Support for "Dropping that last nap"

[debo620]

my, off to work today and I missed ALOT.

Noah was awake again last night 1:30-3:30, and then up for the day 8, resisted/played at nap until 1:30-so dh let him sleep til 3. will shoot for 8pm bedtime, knowing he'll probably play til 8:30 or 8:45 anyhow, could/should have woken him at 2:30 but I do think his NW are from OT at this point.
can't get much worse anyhow!

no Easter basket or bunny here! you guys are creative but I mostly think Noah doesn't need the chocolate at this point, and I don't need anymore toys so thats that!
we did attempt to make easter eggs tonight------2 broke and 2 worked so that was a bit of fun.

[Mom to M&M]

My you guys have been chatty!!! Had a rough night last night. DD went to bed with fever almost 103 and was up a LOT. Fever still almost 103 this morning but then stayed below 101 most of the day until the evening (back up to about 102) but even then she was in a really good mood (unlike yesterday/last night). She took a 2.5 hour nap today (I wasn't about to wake her) and then happily went into her crib at 8 and was asleep at about 8:40 - we'll see how the night goes.

And damn - now I want some M&Ms!

[PeepersMom]

PJ had a pretty good nap for him - 12:20-2pm.  Actually that is a GREAT nap for him.  So I put him down at 7 anticipating his usual 1 hour of play and hopefully drop of at 8 = which would be 6 h A time.

I have played with A time a lot and yes, for him in the eve 6 hours is pretty close to his norm.  Unfortunately he does somehow 'need' that play time in the crib before he will fall asleep and for the most part it is close to an hour and some nights he is really wound up and it is longer.  I do try to do things like puzzles or  'concentration' type games with him right after dinner and before bath and there are long stretches of times when that really seems to settle his mind but right now it doesn't seem to be working. OR our puzzles are just boring him as he does have them done in 3 seconds flat.

I did get him a new puzzle for his easter basket.  I was just going through his 'stuff' for his basket and I see most of his stuff is his necessary stuff but more fun. Sesame Street bubble bath, Thomas toothbrush.  Hee hee.  He'll be totally excited over it.  I remember last year when he opened up one of his little eggs and I had put goldfish crackers in it (we don't have those at home) and his face.  Like he had just opened a treasure chest of jewels... so sweet.   These sweet little innocent kids.  I think he will go crazy over the yogurt covered raisins.  I have one tiny little hollow chocolate chic in there for true candy.  It is about 2 inches high.  He'll will be excited that he got some chocolate. 

Karen I am sooooo sorry Marisa isn't feeling well STILL.  Poor girl.  Well, at least she was happy.  I hope she feels better soon.


Ollie's Mom -  I forget to tell you yesterday.  Wow, I can't believe he adjusted so well at such a young age! It just goes to show you how different every baby is.

Meg

[debo620]

LOL Stacy, I love chocolate and um yes Noah eats more then his fair share because of that!

[Katet]

My boys are getting an egg each & a couple of books.
My parents sent money & as ds#1 was there when I opend the card & said "$20" (yep he knows the values of notes. Anyway we gave ds#1 the option, books, chocolate or save for more track for this electric train set... he choose books first then reconsidered & is now asking to do jobs to get money enough for some track LOL he is only 4.5yo... ds#2 wants to buy thomas track

[Deb_in_oz]

hi ladies - can i join you? i see you go off topic a lot LOL but i coudl use soem support as i am simultaneously (as i predicted) dealing with both of mine dropping their nap.  here is my situation:
alex is 4.5 and up until Christmas was still napping on average 3+ days a week, then it slowly dropped to 2-3 days a week. she started school end of Jan and goes from 9-2:30 5 days every 2 weeks (th/Fri and every other wed). she gets no nap on those days and does not fall asleep during school rest time. still naps 1-2 days at home (can be more if we are very active and home for weekend naps too). she takes after my sister who napped until 5yo and if there was no preschool i think she woudl still be napping 3+ per week
Liv is 3 and is spirited and on the shorter end of the spectrum for sleep (went to one nap at 10 1/2-11 mo). she was napping fine until alex started school. pick up is 2:30 and it means wakign liv at 2:15 to go.  she was previously napping from 1:30-3:30/4 everyday and going down for bed fine at 8. now i am in a bind - if i put her down at 1ish i have to wake her and she is groggy and cranky and falling asleep in the car going to school. if i put her down 12/12:30 trying to get the longer nap, some days it works and others she is just not tired enough yet (wakes bet 6-7am) and just plays. now that she has had a handful of no nap days she has decreed "i don't like sleep" "i am not tired" "i don't want to have a nap" - choice of words varies, tone and whininess is ever present.  result = OT and starting to have tears, whingey and sometimes aggressive behaviour (never had before)

