3.3 - does he still need a day time sleep?

[elliott]

Sorry another boring sleep question....
ds1 is 3y 3m and I dropped his daytime nap nearly 2 weeks ago (he was having one 2-3times a week before this, going down happily and I was waking him after an hour). I thought he was ready as I'd thought I'd spotted that on days when he had a sleep he didn't sleep so well at night.

However his night time sleep now seems to be disintegrating - he's up v early in the morning (6 or earlier) - which is unusual for him - and last night didn't go to sleep until nearly 8. he certainly needs more than 10 hours sleep in total! He's always had a tendency to overstimulation and overtiredness and he just seems to be forcing himself awake.

Has anyone else had this experience - should I go back to a daytime sleep and try again later? how on earth can I make the transition so he sleeps well at night but not in the day?

Hi Elliott. I would think be led by him: if he wants to sleep during the day, and goes happy, let him. IME, they sleep better at night if they're more relaxed. If they get overtired during the day they can be too tired to sleep well at night, if that makes any sense. My 2.1 yr old has recently dropped his daytime sleep and we're just in that nightmare six months where he's adjusting (at least, that's been the pattern with my previous two), but he's sleeping better at night. If I were you, I'd let him have an hour in the day and he'll let you know when he doesn't want it anymore. Enjoy the p & q! HTH

Elliot - My ds is 3.9yrs and he still needs his nap! He can sometimes got without it, but for the days when we are in the house he goes upstairs at about 1pm, puts on a video, climbs into bed and falls asleep. I usually have to wake him 2hrs later or who knows how long he'd sleep!!

my ds is 3.1 and probably naps 2 or 3 days a week. in a way it's easier when he doesn't as we can do more stuff during the day, but then i do like the break when he does. it doesn't really seem to affect his nighttime sleep either way so i don't think i'm any help to you elliott. just wanted to empathise!

toothache, how long does he sleep at night when he's had a daytime sleep?
Pretty much all his peers have dropped their sleeps now and their mums all swear they sleep better at night for it. Why does ds1 have to be different

Elliot - He still sleeps from 8pm to 6.30am. He gets up and comes into our bed at about 1am, Whether he has a nap or not. Wish he'd sleep longer!!

ah yes, ours does that too toothache... given that i'm 6 months pregnant we've just had to buy a bigger bed!

When I was pregnant with dd I used to just crawl into bed beside him when he had his nap.... it was a god send!!

Personally, I'd keep his day time nap for as long as possible. But that's 'cos I'm a baaaad mum and want to some time to get on with my own things! .

I think ds stopped regularly having his nap at weekends when he was about 3.9 months, much to our disappointment. Occasionally though, he will still fall asleep (he's now 4.5) late afternon if he has been running around a lot.

I beleive he kept going with an afternoon nap at the childminder for quite a bit longer.

Ds has always been a good sleeper at night, but one thing I owuld comment on is that he sleeps even better when he's not too tired. Maybe your ds needs his afternoon nap so that his night time sleep will improve. Seems counter-intuitive, but why not give it a try.

hmm, yes that's about what ds1 woudl do after a good daytime nap. 8pm is a bit late for my liking though - and doesn't fit well with the routine for ds2. not to mention the 6.30 start althought that I think is the best we can hope for. I'd kind of hoped he would start to sleep a more consistent 11+ hours at night but maybe it ain't going to work like that...

Elliot - My poor kids are wrenched out of their beds early as we both have to get up at ^.15am for work.

should read 6.15am...

yes- it is good to have a break. I have still been enforcing a 'rest time' for him though so I still get my little micro-nap - and hopefully that means I can get him back into the sleep routine without too much protest.
It's interesting to see that he's not the only one still needing a sleep beyond 3 years.

I would re-instate his nap. Did you want him to drop it? Is it inconvenient if its only a few days a week. DS is 4.1 and dropped his nap months ago - round about the time DD was born last May - just my luck! However he has always needed a lot of sleep and sleeps 7.30 pm to 7 am as a minimum at night (but sometimes extra half hour at weekends). But this is still not really enough and he is often tired and I find that if I go out in the car in the late afternoon (from 3 pm onwards) he will fall into a heavy sleep. I actually often do this because then DD will also have her second nap. She is 10 months and normally has about 1-1.5 hours in the late morning but this will not see her through. This does not affect his night time sleep at all.

I have to say that ds often used to fight to avoid his nap. It got later and later. We used to have to look for signs and then enourage him. For example, when he started to get crotchety (one of the signs), I would put a video, and would come back in to the room a few minutes later to find him asleep. I'd then lay him on the couch with a wee blanket over him.

Sometimes this would be as late as 4 o'clock (or even later), and he would then sleep for about 2 hours. But we were fortunate in that he was always fine going down at 8, no matter when his nap was.

He usually wakes up at 6.45 but sometimes will sleep later. If he comes down earleir, he is sent back up to his bedroom, and during the week if he is not dwon then, we'll go and get in order to have an ealry morning cuddle before getting up and on with the day.

well I have started reinstating his sleep - first day he fought it and didn't sleep, then had a dreadful night, second day he slept (i woke him after 1.5 hrs) and he slept 11 hours that night. Yesterday no sleep (we were out) and he was utterly exhausted - still only slept 11.5 hrs. i think I'll carry on with the day sleep and just expect about 11 hrs at night (I think his bladder is waking him partly).