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<\/p>\nOn and off over the years, we’ve had a variety of “sleep”:\/news\/2008\/how-to-transition-from-co-sleeper-to-crib\/ “questions”:\/news\/2009\/night-wakings\/ with our girls. But we are encountering a new one. Could it be that Lucy is starting to give up her daily nap? And is there any way we can prevent this? <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
p{color:gray}. Photo: Happy. Just not always sleepy.<\/p>\n
For almost a month now, Lucy has been skipping two or three naps a week. I still put her down for her afternoon nap every day, but sometimes she lies there for about 30-40 minutes, and then starts calling out: “Mama! Mama! Mama!” It is clear that she hasn’t napped, and she won’t nap if I leave her in there at this point. So I get her up. Often, she is quite peaceful for awhile, but then gets a little overtired around dinnertime, which you can tell by the uncharacteristically hyperactive child running around the table and occasionally bursting into tears. We do our best to get her down to bed early on such days.<\/p>\n
Generally, I think Lucy is certainly getting enough sleep to be healthy. She usually gets about twelve hours in a night, going to sleep around 8:00 pm and waking up around 7:30-8:00 am. When she does nap, she usually naps for about two hours. This is lovely for everyone, especially since she wakes up happy and peaceful and is a joy to be around (as usual). This week, however, we have noticed more nighttime wake-ups, including an episode that seemed like a “night terror.” (Poor Jon was up with her for 90 minutes with that one.) Some of this could be attributed to a slight cold she has right now, but it also might be that we need to put her to bed even earlier at night — especially if she skips her nap.<\/p>\n
But since she is nearly three years old and getting such good sleep at night, I’m wondering if she is starting to phase out the nap, at least on some days. She is a much more pleasant person when she *does* nap, but I know naps won’t last forever. So we are trying to discern what to do in the transition time.<\/p>\n
I’m interested in the “quiet time” practice that I’ve read and heard about from other parents. It seems that, by the time a child is old enough to give up their nap, they are old enough to play quietly in their room during the naptime. This seems like a great idea to me! I did recently try this with Lucy, but we only had moderate success. After it became clear that she was not going to nap, I instructed here to play quietly in her room or “the fun room”:\/news\/2007\/little-darling\/ (our play room). And, while she did read some books, she did not do it quietly. “Mama! Mama! This is a BIG gorilla!” Lately, I’ve been sitting with her in the fun room for this quiet time, working on my computer while she reads “books”:http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0312490755\/octothorppres-20 and trying to encourage her to keep her voice low. This has been successful, but I’d love to teach her to have some independent play. Lucy is often good at this, but not after spending 40 minutes lying in the dark failing to nap. :)<\/p>\n
There are so many factors to consider. I’m currently experimenting with waking Lucy up by 7:30 am (instead of letting her sleep until 8:00 on some days), hoping that a regular wake-up time with help her to be ready for her nap. We’ve also talked about the possibility of really making the transition to the “big bed”:\/news\/2008\/lucys-big-girl-bed\/, which Lucy is still reluctant to commit to. And I’m wondering if there are new ways I need to encourage independent, quiet play on the days that she skips her nap. <\/p>\n
Nap-time feels pretty crucial for the overall health of our family. Not only do I think Lucy needs it to function happily the rest of the day, but I know I need this break for my own emotional well-being. To be honest, the unpredictability of nap-times these days has really got me stressed. I keep telling myself that we’re still in a transition period, and most likely this issue will resolve itself in a few months. In the meantime, we’ve got a few ideas to try out, and we’d love any advice you have to share! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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