today neither kid is having a nap (Saturday) and they ran away to the garden and insisted they were never sleeping again  so dh and i decided to not fight them.  what do i do?  just stop naps, keep offering them and (as i did in the past) get them up after 1- 1 1/2 hrs if they are not sleeping, or another idea.

bedtime is never affected even if have 3 hr naps (still in bed bet. 7:40-8pm and no playing around. they listen to a CD in bed and are asleep sometimes in minutes). we never have night wakings and wake time has not been extended when no nap (thanks to crows that start waking us from 5:30am  and no daylight savings here so it has been very bright by 5am this summer) so Liv wakes first, anywhere from 6-6:45 (usually by 6:30  ) and then calls to wake alex up (share a room) 

thanks for any help - will try to figure out what is up with all of you but maybe you can give me the short version 

[Katet]

Deb, LOL ds#1 only gave up naps in about December & still naps about 1/week (mostly Friday or Monday - he is at preschool Wed/thurs) I too have the problem with naps & ds#2 - if I can get him to nap... but if he naps he will transfer to the car to the preschool & back home (4 movements) & not wake, so that kind of helps me.
Dh & I have been over the issue of naps with ds#2 a lot over the last few months & the one thing we know from ds#1 was to get rid of the naps & get a longer night sleep we could NEVER allow a nap of longer than 45-1hour as  1.5- 2 hours meant he would keep doing 10-10.5 hour night sleep. It sounds like Liv is in the "problem" we found with ds#1 (which we worked on so he didn't need a 2 hour nap when he started preschool). She has a 2/2+ hour nap every day so even if on the odd day she misses a nap she can catch up, but her body clock is set on a 10/10.5 hour cycle & building on that actually is hard as it is a "really" awake spot in a sleep cycle. I think if you want to be able to get the longer night sleep/wake up (for Alex) then you actually need to limit Liv to 1 hour Max (what I am attempting to do with ds#2 (when I can actually wake him once he is asleep)... so he can have the same bedtime as ds#1.
From what I have heard from others/our experience, it will take more than a few days before it balances out... I know people who said it took 6months+ for the transition to no nap to run smoothly.

[Deb_in_oz]

thanks kate - yes liv seems to do 10-10.5 overnight no matter what. we'll see what happens tonight/tomorrow.  she fell asleep in the car 10 min from our friends house (about 3:15pm) and slept in the car (driveway for much of it) forabout an hour or so.  she was full of beans afetr that and we just got home (mutual friends from sydney were up for easter and another mutual friend just moved up here so a big arvo and evening thing) - alex fell asleep in the car about 10 min from home and jeff just transferred her to bed (9:10pm) and liv was awake and asked for some apple and just got into bed (9:20pm vs. usual 8pm).


alex declared today that she will only sleep at nighttime from now on - i am assuming she is going to stick to that and as she is 4.5yo it is fair enough, but i think i will continue to offer it to her. I will try a 1-2pm naptime for liv next week with the school run.  do you leave L in the car while you get A from preschool. even if liv falls asleep on the way (5 min drive) i have to take her in with me and sign alex out etc.

[Mom to M&M]

Meg - how was PJ's night?

As for us, maybe the 2.5 hour nap was WAY too much, even when sick. Because from 11:15 to like almost 2 she barely slept and was hyper and wanted to play and was whining, etc. This morning her fever is down to 100 - we'll see if it stays down. But what would you limit her nap to given last night? 2 hours tops? Less? It's so hard for me to decide and I hate waking her when she's sick but a night like last night doesn't help her (or us of course).

