To cut out nap or not?

[theyoungvisiter]

DS1 is nearly 3 and generally still naps at lunchtime - I usually wake him after 1.5 hours but he would happily go for 2 hours or longer if I let him.

However his sleep has always been patchy and it's getting worse - he used to do 8-6 but he will now often refuse to go to bed before 9pm.

He is very occasionally starting to cut out his nap - and on those days he goes to sleep at 7ish, completely exhausted. The problem is that he then wakes around 5am ready to get up for the day.

I don't know what to do - I am starting to think that he may be ready to drop the nap, but I can't deal with 5am starts and I'm worried that 10 hours sleep, total, is not enough for him.

Any advice?

[theyoungvisiter]

bump?

[Elk]

Could you try a shorter nap, my dd2 aged 3 has an afternoon nap most afternoons of about half an hour. If she is really tired I let her have an hour but never any longer. She curls up on the sofa next to me and just falls asleep and after half an hour I start wriggling and making noises and she slowly wakes up. She goes to bed at seven and is normally asleep by 7.30, she does wake about 6am but then plays with her big sister until dh gets up.

I cannot cope with early starts so I do sympathise.

[theyoungvisiter]

Thanks Elk - nap on the sofa sounds like a good idea - he normally naps in his room with the blackouts down which may be why he sleeps so long.

Do you do anything to help get your DD to sleep? I just wonder if DS will know to nap - he's used to sleeping in bed and nowhere else really.

What time does your DD normally nap?

5am is killing me tbh as I am already up twice in the night with DS2. Also he wakes up DS2 which throws him out for the day.

[Elk]

I close the curtains at one end of the room so the room is dim but not dark and put cbeebies on. She has her comforter and I cover her w so she stays still. I cover her with her old cot duvet. She normally sleeps from about 1pm. I sit next to her doing something really boring like answering e-mails or reading.

dd2 refused to nap in her room once she was out of her cot and I worked out the only way to get her to stay still long enough to fall asleep was to put the tv on. Sometimes she doesn't sleep but either way she has had some 'quiet time' to rest.

[theyoungvisiter]

thanks, I am going to try half an hour in his bed today (if he'll go down), and if that doesn't work I'll try quiet time on the sofa tomorrow.

Thanks very much for the advice.

[herbgarden]

Hi there...if you're cutting the nap out particularly if he's been having quite a long one up til now then he's probably knackered when going to bed at 7ish without that nap in which case he probably will wake up early (overtired ?)...DS cut his nap last October when he started waking at 5am. Even when I cut it he was still waking at this time but as he got used to not having a nap it got better as he was less tired at bedtime and then could do a longer stretch. Just a thought anyway. I think when you're cutting a nap out it can take 3 - 4 weeks to really take affect- they've been napping for such a long time I suppose they need to re-set their body clock. The difficulty settling early in the evening though is a sure sign he's ready to cut it - p'raps try to cut 10/15 minutes off it every few days so it's not such a shock....

[theyoungvisiter]

thanks herbgarden.

I'll see how he does today on half an hour - if not we are going on holiday for a fortnight next month and I think he will probably refuse to nap while we're there (lots of exciting older cousins to play with) so that might be a good chance to see how he does over an extended period.