Help! My 21 month old seems to be giving up her afternoon nap-- the one and only. Unfortunately I am at the stage in my pregnancy when I am only a step away from desiring to hibernate. Last week Cora skipped her nap 3 days of the week.
Any wisdom for a sleepy mommy who thinks her child should be sleepy too?
9 comments:
If you feel like her room is safe enough, you might try doing a "quiet time" where she is in her room with books or toys and just needs to relax and play quietly or nap. This also depends on her personality though...with Rhianna she could do this easily for an hour giving me a good break. With Rand I really had to work with him to even get 20 min...but it is worth a try. If all else fails, lay on the couch, sit Cora by you, and put on a very relaxing kids show.
Joseph stopped napping pretty early, too, but we still do a quiet time every day during what used to be naptime. Lots of books, whatever he wants to play with (which isn't really so quiet sometimes), and we go through the same routine before (book, songs, etc). You can start out short and work toward longer. That's my only thought! GOOD LUCK!
Missed three days a week and she was fine? Or was she cranky and tired? With my kids, they got to a point where if they had a nap they wouldn't be tired at bedtime. It was the tricky no-win situation as they were a bit cranky without a nap, but it wasn't great having them up late, either.
My two suggestions. 1) I echo earlier comments, keep a quiet time as a minimum. Confine her to a safe place: a room, play pen, crib, whatever, with what you like (movies, books, toys, whatever you figure out) and go in your room and crash. Or, sometimes when you are in that zombie pregnant mode you can crash in the same room as them while they watch a movie or something. Anyway, suggestion #2) TIRE HER OUT! Find a way to do this with out overly tiring yourself out. Lots of walks, put a sprinkler or swimming pool in the backyard, just find something that she enjoys that is very active in the mornings and then put her down for her nap time. I have had some friends that had their kids stop napping, but they pushed through it and they started napping again. Each kid is different, but I would think you could keep her napping for at least 6 months more. (sorry so long...)
Quiet times have worked for us as well. I don't even tell Riley it's nap time any more, just "rest time." She can take dolls and books to bed with her and I tell her she doesn't have to sleep, but she does have to stay on the bed. 9 times out of 10 she falls asleep within 20 or 30 minutes.
I think there are some great suggestions to try here.
At least she's not as rambunctious as Rob, you might not want to know he quit napping by 18 or 20 months on normal days.....
Is she sleeping longer at night? You might get her up when you are up and not let her sleep in longer than you in the morning. Good luck.
um, so, is it bad that the first thought i had was, "give her drugs?" i'm going to be a terrible mother. whoops.
Lilly is doing the same thing right now. I've just been doing what everyone else has suggested for you. I don't know how the weather is there, here it is too hot in the afternoons to spend too much time out doors but I'm taking her to the park when I get out early enough. I bought a four foot wide child pool we spend time in the back yard with that. The library here has a good children's section. I do as much to keep her mornings busy as I can and then she sometimes falls asleep in the car. Sometimes I tell her mommy wants quiet time, and close all the curtains to dim the room and I'll lay down on the couch and after about 20-30 minutes she will crawl up on the couch with me and fall asleep some times that works. I tried quiet time in her room but she didn't like it. She just screamed for 30 minutes and I decided that wouldn't work anymore. Each day is different for us. I hope you find something that works for Cora.
Congratulations on baby number two!!
I probably already told you this, but we just did quiet time in her room for Ellie. I put a child lock on the inside of the door and she just knew she had to stay there. Most days she did eventually fall asleep. Good luck!
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