Is this the beginning of the end?

I know all our kids have gone through numerous phases of not napping. It's always been our biggest problem. Seems like naps will be good for 2-3 months and just when I get comfortable things drastically change.

First of all, while I've been reading that most kids START taking one nap a day around my boy's age, my boys have been taking one nap/day since they were 10 1/2 months old! The naps when they were younger were 2 hours and have gotten progressively shorter. They are now down to 30 minutes usually. 1 hour+ naps are unusual although they do occasionally happen. They've also never had the total amount of sleep/day that the "books" all say they should be getting-never.

I have a good routine that I've always followed with the boys. I'm not to the minute with it but it is very established as far as nap, bed time and meal times. Nothing has changed-no new food, routine, visitors, pets, milestones,etc. But it's taking longer and longer for them to settle down for a nap to begin with and then they wake up after 30 minutes or so. Could this be the beginning of the end of naps?? PLEASE tell me no! :icon_eek:

They are definitely asserting their independence in other ways and maybe this is just what they're doing but for those of you whose kids stopped napping early, when did they stop altogether?

Should I start a new routine? Seems like it can't hurt at this point. Any suggestions?

Thanks for any advice!

 

Ainsley went a couple months with either a very short nap or no nap. It was awful! Then finally, she started napping, but it was sleeping on me. Hey, better than nothing! Then, one day I was putting Bea down for her nap and Ainsley was in the room (they had always napped seperately), and Bea asked for Ainsley to nap in the room. I said OK, what the heck? Ainsley napped for two hours! Naps were wonderful after that. Lately, like the past month or so, naps have gone so-so due to them partying instead of napping, but they are getting back on track.
The stuff with Ainsley all was around 15-18 months, something like that.
You might want to try moving naptime back about 30 min, see if that helps.

 

Mine still nap but they have gone through phases of no naps or short naps. The one thing that helped when they were in this phase is to seperate them (if they are not already) so they don't have each other to play off of by either waking the other or keeping each other awake by talking or what ever.

 

What time are you laying them down for naps?

My boys switched from two naps to one around 12 months, and it was a bit of a struggle at first. They would wake after 45 minutes, crying, which told me that wasn't enough of a nap. Just a few times, I used CIO to help them get in the habit of taking a longer nap, and it worked very quickly.

Although it was difficult sometimes, I kept them up until after lunchtime. If they'd been awake since, say, 7:30 am and had full bellies, by 1:00 they were ready to sleep 2-3 hours. I tried not to run any errands just before lunch, when they were getting tired, because if they fell asleep in the car for even 5 minutes before lunch, naptime was ruined.

 

I'm going to say don't give up. Over the years mine have gone thru stages of wanting to give up naps but I never caved and they didn't stop napping till just as they turned 4. I knew when naps were over when they took them but stayed up insanely late. I do have a few friends that kids stopped napping young but in my experience at 1 and 2 they still really need them. Good luck!

 

I am in the process of changing nap time again! We were at 1:00, but that is almost MISSING THE WINDOW so to speak. So, when we are home I am going with 12:30 and they have calmed down a little better. Maybe a TWEAK in the schedule?

 

We have some days where my kids nap, and others where they don't. It's all in the luck of the draw. I was trying to do naps at about 1 every day, but shortly after they gave up the binkys, that was a nightmare. Now, I try to get them to sleep while we are out in the car, then they can be transferred, or I put a movie on after lunch which they fall asleep in front of. They did two naps up until 18 months and it has only been about 5 months that they haven't been consistent.

 

If I put the kids down at 12:15-12:30, they usually go right to sleep. If I wait until 1pm, they will goof off up there for an hour before falling asleep. There is that really narrow "window of opportunity" as pps said. They often don't look all that tired at 12:30, but that is the right time for them. Also, as pp said, if they fall asleep in the car for even 5 minutes, it's a no-go.

What time do you put them to bed at night? The HSHHC book suggests an earlier bedtime (6-8Pm) to prevent them from becoming overtired (which messes up naps). Supposedly, even a half hour can make a difference.

