Naptime
For those who have been reading my blog for a long time, you may recall that Kenny did not nap from the time he was about 6 weeks old until he was 16 months old. That was a long year. I was often on the verge of exhausted insanity and insanely jealous of other Mommy friends who would say things like, “Well, Junior gets up from his first nap at 10, then goes down again at 1, so we’ll have to meet you sometime in there,” or, “So, what are your hobbies?” Oh gracious, my “hobby” was Kenny! Granted, he did sleep through the night (for the most part) for that time, often from 6 to 6, so he wasn’t completely sleep deprived, just completely uninterested in sleeping during the daytime adventures.
Anyway, he started napping nearly a year ago when we moved for the second time to Arizona for the winter. I had gotten into the habit of taking Kenny and Dudley for a walk right after lunch instead of first thing in the morning; it was thirty degrees in Scottsdale in the morning and 70 by lunchtime, so why not? Kenny started very consistently falling asleep in the stroller, I would wheel it into his darkened room, and he would sleep for about an hour. Then one day, as we finished lunch, he looked at me and said, “Sleepytime!” So instead of packing him in the stroller, I put on his pajamas, and put him in his crib. He slept for 2 hours. And my life as a stay-at-home mom changed forever.
Now we’ve had five days in a row with no nap. I am scared. I know that he’s nearly two and a half, and I know that many kids this age start giving up their naps.
But many pregnant women at this stage desperately need them!! I’m not even stressing over the housework or time to myself, I just want him to sleep so I can! I need to stockpile sleep while I can! Please, oh please, Kenny, don’t stop napping yet…
So – at what age did your kids give up their naps? Do you still enforce “quiet time” in their rooms? (I’ve done this during the no-nap days this week – 45 minutes of Kenny staying in his room, playing quietly. He hasn’t balked. Much. He seems to need a little downtime.) How long is appropriate? Suggestions are always appreciated!
Joshua who will be 2 in February, has not ever really had a set naptime. It used to be that if we were out riding or in church, he’d fall asleep about 11:00 or 11:30. But at home, he fights and the only way to get HIM settled is to get him still (whether in his highchair or on the couch). BUT for ME to get sleep while I was pregnant with Justin, my in-laws watched Joshua here at my house while I went into our room, closed the door, and napped!
January 28th, 2008 | #
Princess pretty much gave up her naps about 4 months or so into my pregnancy with Buddy. But she didn’t fight “quiet time”. I put her in her room and she was perfectly content to play/read/sing until I came to get her. I usually set my alarm for about an hour, but once or twice I turned it off! On those occasions I’d be awakened by a little voice calling out, “Mama? I get out?”
January 28th, 2008 | #
Pig Will napped until she was almost 4 years old… Pig Me Too stopped a few weeks later (when she figured out big sis wasn’t sleeping!) – so she was just barely 2, if not 19-20 months old. I do enforce quiet time – especially on non school days – they go to their OWN rooms and play or read for as long as possible before they head into each others rooms. Pig Me Too is having her quiet time RIGHT NOW! while I’m typing she is looking at books in the other room on the couch.
January 28th, 2008 | #
with any luck, if you keep having “quiet time” he will get back on his nap schedule … this happened to us multiple times with our youngest and I kept his 2 hour naps going until 4 1/2! Even now, he will fall asleep every 3 or 4 weeks during his quiet time and BOY DO I LOVE THOSE DAYS!!!
January 28th, 2008 | #
My 6 year old gave up his nap right before his birthday this year, my 4 year old still takes a nap daily as well as my 2 year old. Oh course we have days where no one naps and thats ok too.
As for you needing a nap make nap time Kennys tv time, if you really are just exhausted, I would lay on the couch with them and put on a 30 min DVD and when it was over I usually felt much better.
January 28th, 2008 | #
I know what you mean about a prenant mama needing her naps, or at least some downtime. Laiq’s almost 18 months and he’s at the point where one’s not enough, but two is too many. I went back to work last week and his nanny told me he took up tn hour to fall asleep during naptime. I’m all about the quiettime… even this weekend, I put him in his crib for about an hour and just let him “chill”… he doesn’t mind it, so why should I!
January 29th, 2008 | #
My almost three-year-old lil guy started to get very spotty about his naps about three months ago. I fought it and fought it, cause I am exhausted without that down time. He will play quietly in his room for an hour, and that helps, but he pullls his entire room apart-clothes out of drawers, racecar tracks out of boxes, books off the shelves. It’s a huge mess. So I don’t really know exactly what to do either. We just take it day by day, and I hope that he will stop making the huge mess, cause I won’t let him out of his room till he cleans it all up. I do have to sit there and give him direction, but I make sure to make him do it all, hoping that the message will sink in! My five-year-old daughter naps so much better than he does, and I’m worried about what we will do when she starts school in the fall. Wish they could trade the napping needs!
January 29th, 2008 | #
my 4 1/2 year is just starting to fight naps since i stopped working in dec and she stopped attending daycare. she still has quiet time for about an hour. in her room, she can play ,read, sing etc as long as she is quiet. at this time my 2 1/2 year old takes about 1 1/2 hour naps. sometimes my 4 year old will fall asleep but that is depending on how early i get her up in the morning.
January 29th, 2008 | #
My 3 year old girl started to make some transitions at about 2.5 years too. She has always been a pretty good napper and night time sleeper but we started to notice that she couldn’t fall asleep at night for up to an hour past her bedtime and then on top of that she would wake up an hour early. Once we took away the naps (which was much harder for me!) then she would fall asleep within 10 minutes and sleep until her regular wake up time in the morning. Every one in awhile if i am really tired as i am prego too i will bring her into my bed and turn on cartoons and i snooze while she watches some tv-I guess our version of quiet time. Sometimes when she’s crabby or happens to fall asleep watching cartoons we notice the same problem again- not falling asleep and the waking early.
February 8th, 2008 | #