Gave up pacifier -- now giving up naps -- ughh!

My twins are 3 years and one month. We took my daughter's pacifier away about 2 weeks ago and she is doing well without it. She doesn't ask for it anymore or anything -- whew! HOWEVER, naptime is a nightmare. She used to go down very easily -- but now she cries and screams and tells me she doesn't want to lay down. I give her books and toys and tell her to just play quietly in her bed and she then screams and cries louder.

She shares a bed with her brother...and he clearly needs a nap. If I don't nap him he will fall asleep on the couch at 5 or 5:30pm. It's happened many times...but I can't just put him down and expect him to sleep without her -- he won't because he always wants to know where she is....

Anyways -- naptime is more frustrating these days...I feel like I'm fighting all the time. However it is nice to have the break in the afternoon. OH, and DD does well without the nap until about day 3 of no naps and then she is super cranky from the second she wakes up in the a.m.

What would you do? Should I stop the naps and force the transition? Or should I keep it up thinking it's a phase because we dropped her pacifier?

 

This is really hard to figure out, I feel for you! :hug: On one hand, she may be ready to give up her nap and taking the paci away just emphasized it. On the other hand, she may just be fighting because she doesn't have her paci anymore.

Does she do well at night? On the nights that she does nap, is bedtime a hassle? Does she fight going to sleep? If bedtime is a hassle on the nights that she does nap, then she's probably ready to give up her nap and taking the paci away just kicked that into gear. If she still goes to bed easily when she does nap, then she's probably fighting because you took her paci away.

I'm not sure what I would do to be honest...my dd was the one who gave up naps first, it took a couple weeks to transition my ds to no naps, but now that he's used to it he does just fine without them. Every once in awhile one or both will fall asleep on the couch, but it's only for 30-45 mins or so and doesn't disrupt bedtime.

Can you institute quiet time instead? They still have to go to bed, but they can play quietly or read books while in there. Do you think your ds will fall asleep still if they do that? Not sure if that would work or not....

 

oh ugh! our naps pretty well quit about that timing, but for us it was sort of accentuated b/c of going to toddler beds. but even a bit before that bedtime was getting later and later. what the pp mentioned about if naps made bedtime later/nightmarish... that is something to think about.

one thing that struck me was that your ds is dependant on your dd being in bed with him... I don't know about that... maybe it's an ok thing to facilitate, but it kind of strikes me that maybe he shouldn't be dependant on her... but they do have their whole lives to deal with being independant... anyway, I don't know what I'm saying... not sure that I have a solution, just a comment about how your situation struck me.

good luck!! naps and bedtimes are so important to the kids, but also to MOMMY!

 

oops, I meant shares a bedroom with her brother, not a bed. lol

 

Mine share a bedroom and they won't go to sleep if the other one isn't in there either You aren't alone there!