Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school When did your DS, DD skip nap?

My son is 33m old now and when he was 22m old he started skipping nap. When he was 22m, he slept from 9:30pm to 8:30am and then he play for the whole day long (go to mommy and me class in the morning and park in the afternoon) after that he always fall asleep during dinner time (at 7pm), so i shifted the dinner time earlier to 6pm to avoid him fall asleep when eating. Now he still slept from 9:30pm to 8:30am and still go to mommy and me class in the morning and park in the afternoon, but he don't fall asleep in dinner time anymore. It seems that he really doesn't need any nap anymore. Except sometimes when he is sick and he take medicine then he will sleep on those sick days (just like today)
I feel so tired these days and always fall asleep with him at 9pm too, so i don have any free time =_=

What is the sleeping schedule of your DS and DD? If they do skip the nap, what activities do they do during the day time to fill their time?

Thanks for sharing ^-^

My DD was always a terrible napper. When she was an infant she would take 2 one hour naps a day & sleep about 10-12 hours a night. From 15-30 months we got one 1.5 hour nap on weekdays. From 30-31 months they could get about 30-45 minutes 3-4 days a week at preschool that she fought HARD. That's when we gave up & told them at preschool to just give her "quiet time". During quiet time at school she can read (we used to send her TAG in with headphones) or do puzzles by herself. At home, she plays quietly in her room, usually reading or having "picnics" with her dolls.

Now, at 48 months She sleeps about 8-10 hours at night (she prefers to stay up reading & will sometimes pretend to be asleep & then be caught 2 hours after bedtime -- she's a girl after my own heart). The only time she naps is if we take a long car ride (2+ hours) or if she is sick, she'll put herself down for a nap.

I can only assume it's genetic at this level of sleep since I also was not a napper as a child & even now I only sleep 5-6 hours a night! I hope that helps! Our free time is from 8:30 (when we put her to bed) and 12AM!

Yup, I forget exactly what age, but DS gave up his nap early. His nursery used to send him to an older group of children who were having "quiet time" then, and I started to do the same at home - designate an hour when he had to play quietly in his room, but need not sleep. Worked well for him, and was extremely helpful to me, though I know not all children will cooperate! It helped that he was starting to enjoy reading independently around the same time. We did similar at bedtime: allowed him to read/play quietly if he didn't want to go to sleep immediately.

Neither of mine napped well. DS8 gave up naps entirely and was sleeping 11-12 hours per night by 30 months. He gave up the morning nap at 11 months.

DS6 was roughly the same, maybe a little earlier to give up naps.

It's exhausting when they are little and you're trying to fill the time. I had both kids in a Mother's Day Out program at a local church for 2 days a week from 9-2 just to get some downtime for myself.

We also did story time at the library (there were 2 libraries close enough that did different days), swimming lessons, park play dates with a neighborhood group, Pump it Up, Gymboree play and learn classes, gymnastics, soccertots, and basketball for toddlers, not all at the same time of course, but those are some ideas.

Sadly, I was not successful at enforcing an hour long quiet time, but it worked for some of my friends.

My younger son had an older brother homeschooling and he never wanted to be alone in his room napping when there was stuff going on. We set up a cot in the living room so he could nap there, his room, my room but generally he resisted until he collapsed where ever he was. I wouldn't do battle. In the end we got a pretty good routine where he would nap on the cot.

It is funny though for the last several years (and my boys are 14 and 9) in the summer we have one hour quiet time after lunch...no electronics, no loud noises, everyone in their own room. Activities that are sanctioned are- thinking, Reading, writing, napping, and quiet crafts or play (no noise alowed). We all are nicer and less cranky when we have that hour to recharge...there is a lot of togetherness over the summer. I'll even set the timer. I'll start the hour over again if they don't follow the rules. That has cut down on the summer bickering to a tolerable level.

At DD's 2 year wellness checkup, I asked her pediatrician if we can cut all naps since if she took one, she was up until the wee hours of the morning. At that point, he said we shouldn't skip naps and he was very firm about it. He didn't offer any medical explanations. Then around 30 months, we saw him again and I told him she was staying up until 2:00 AM or 3:00 AM almost everyday. Finally then, he told us to try skipping naps because that sounded crazy.

So DD dropped morning naps around 11 months and afternoon naps around 30 months although until recently, if she was beyond exhausted, she'd fall asleep around 7:00 PM only to wake up around midnight and then stay up until 4:00 AM.

People who have the nerve to ask me when I'm going back to work full-time have no idea how exhausted I am.

That's really interesting! Our ped. asked about naps and when we described our struggles he said he was un-surprised & we shouldn't force it - especially with the amount of stress it was causing us & her teachers to try to make it happen! She's very independent, so when she's tired, she sleeps.

DD never napped much or regularly -- she forced herself to stay awake so she wouldn't miss anything. She slept deep when she slept, but she never slept through the night either. And I mean never... eventually she just got old enough to get herself a snack, go to the bathroom, read or hang out in the middle of the night without our help so at least we could finally get some sleep. She also had terrible colic, night terrors, and sleepwalking issues over the years.

There's a reason she's an only child.

Oh the nigh terrors. When DD had her first one, we ended up in the ER because I thought she was literary dying.

DD is an only child too but I feel like I'm raising 10+ children.

I second that, Ivy-- I mean, other parents (I think) must just have no real idea what one of these kids is like. Her first three years took many many years off of OUR lives, I'm pretty convinced. The sleep deprivation alone is mind-boggling. Her first year, I don't think that DH or I either one slept for longer at a time than two hours. I'm really not kidding.

She also screamed. REALLY screamed-- for hours at a time. In retrospect, a combination of horrific allergy issues and upper respiratory/ear infections was a significant contributing factor to some of that horror show, but still.

Napping? What napping? As a newborn, DD seemed to need about 12 hours of sleep a night, and it's never been that much since. She sleeps almost as little as I do (7hr daily, sometimes 6), and she's a teenager.