Fell asleep in her dinner tonight!

[marensmama]

Well, here I am again to moan about the dropping of the last nap.     My 2.75 yo DD1 is making the transition to no nap, has been doing so for about three weeks now.  The trouble is, she truly needs the nap.  She sleeps 7 or 7:30 until 6  and usually has a 2 hr nap.  If she doesn't nap, she doesn't make up for that sleep otherwise.  I put her to bed early but she just won't settle until the usual 7 or 7:30.  I continue to offer her nap every day, have had some success with offering it a bit later (doesn't affect bedtime), but she generally goes 3 days with no nap and then naps for 2 or 3 days and then no nap for three days again.  By that third day, she's exhausted and is quite maniacal all day.  Today was that third no-nap day and she fell asleep in her dinner (at 5:00 pm!).  I put her down for her nap at the usual time and she did fall asleep after I convinced her she didn't have to close her eyes, just had to have quiet time with her books.  She got really loud and then suddenly quiet, so I peeked in and she was sleeping.  She woke up 10 minutes later crying because she didn't want to go to sleep and then she wouldn't stay in her room.  So, she's in bed now, I don't know if it's for the night or not... it's been an hour.  I don't know what more I can do to get her to nap during the day when it's so obvious she needs it.  It seems like with the waking after 10 minutes that she's made an issue out of napping and it's more attitude than need that's keeping her up. 

[*Natasha*]

HUGS sweetie 

[Layla]

{{{HUGS}}}

I was there not too long ago... its a hard transition! I also felt like it was more of a control/power thing and she was just keeping herself awake for the sake of saying to me "i'm not taking a nap today mummy" . In fact those were her first words when she'd wake for the day (at 6am... "i'm not taking a nap today"). The best thing to do is keep on offering her quiet time and when you go to check on her, you can say something like "i'm just checking to see how you're doing".

We've never had falling asleep at dinner but maybe because dinner for us was more like 3.30-4pm (mine would go to sleep at 6pm) and then we'd have a bath and a little snack/supper around 5pm and for the last hour we were in her room reading stories, winding her down cause she would otherwise be too stimulated and really hard to calm down for bed.

[marensmama]

Thanks for the support.  It does seem like a control/power thing Layla, you're right... we do have those struggles now and again.    Turns out she woke 1 1/2 hrs after falling asleep at the table and was a bear to get back to sleep.  I guess I'll just keep going as we are with offering the nap and accept that it's 'just a phase'.   It really is a tough transition. 

Thanks again!

[marensmama]

LOL, no, not in her dinner.  She actually was sitting there drifting off, not eating, so I asked her to come sit on my lap, where she promptly fell asleep.  She woke up momentarily as I moved her into her bed and said 'OK' when I put her down.  When she woke up she got up and I bathed her and read stories and sang songs between tantrums (and BFing the LO).  Phew, what a night!

[marensmama]

She fell asleep once with a mouthful of food (during the 2to1 I think)!  I couldn't decide if I should risk her choking or risk waking her up (safety won out over sanity that time!)

[Layla]

LOL. I am sorry to say I've never had that problem of falling asleep at dinner table or high chair or anywhere else exciting other than the bed/cot/pram and of course the car!

[marensmama]

Today she went down willingly for her nap, but woke up after 45 minutes not wanting to be in her room.  Layla, do you remember suggesting she nap in my bed and I said no?  Guess where she's napping right now... Never say never, right?  Except I have this sick feeling that I've started something...

On a good note, my LO slept through the night (7:30-7), so that was fabulous!

[Layla]

Oops.... still I think better in your bed than no nap and a miserable afternoon! We had 45min naps as well and I was more than OK with those. That was about the av for us... 45mins-1hr and sometimes 1.25hrs. Honestly, do what you can towards the end just to ride it.. well thats my theory anyways. Just make sure you set the boundaries at night and absolutely no sleeping in your bed at night (thats if you don't want of course). Mine knew the difference between day and night time sleep.

Maybe give her the option of having "quiet time" in your room OR in her room.

Way to go baby... hope you got some sleep yourself

[marensmama]

Well, she slept for another 2 hours on my bed, woke up at 4:30 and went to bed by 7:30 without even a whisper of wanting to go in my bed tonight (being the queen of delay tactics, she asked for everything else, but not that!).

The LO is teething today, so I'm sure we won't have a repeat performance of last night... but it sure was nice!