Michelle

 

Thanks so much for your responses!

I have tried putting them down earlier and later (within a 45 minute window) to see if either one makes a difference. No luck. I never let them sleep in the car or anywhere else. I truly rarely go out and, if I do, I work around the nap. Since there is only one nap I don't want to mess with it.

The only time they watch tv is right before naps and bedtime to wind down. (Only baby first tv and baby einstein dvd's) So nothing has changed there.

They do sleep in the same room-always have. They won't sleep in pack-n-plays so to separate them we'd have to move a crib for nap and back again for bedtime. Plus, I really think the one in the new environment would just stay awake.

Bedtime is 8:00 and it has been for about 9 months.

I just takes them soooooo long to settle down to fall asleep. 1 + hours sometimes. Even with the different nap times. I've been able to put them in the room and close the door for 5-6 months now. They don't cry-just talk and jump and won't settle down. I've tried staying in and singing, etc. a few times but that didn't help either, plus I don't want them to start getting used to that.

Oh well, I definitely won't give up. Even if they don't sleep-I have to have a "break" or I'll go crazy! :icon_eek:

Thanks so much!!!

 

Your kiddos sound a lot like mine . . . mine have never in their entire lives been good nappers. They were the 20-30 min nappers their whole lives and finally we got two 45 min naps a day. When we switched to one nap, it was still 45 min max. I was always exhausted and frustrated. My guys didn't sleep through the night either (still don't, but that's a long story - basically they wake up once or twice a night due to reflux and need some milk - so I am sure this contributed to bad napping). Anyways, mine started to give up naps around the age of your kids. BUT, there is hope. Please listen to my story and learn from me.

We just went through toddler bed he** transition. Like your my boys shared a room. When they figured out how to climb out of their cribs we were out of luck. While they have given up naps a while ago, Iused to put them down in their cribs for about 1/2 hour of mommy sanity time. They also were easier to put to bed, like your boys they played for about an hour (ie. screamed, threw out their pillows and animals, called for us to give them back, jumped up and down, laughed, ect). At the time I was so frustrated and thought it was horrible, I had NO idea what was in store. Once they got out of their cribs, it got ten times worse. They were up till 10 or 11 EVERY night. We would put them to bed around 8:30 and they would play till 11 (we took EVERYTHING out of their rooms - they only had two mattresses and two pillows - and their crib mattresses they moved all over the room) AFter three weeks of this I was ready to hop on a plane and leave. I was in tears most nights and just exhausted. Noah and Josh would fight and bite each other and we were in their room constantly to break up fights. They were whiny and crabby all day because they were so tired. I finally gave up and gave them seperate rooms. This meant taking apart their playroom DOWNSTAIRS (yes, we have one upstairs and own downstairs now - which means in the middle of the night when Josh wakes up I have to go downstairs in a semi asleep state). However, it was the best thing we have done.

So long story short, I highly recommed seperating your kids to seperate rooms. I think naps would come back. I look back and wonder if we hadn't seperated ours long ago if we would have saved our selves a lot of agony and frustration. Mine might have napped a lot longer (time and age) and therefore been happier kids during the day too. Which would have made me happier too. Also think down the road, if they are like this now keeping each other up, what are you going to do when you transition to beds?? I didn't want to transition - but mine climbed out of their cribs - so we had no choice. I don't say this to scare you, just to help you plan ahead. Maybe my experience can help your kids nap longer. Good luck!! I don't know what your room situation is. But really, if you have another bedroom, no matter what it is currently being used for, nothing is as important as your child getting enough sleeping ( and you getting a break!)

 

I am like PP...my kids were only taking 30-45 minute naps since they were tiny. They woke each other up and didn't sleep through the night until they were 8 months old. I separated them at that time and they slept throught the night for the most part but at least if one woke, it didn't wake the other. They now still take two naps and I truly think if they were still in the same room together they wouldn't nap at all - they would just talk, play and cry until I came back in to get them. HTH!