Rachel didn't start out as a good napper. In fact, she was a terrible napper for a good nine months after she was born. But somewhere along the way she became a really good napper, and in the last several months, she's become a champion napper--sleeping from a little after 1:00 pm often until 4:00 pm, when I finally go wake her up!
But the last three days, this has not been the case. And I'm singing the naptime blues, because, I'm fearful that my wonderful three hours of peace are nearing an end. I knew it would happen. I just didn't want it to until she went to school all day and needed to give up a nap.
For the last three days I take her upstairs at 1:00, like normal. We read a story and she gets in bed, just like always. She talks and sings a bit after I leave....also normal. But for three days now she keeps talking....and talking....and singing....and playing....and talking....and at 2:30 she is still awake! I've gone up and told her to be quiet, stop talking, and go to sleep. "But I'm not tired," she tells me. Within five minutes of my leaving, she's fallen asleep. Yesterday I let her sleep until 5:00, which I never do, because she had taken so long to fall asleep. Today it was closer to 3:00 when she finally fell asleep and now it's 3:30 and she's awake again, crying. Do I go help her get back to sleep and let her sleep until 5:00 again? I don't like it--I think 5:00 is too late to get up from a nap, because her bedtime is 8:00, and I don't want to push her bedtime back. But I don't know what to do.
So my question for all of you seasoned moms is this....would you keep trying to put her down at 1:00 and hope this is a phase that she'll get over, or should I keep her up until 2:00 or so, and let her sleep until 5:00? Or should I still get her up at 4:00, even if she doesn't fall asleep until 2:30 or 3? Cranky and all??? Or do I resign myself to the fact that the days of champion napping are over, and we might have to start transitioning to "rest time" instead?
Help!
Of course I'm not any more seasoned than you are. But in the past 5 or 6 months Katy has gone from sleeping 2-3 hours for nap down to 1.5. And due to bedtime struggles lately, I'm even carefully considering the idea of nixing the nap so she'll go to sleep easily at night.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess that's one question I would have: if she sleeps until 5 - does she still go to bed at 8? You might try putting her down at 2 instead of 1 - but as an experiment, to see if she falls asleep right away or still takes an hour or so to go to sleep. Also, if she then sleeps until 5, see if it messes up bed time.
The other option I think I might consider is to make 1-3 "rest time", and if she falls asleep, good, but if not, she just stays in bed and rests. You told me that she doesn't try to get up, and she isn't playing, just talking, so she's not going to get into trouble, she's just chilling. I think that if she needed the sleep, she would fall asleep. She might go down to taking a nap 3 or 4 days out of the week?
I don't know, of course, these are just thoughts. I have my own sleeping struggles.
Wow, Emily had some great advice! She said almost exactly what I was going to say!
ReplyDeleteI think you are, sadly, moving out of the 3 hour nap phase. Long naps like that are unusual for preschoolers, and I think the fact that Rachel is talking to herself and singing is a sign that she's not as tired as she once was. She certainly still needs rest in the afternoon and needs an opportunity to sleep if she's tired enough. I like the idea of 1-3 (or 2-4) being nap/rest time. Probably she'll fall asleep less and less frequently until it's purely a rest time.
Nicholas had stopped napping completely by 3 and 3 months, and then did rests until kindergarten. Andrew started not falling asleep for all his nap times at 2 (!) and was completely done napping by 2 and a half. He did rest time as well until Nicholas was in kindergarten.
Good luck - keep us posted!