Welcome Deb - have to run but will read your story and post more on that later!

[PeepersMom]

Good to hear Marisa is on the mend.  Here's to a nice Easter!

Kate and Deb I am listening closely.  I think PJ might actually be extending his nap on his  good nap days and shortening his nights and I am not sure I lilke it!  I like a nice long nights sleep and actually so does he....  I was sad about a short napper (45min-1hour he did for about 6 months) but in reality I had my life planned nicely around it.  When he got up from nap in the afternoon I could still do some activities.  Now, we don't have much time before dinner!  Also he used to go pretty much from dinner to bath but now if he is going to be up later we could either stay out later and push dinner back or I have to come up with a little activity before bath time.  I still have to have him in crib significantly early as he needs his 'crib time' so we don't have a ton of time, but there is a window of time there that we didn't really have before.

Karen - well, I think he was asleep around 8 but then I heard a cough at 815 so that might have been his last hurrah before drifting off. Then up at 630.  It has been about a week since a 7am wake up (excpet that day he had no nap and slept in the next) and he does go on runs of early wakeups, so I am hoping that is it.  He looks rather tired to me on a 10-10.5 hour night.  Even if he did take a long nap of 1h40min yesterday he still seems better rested to me on a 11 hour night.  Maybe he is just adjusting....

Hope everyone has a nice peaceful weekend.

Meg

[aidenmc]

Welcome Deb! Not sure I can help you with you girls. My oldest dropped his nap when he started preschool just before his 3rd birthday. I think we went to an earlier bedtime to compensate. A lot of people just keep offering it and otherwise do a quiet time. You are lucky in that at least they are sleeping well at night regardless of whether they have a nap.

Aiden had a much better night last night in some respects. He was asleep by about 7:20 (after a 5:30 morning and 45 minute nap). He woke briefly at 12:30 and dh just had to put him back in bed, then he left the room. Then Aiden slept through until 5:30. The unfortunate thing is that it looks like he is going back to his earlier schedule from before daylight savings and I really really don't want 5:30 wakings any more! I am really unsure as to how to deal with this but I am not going to have him in bed earlier than 7 any more (I did before the clocks went back). Anyway, the good part about his morning was that he was happy when he woke and dh was able to put him back to bed where he stayed singing and chatting until I went in at 6:25. So I am hoping that this is something that we can build on and that if he can be in there and entertain himself (which he hasn't done for months it seems) then he may also decide to go back to sleep on days when he is tired.

Hope everyone has a nice easter! Hope Marissa continues to be on the mend! I have now bought too much chocolate altogether. If Aiden were to eat it all he would never sleep again! I guess I will have to eat all the extras!

[debo620]

mmm crab sounds yummy, you'll have to post on the whats for dinner thread---enjoy!

[Katet]

Deb, I take any child who falls asleep out of the car no matter where we are, I don't even in cooler months let them sleep in the car unless we are driving. So yes I take him out & carry him (or put him on the floor & pick him up after I talk to the teacher sign out)put him back in the car... he continues sleeping LOL
With ds#1 I don't even offer a nap, but I do say that when ds#2 is asleep he can watch a DVD & chill out on the sofa while I do "my things" so he has some down time & more importantly I get some break from the chatter. LOL Of course now ds#2 doesn't nap 1-2days week, I don't get any break as if ds#2 doesn't nap he wants to be in my arms/on my lap from about 1pm onwards & will fall asleep about 4/5pm if I don't keep him up.

[Deb_in_oz]

they both napped today (dh took them to the playground while i mopped all the floors) and they were still a little tired from yesterday. but we had friends round for afternoon tea and it turned into everyone staying for dinner (6 adults and 6 kids from 9mo - 10 yo) so they just got to bed at 9:10 again, will see what tomorrow brings.  dh has plans to plant veggies so alex will be doing gardening which shoudl tire her out again.

Liv was so tired that dh put her down for her nap, went to sort out alex and had to go back in to get alex's CD player (less than 5 min) and came out and said Liv was already sleeping WOW. I also had to wake alex from her nap, so exhaustion ruled today!

[swiper]

Aimee has started napping again, which I dont mind but wish she would make her mind up