Sleep patterns of a 3 yr old

[taboo]

Seeking the help of other mums with children around the age of three... my ds turned 3 recently and I'm finding that while he will still have a sleep through the day (up to two hours), he is sleeping a bit less at night. He used to sleep from 8.30pm to 7.30am, but now he seems to be waking up around 6.30am. A lot of mothers I know say that their children of the same age are no longer having day sleeps, and if they DO happen to sleep during the day, it affects how much sleep they have at night. I'm wondering now if it might be best to discourage ds from having his daytime sleep (or cut it down significantly), so that he might return to waking a bit later again in the mornings. A lot of people seem surprised that he is still sleeping during the day, so perhaps he doesn't really need to be having it anymore. Believe it or not I'm finding the earlier waking time a lot harder to deal with myself, as I seem to be feeling more tired and it would be great to have that bit longer in the morning. Would appreciate your thoughts... thank you.

My dd1 stopped her lunchtime naps at 2 1/2, and dd2 at just 3. She would, at first, have a nap maybe twice a week, then once, now it's really only if we're in the car. She was 3 in April. You could try reducing the length at first? Does he want a nap, or does he need persauding? I used to find,when they both were in the process of dropping ot dropping their naps, that 4pm-5pm (food!) was really hard, whinging, moaning, hanging off my leg etc! But it was a "process" and it's fine now with dd2.HTH and good luck.

Batey I wouldn't say he needs to be persuaded... he's just in the routine of having one, and when I say "Do you want to have a sleep?", he says "Ok". He goes quite happily to bed and always goes to sleep - sometimes for an hour and a quarter, other times it can be up to 2 1/2 hours. I can't help thinking that this must somehow be reducing his need for as much sleep at night.

Just another question for the mums with similar aged kids - how much sleep (in total) are your children having at this age? Thanks.

It's sooo tempting to let my son(3.3) sleep in the day. He does get a bit tired around lunchtime and I know he could sleep for an hour or 2 but I dont let him. If he sleeps we have him up till 10.30 or 11 and I cant handle that so we avoid the daytime nap AT ALL COSTS. He is worn out by about 7.30 and in bed by 8. He them sleeps till 6.30. I'd like him to get a bit more sleep but he never sleeps later in the morning.

taboo my dd is 2.6 and has an hour at lunchtime.funnily enough she is worse without one and has moody's all afternoon and plays up at bedtime. i think they are worse when they're overtired but i do only let her have an hour(ish)

My ds is 2+8mnths. He doesn't usually have a daytime nap - he gave it up soon after turning 2. He is absolutely worn out by 7pm and goes straight off to sleep. He usually wakes up at around 6:30am - although I don't know if that's partly because that's when dh gets up.

Taboo - at 3 ds2 would sleep 12-13 hrs at night, no daytime nap. Dropping the nap meant the 3 hrs before bedtime were hard work, as he was shattered, but it was worth it to have the free evenings and good nights.

If my son had an hour nap, he would go to sleep TWO hours later in the evening

He's 4 now, still gets very tired in the afternoons, but still sleeps 12-13 hrs at night.

Dd1-12hrs age 5 3/4, dd2 age 3 1/3 has 11 1/2-12, when she had her lunch time nap she would do about 10-10 1/2 and 1hr or so at lunch.

Mine fell asleep in front of us age 4 and 2 weeks when his new teacher came around for his home visit!