Since my son was about four months old, I have been a self-proclaimed nap nazi. Hayden has been very compliant with this, even during difficult transitions (3 to 2 naps, 2 to 1 nap).
And, most unfortunately, it’s beginning to look like he wants to go from 1 to no naps. I refuse to believe that a boy of 2 years and 4 months (today) gets enough sleep by sleeping 12 hours at night and none during the day. And, indeed, he’s often quite grumpy and more difficult to put to bed at night when he hasn’t had a nap.
But after several letting him sit in his dark room for hours while he refused to sleep with increasing frequency, I finally gave up. Last Thursday, there was no mention of napping in our house. No move toward the bedroom. No screaming and thrashing to avoid a nap. Friday, same deal.
Granted, this wasn’t a great thing, since mostly this involved him watching television instead. And, also me freaking out because I just mentally can’t handle the idea of not having a break (and by “break” I mean mostly time to work) during the day.
I have a deep need for a certain amount of silence and time alone on a daily basis. The prospect of not getting this—plus no time to work at my job, let alone the little pet projects that keep me sane and happy—was enough to bring me to tears.
And then . . . Saturday, he was rubbing his eyes and yawning in the afternoon. Sunday, he threw a fit in the afternoon. We put him to bed and he fell asleep.
And I knew I needed to institute a “quiet time” for Hayden.
So today, I put him in his bed and told him he didn’t have to take a nap. Rather than crying and trashing, Hayden seemed to think this was fun. I brought him some books to look at and left the light on, but closed the door most of the way and turned on the fan.
I had to go back to help him twice over the next hour—once because he’d dropped a book and the second time because he wanted new books. Let me say that again: he wanted new books. Not to get out. I brought him more books and he was mostly quiet for an hour.
And when I went to check on him, he’d tossed all of his books, his pillow, his blanket and his two stuffed animals out—and was fast asleep.
I know it’s too early to draw a definite conclusion, but maybe I was pushing him too hard. (Knock on wood!)
8 replies on “The battle of the wills: naps”
We recently took naps away from our 3 year old son because he wouldn’t go to bed at night. However, I still need my down time during the day so he, too, has quiet time. For 1 1/2 hours – 2 hours a day he plays in his room, reads books, etc. Every once in awhile he will fall asleep.
Good luck in this transition stage!
I do not look forward to that day. Our 2 year old has been threatening to get rid of naps. A couple times a week he will just play in his crib for 2 hours instead of sleeping. At least he will still be happy in there for that long. I need that time to take a nap or get things done.
Becca is just about the same age (she was 16 months in May), and she hasn’t napped – at home – in the past few months at all. She does still nap at daycare, but at home she’ll sit and play and read and basically do anything but sleep. We were keeping her in her room, where she’d play quietly, but I recently started letting her have quiet time downstairs with her big sisters. They’re supposed to watch a movie and read or play quietly. She does stay down there with them for the duration of the movie, but ‘quiet’ probably isn’t the best description for it anymore… 🙂
My 3 1/2 year old now naps every 3rd day or so. Other days we just skip it all together. Both my older two still took occasional naps up to the age of 5 – so I live in hope that I can still keep the naps up for a bit longer.
My daughter must be about 2 weeks younger than Hayden and we have been having nap issues as well. So far she still takes them but today it took me an hour and a half to et her to fall asleep. I was rewarded by an almost 3 hour nap but when you don’t wake up until 6:30 it means that right now at almost 11 pm she is still awake. Urgh!
I am so lucky and have an amazing little napper. Weston is almost 2 and a half and I get a 2 hour+ nap every single day from him, with the exception of Sundays since church interferes with naptime, but even then he’ll get a shorter nap later in the day and still be fine. Poor kid does NOT function well with out a nap. He must take after me. 🙂
Sigh. Hayden used to be phenomenal himself. In fact, I think he’s fallen asleep during quiet time again, but I don’t think this counts since he’s still recovering from some sickness.
I still remember the one nap to no nap time and I had a hard time adjusting because I was so used to having my quiet time. I also instituted quiet time for him.