naps are hard at 26 mos

So Lyla and Sophie have always went down at 1. Now it's impossible. They party up there - jumping and yelling - the whole time. I don't know what to do??? THey're 26 mos now and I have a new baby coming next Thursday. If they end up not sleeping at all they're pretty miserable all afternoon - but do go down easier at night. It's so hot and I'm so uncomfortable pregnant that I'm not outside w/ them wearing them out - which i'm sure is part of the problem. Any ideas/suggestions/recommendations for me? I don't know what to do...
Thanks!
Aimee

 

My boys do that occasionally too. I do make a point to go in once I notice it's getting pretty loud and tell them that it's quiet time, they don't have to sleep but they have to be quiet (they crack me up because as soon as I open the door, they fling themselves down like they've been laying there the whole time while I've heard them jumping around like maniacs). It works for the most part, and they do eventually fall asleep. Sorry, I don't have any really good advice.

 

What about pushing the nap back an hour or so. Maybe have them nap from 2-4pm. It's possible that they are just not quite tired enough at 1pm.

If that didn't work, then could you seperate them for naps? Maybe it is being together that is keeping them awake.

 

I was in a similar situation a few months ago, though my boys are a year older than your kids. They've always been amazing nappers, from 1 to 4 every afternoon like clockwork. Then suddenly, a couple of months before my baby was due, they stopped napping. I tried lots of different methods, but here's what finally has started working for me: I stagger the times when they go down for their nap. I put my son who needs more sleep time down first, and put a dvd on for my other ds. One ds1 is asleep, I bring ds2 up, and since his playmate is asleep, he normally goes to sleep as well. Since they're a bit older and don't need 3 hours of naptime anymore, I wake them up an hour from when ds2 goes to sleep.

Not a perfect method, but it buys me an hour of freedom some days, which is crucial now that I have a newborn too.

 

Mine are about your age and having terrible naps. See my post. I wish I had a solution you could read someothers ideas on my post but just so you know. You are not the only one. I am going to try the rewards for laying quiet.

In May mine would take a 3 hour naps and go down and 7 until 6:30 or so. Now it is 1 1/2 hr if I am lucky for a nap and bed at 8 but not asleep until 9 and up at 6 or 6:30. I think it is a vicious cycle with no sleep makes crabby and then harder to go to sleep.

Hope things get better for you.

 

We went through these phases too. I continued to put them down for the normal length of time (2 to 3 hrs). If they fell asleep at the 1hr 45 min mark, I'd give them til the 3hrs was up but if they were still up at the 2hr 15min mark I'd get them up. The key is to make them understand that YOU decide when naptime will end. So if you go in "early", don't say 'okay you can get up now' say 'naptime is over' or something like that. Unless they were waking at the waking the neighbor kids decibel level, I left them alone. I needed the downtime and I knew they were safe in their cribs. They always went back to napping (sometimes after weeks of skipping nap all together) so I stuck with it. We didn't give up naps for good until 3.5.

 

I'm trying to remember what we did. I remember a phase where they weren't really sleeping much at all but that we'd still have them stay in their rooms for the full length of time and emphasize that they needed to be quiet and rest or they'd feel icky later on that day. A suggestion I have is to maybe help them wind down with stories or quiet activities about 30 minutes beforehand, and possibly moving the time up just a little bit earlier (12:30p or so). Maybe an earlier bedtime for a while until they get caught up on sleep, and hopefully they won't be fighting it so much.

Good luck!

 

I agree. We have gone through phases where naps were 2 hours of bouncing in their cribs making each other laugh. Then we had phases where they would sleep for 3-4 hours for nap, not interfering with bedtime. I think the important thing (especially with a new baby coming) is to keep up the routine. They know that they are supposed to go to sleep at 1pm, and I wouldn't try changing it. There is going to be enough change in their lives.

Good luck!!

 

Katie was such an easy quiet baby that my boys napping was never bothered by her. I taught mine at an early age that for naps when they got tired to just go lay down. All 3 of mine have been doing this. Naps are never an issue around here.