will sometimes have a sleep and then she doesn't settle till after nine and is grumpy and cross the whole next day. They still wake at six no matter what time they go down - I figure they might as well get close to 12 hours and cruise happily through the next day!

I have read that no matter what age you drop the daytime sleep at, you'll undergo a transition period where your child is grumpy and tired going from a daily nap to none. I'm a teacher and I know that pre-kids, I always found going back to school in January very hard because I'd often either sleep right in on the holidays, or have a big sleep in the afternoon and stay up late! I think it's the same for little ones. So your kids might need a lot of attention and cuddles, stories, DVDs etc to get them through the transition but for us, it was well worth it.

Cheers

Tania

 

I am the super fan of naps! All of my kids lay down for a nap, even if they arent going to go to sleep, they have to lay there quietly until everyone else wakes up... Sometimes the non sleeper falls asleep, sometimes they dont but either way, they learn that there is a time to be quiet and rest! HTH!