Giving up the second nap

My girls have been driving me crazy this week, they are 26 months.

We took away the nuk at nap and bed time last friday. This week I put them down for their regular nap between 12:30-1:00 and they don't go to sleep for another hour. It's horrible first they cry because that is expected (with no nuk) but then they play. Samantha not as much as Emily. Emily will play by herself and talk to herself while Samantha sleeps.

The last few nights have been horrible. We put them at 8:00 and they scream and cry, my husband sits with them for 5 or 10 min and same thing they talk and talk. Tonight they have been in there for 1 1/2 hours talking. My girls have always been early risers, usually 6:00-6:30am but now we have switched to about 7:00-7:30am. They have been soooo easy to put to bed the last few months; just put them up there say our goodnights and that's it.

Samantha definitly needs a nap, she can't make all day (we tried on Sat - I got tired of them sitting in cribs and yelling and crying). Emily did really good without - I'm NOT ready to give them up.

ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD HELP!!!!!



Chris
Mom to Samantha and Emily born 12/31/2005

 

Do you mean stop taking a nap all together? My oldest DD stopped taking a nap at 4 years old.

 

I would give them more time. If you just took their nuk away, they could be having a really hard time soothing themselves to sleep. If they are waking up at 7 or 7:30 then perhaps they simply are not ready to nap at 12:30 or 1pm. Maybe try putting them down at 1:30? My girls do the same thing except they don't cry. But they will just chat away until they are ready to sleep. We actually often leave the light dimmed in their room and they always have books in their crib that they can look at. I don't know, we are all over the place right now with sleep. They wake up anywhere from 6 am to sometime after 7 so then I have to adjust their nap time. Sometimes they nap and hour, sometimes 2 sometimes longer. I have no idea what is going on. I too am not ready to give up naps and to be honest, all the research says that they really do need them until they are around 3 (or so?). But it seems that I have to tweek things from day to day. I used to be very rigid about sleep time but now I kind of just go with the flow. Hope you are able to sort things out.

 

I have a neighbor that told me her son gave up taking naps all together at 2.

Thanks for the advice. Your house sounds like mine.

If they take naps too late we found out they really don't want to go bed at night. This is crazy!! I guess they say every stage of development has its ups and downs.

They each get to pick new stuffed animals each week and a couple new books to put in their cribs.

 

Mine kids usually give up naps about age 3. But prior to that we go through a stage of somedays they need a nap and somedays they do not. In that time we had Quiet Hour...they needed to lay with books or a quiet toy during that time. Occasionally we used a video. That way if someone needed the nap the time was peaceful enough to fall asleep but if they did not they had some rest time.

Cindy

 

We pretty much gave up naps altogether by 2 1/2. Sometimes they do still get one, if they really need it. But bedtime is nicer now that they don't sleep in the afternoon.

 

I guess we're not the norm around here. My girls had given up naps before their second birthday.

 

My girls went down to one nap at 19 months. Now, at 3 years old, they still need a nap, but it's only about an hour and a half. So, the time has shortened, but they still really need it.