does the move to beds mean the end of naps?

We just moved our almost-3 year olds from cribs to beds. (A late move, I know!) The nights have been fine, quite successful, but the naptime has not gone well at all. In the seven days since the new beds, Katie has yet to successfully nap in the bed, and Zoe has only napped once. They are in the same room (we do not have another room available) and it is just party time all the time. Does anyone have any tips to get the naps back? I am extremely frustrated!

Thanks for your help,
Loleen

 

My boys just started to climb out of cribs and so naps are over unless I pack them up for a drive - and mine are only 2.5!! So i am no help to you. But I hope my boys are going to make the transition to toddler beds soon and I hope they do as well as your twinks do. GOOD LUCK!

 

The only thing that helped me with the girls keeping their naps was seperating them. I had to put one in my room on my bed (which is high off the floor) and the other in their own bed. I just checked on them a lot to make sure they were going to sleep (especially the one in my bed). They knew not to get out of their beds until I said it was ok to get up (usually I had to wake them any way but if they woke early they had to stay in bed). My girls were also about 27mths when we switched to twin beds for them.

 

Yep - no naps here either. It's awful

 

I'm sorry to tell you that we lost naps with beds. It will be a year in a few days. The first 6 weeks of toddler beds has been the most difficult thing I have dealt with as a parent. It was awful way worse than potty training and anything else we have encountered.
We get an occasional nap but it's maybe once every 3 weeks or so.
Good luck

 

Noam and Sapir basically stopped napping after the transition to toddler beds at the age of 2.5 years. I fought for a while, to get them to stay in their beds and nap... Sapir usually would sleep, but Noam would constantly get out and it became a game for him. At that time, all I wanted to do was nap because I was 5 months pregnant with Hadas.

The nice thing about the end of naps... is that they fall asleep VERY easily when it is bed time... and bed time can be moved-up.

Good luck.

I also found that transition to be a difficult one.

 

None of mine lost their naps when we moved to beds. Now, mine transfered early - 15 months for my oldest, 20 months for my second, and 16 and 17 months for Zach and Hannah. Now, I will also say, that Zach and Hannah sleep in seperate rooms as they room with the older sibs of the same sex. So, they are alone in their rooms for nap time. I think that maybe seperating them at nap time might help like a pp indicated. One in their room and one in your bed.

Good luck. If you need the break, and boy do I know how that is, I would institute quiet time. Put them in their rooms without the expectation of sleep, but rather a few books, lights out or low, and they spend some time in thier room. They might party while they are in there, but if you are not exoecting the sleeping, then the playing will not be as annoying. Again, if they are too loud, then put one in one your bed and the other in their bedroom.

 

Mine continued to nap for me after they moved to beds, but I did have to be a bit of a hard a$$ for a while.
Basically I would take them to bed, tuck them in and tell them it was nap time. Then I sat in the corner by the door and waited for them to fall asleep. If they sat up I told them "Lie down. It's nap time, you need to sleep." I didn't say anything else to them (or make eye contact) while I was sitting there and I stayed till they fell asleep. I did that for the first 2 nap times after switching beds. The next nap time I put them in bed and went and sat just outside the door. If I heard them getting up/messing around/talking I would put my head around the door and tell them the same thing as before. Again I would stay sitting there until they fell asleep, and I did that for maybe another 4 naps. For the 2 weeks after that I would sit outside for the first 5mins or so to make sure they were behaving and then leave. Generally if they're not asleep within 5mins they will at least be calm and quiet, they were almost always asleep within 10mins.
Written out like that it seems like a lot of effort, but really it's just 3 weeks or so (could be longer or shorter depending on your children) of sitting while they fall asleep. After that they just assume you will know if they get up so they don't bother.

 

My guys fight me on naps now. But they still take them. I have to split them up in order to get them to sleep or they play. The routine was shot to he** when we first switched, and then again when we took away binkins. At the very least, I would have them go into their room for some quiet/rest time. They normally fall asleep. i have one son that will occasionally not nap, but he hangs out and sings for about an hour.

 

We switched at 3 (perfect timing, IMO!), and they continued to nap daily, in the same room, until age 4. They just knew it was naptime, and I wouldn't put up with any shenanigans. I work from home, and I needed those naps to get my work done. And my kids love to sleep -- they were happy to nap.

 

beds didn't end naps for us. We do have to sit in their room with them for about 5 minutes (while the white noise machine runs, shuts off at 5 min so that's kind of our cue). That way they stay in bed long enough to settle down and rest. They have been in beds for over a year and naps are still going strong (thank goodness!!)

 

My oldest DD moved to a bed around 27 months and she still napped until she was 4. But it does get a little trickier to keep them in there.