1-0 nap, calling those who do/did alternate nap days

[huntersmummyinoz]

hiya,
in 1-0 nap drama with ds1, 3.5yo.

have gradually been cutting the nap over last 6mths. have gotten to point where a 45/50min nap will now give a really short night 9.5 to 10hrs so he is now getting more total sleep on no nap days (11.25 to 11.75hrs). BUT he is nowhere near ready to do all no nap days just yet.

currently trialling putting him to nap earlier on alternate days (idea being he will be too UT to nap) and do early bedtime. and then aim for nap and later bedtime on no nap days. this is only day 4.

Qs
- how long did you offer the alternate naps days for?
- what made you decide to stop?
- what did the routine look like on nap and no nap days? (i'm wondering how late to do bedtime on nap days)

i'm also concerned about messing with his body clock, he has had a 7.30bedtime for nearly 3 years... does the different bedtime cause a problem? (i'm going with 7pm on no nap days, usually asleep in 5mins and 8pm bedtime on nap days, takes about 30mins to fall asleep).

any other advice appreciated 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Well I guess I unintentionally do this, not on an every other day basis though. I think we get about 2 naps in every other week now, of about 30-45 min. If I let her sleep in I can do a nap at 2 where she is UT and won't actually sleep, but I get a break.

Our bedtimes vary day to day now (used to be very rigid) and she has no problem with going to bed as early as 6:30 if she needs to or as late as 8:00 if we accidentally get an nap in.

I have no intention of stopping the "rest" as I need the break, but really she does not need to have a real nap anymore. Might change when she starts preschool though!

[huntersmummyinoz]

bumpity bump to see if anyone else can add to this please 

heidi, thanks hun. totally with you on never ever stopping rest time! a friend of mine still sends her 8 and 10yo off the their rooms on weekends for 'quiet time' for 45 mins when they are home i was wondering if he may start needing more naps when he goes to kindy 3 days next year too (currently does one day, and they dont even do rest time )
do you give her books or anything or just send her to bed like you would for a nap? i'm currently doing as i would for naps regardless of whether i expect a nap or just a rest.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I just send her as if she was going to have a nap...she has autism and is very very sticky on routine, so I would never ever send her to bed in a different way (actually I forgot the light on last week and got yelled at!) She has a few dolls in her bed and it sounds like she talks to them or sings to herself for the duration!  However, when Masyn was at this stage I would send her to her room with some books, puzzles or other quiet toys because she understood the difference between rest, nap and bedtime.

[Tweakster]

Tagging along to see what others have done.  We're really heading that way I think.

[~Emma~]

We have dropped now cold turkey  but we did alternate nap/no nap days for a good couple of months and I loved it. It really worked perfect for us.


 On a nap day he would nap from 12.30/1 until 3 (no later) and he would then go to bed at 7.30 and be asleep by 8. he was pretty good at still doing ok nights then on nap day and we would get a 12 hour night and he'd be awake for the day by 8am. The it would be a no nap day as he slept so late so he'd have an early night and still do 12 hours but be up at 6.30am so need a nap. He was alot younger though, just turned 2. He didn't do nap cutting at all so a long nap every 2 days kept OT at bay.

 We stopped due to a house move and in the chaos he didn't nap for a week apart from crashing on the sofa. All downhill from there really. 

 
 

[Edesanja]

We've been alternating nap days for about 4 months (I think). I wish I'd tried it earlier, but didn't really think of it. At the moment though I think we need to move to 2 naps a week instead of the 3/4.

Nap days were:
Wake 7.00? (don't know when she wakes but that's when her light comes on)
Nap (in bed at 1300) 1315-1400 (wake her)
Rest 1400-1445
Bed 1915
Asleep 2000

No nap days were:
Wake 7.00?
Rest 1230-1400 (rest is earlier so that it coincides exactly with J's nap)
Bed 1830-1900 depending on how tired she is but she's asleep in seconds.

And rest time is different for us. She used to always read books in bed but now she sometimes plays trains or something else and I don't bother putting her in bed.

I'm finding now that she's not tired enough to sleep every 2nd day and she wants it to be every 3rd instead. But I'm also finding with less naps she needs to go to bed closer to 1830 than 1900.

HTH

[huntersmummyinoz]

thanks so much for your responses ladies

sorry for the late reply, we have all had gastro

and after 6 days of doing alternate napping, he decided to give his dummies to the dummy fairy!! he is doing ok, actually napped the first two days without out, now on day 5, but of course all bets are off and am taking one day at a time for now.

jenny, what was her bedtime before you started doing alternate nap days?

[georgeo]

Tagging along too as I think we're in a similar situation. 

[Edesanja]

jenny, what was her bedtime before you started doing alternate nap days?

Her bedtime was still 1930 but she didn't sleep until 2030-2100. When it was consistently getting to 2100 and even pushing past that I threw my hands in the air and decided we needed a new plan. She hasn't been awake longer than 2000 since.

[georgeo]

Did you ever get nap refusals on the no nap days?

[Edesanja]

Did you ever get nap refusals on the no nap days?

Not sure who this is directed to, but I'll give my experience. E only started to refuse a nap when offered in the past few weeks (which has led to me offering a nap every 3rd day now instead of every 2nd). Before that she would always take a nap when offered. Originally nap refusals and the late bedtime antics were what made me switch to trying every 2nd day in the first place.