Nap time?

My oldest was 2, and my other two were nearly 5 when they gave up naps. It is always hard for the first few weeks after they give up a nap. They really need it, but they will not sleep. They do start to adjust if they go to bed a bit earlier. Good luck, it will get easier.

It was different for each of our kids. It was really hard on me this school year when the youngest, now 4, started going to afternoon preschool and had to do away with naps. I feel bad for the teachers. However, it has made bedtimes easier and earlier. It is now at 7 rather than 9/10/2am for this kid. Let's just say this one doesn't like to sleep :eyebrows: , but is a solid sleeper once he is out. He would actually still taking 2 hour naps several times a week before we stopped giving them. (I had learned that I needed to be waking him up after 1 hour so we wouldn't have more of the 11 pm still-trying-to-get-him-to-bed nights.) The timing of bedtime took a bit of playing around. If we wait even 20 minutes later it is so much harder. It was trial and error. Now the oldest has been in preschool of some sort since 3.5. When he first moved in he went to preschool in the mornings and Head Start in the afternoons. Not at all optimal as evenings were HORRIBLE because he was so tired. However, he needed the structure and attention and it took that many adults to provide the outlet for his energy. The second year he only had afternoon preschool. Now, during weekends, holiday breaks and summer time he was still required to do naps. The problem we ran into was that he didn't want to take a nap. So I renamed it to "Quiet Time" or "{insert kid's name} Time". This kid though is our easy one to get to bed, normally. If I had to choose one kid to miss nap times, it would be this one. Quiet Times are what we do during summer or school breaks. He was allowed to take three books of his choosing with him. As long as he stayed quiet and on the bed he kept the books. If he got up or was loud I would take one away. What I found was that if he had toys he would play. If he had books he would fall asleep if he was tired. He just need a way to calm his brain and body down in order to give in. Now, this NEVER works with our youngest. That child is allowed nothing at nap time or else he would stay awake, doesn't matter if it is a book on organic chemistry, it would keep him stimulated enough. Also, no matter nap time or bed time I play music - classical, smooth jazz, calming music. Now that they are our of the routine of "Nap Time/Quiet Time" I have used and audio book to get them to keep their heads down and their bodies still so they will relax and rest. Does it always work? No. What I did finally give in to was the fact that if (the youngest) was taking over an hour to fall asleep I should just give in and make bedtime sooner. Yes, that might mean this kid was watching a movie for an hour or two before supper and sleeping 6 pm - 6 am, but it wasn't worth the fight. My DH would come home to a crying kid and a stressed out wife and it just wasn't worth it. Side note: when we were visiting people and I knew my youngest needed a nap I would take him for a drive, put on classical music and could almost guarantee he would be out within 15 minutes. I would drive for a few minutes more, then go back to their house or park or whatnot and let him finish his nap. When I first did this my husband thought I was nuts, that it would never work. I knew the he just needed to be away from stimulation and that I had trained his body enough with the music that he should be triggered for sleep. :popcorn: