Hi moms, my daughter is almost 19 months and for 3 days now, she won't nap. She just hangs out in the crib, playing, talking to herself, then throwing her lovey and pacifiers out of her crib and then crying that she doesn't have them. I have left her in there for at least one and half hours and then finally give up and take her out. On Saturday I tried getting her to sleep for 2 1/2 hours before I gave up.
Is she giving up her nap already, or is this just a phase? I'm not sure what to do. I can't handle her dropping her nap just yet and she definitely still needs one. Yesterday she fell asleep in the car at 5pm because she was so tired from staying up all day. Of course that made bedtime a nightmare.
Any experience with this?
Don't let her drop yet, put soft books etc in there, even if she just rests, keep going unil about 2 1/2 or 3. Hopefully she sleeps 10+ hrs at night.
Both of my girls tried to give up their naps at that age, but I refused. ;) I just kept putting them down every day, same time, and leaving them in there, and eventually they went back to napping. Sometimes it happens at the same time as a growth spurt, and they're just not full enough from lunch to sleep. Or they get sick and their whole schedule is off, or who knows what. I just figured, life was going to be miserable for all involved without nap, and *I* wasn't ready for them to give it up!
She needs her nap. Do not give up on it. Kids have to take a nap all the way into kindergarten for at least half a year. So they really need to be used to laying down and having a rest time if they don't want to actually sleep.
Both of my kids gave up their nap about this age. My daughter then backtracked at two and is now in the process of giving up her nape for a second time. Try putting your daughter down for a quick nap (half-hour or slightly longer) around 3 or 4 and see if this makes a difference. It didn't for my son, but did for my daughter. Good luck!
ETA: I remain a big fan of Quiet Time, though. My kids don't have to sleep, but they have to spend at least 30 minutes of QT in their bed every day. This is more for my sanity than theirs.
Mine all gave them up around that time, or I took them away. It meant earlier bedtimes and I was okay with that cause it gives me more quite time at night.
along with that I have learned that there are times that we just don't go do anything, everything is done early in the day. This way if they did happen to fall asleep it was no biggy.
My older kids fdid this starting around 19 months or so. I just kept the quiet time. They eventually got back into naps until kindergarten. My now 5 yr old stopped at 18 months and never resumed. I am hoping my currently 17 months does not give them up.
Maybe her bed time and wake up time need to be changed around. She may be sleeping too long at night so is not tired enough to take a nap early enough. But my youngest was close to that age when he gave them up. But he was not in a crib at that age. So containing him was much harder.
I agree with Hell on Heels all 3 of mine went through stages like that. I just kept up the routine and eventually they started napping again. At least they were getting quite time in their beds for a bit each day.
The fact that you got this far with naps is awesome.
We had quiet time when they dropped their naps.
Mine stopped napping in the same week - he was almost 3 and she was 8 months. Yes, I was distraught!
I told them that they didn't have to sleep, but they had to play quietly with their soft toys and their books. I made them stay in their beds for an hour. Sometimes they would nap, other times they didn't, but I still had my time... which I needed.
YMMV
LBC
That's around when my son gave up naps. You still should try to have quiet play time but she's probably done with her naps now. It will be a bit of a transition until she gets used to being up all day. Maybe adjust naptime and or bedtime to see how you can make them work. Good luck.
Kids are different. Yours might indeed be giving up her nap. You can try to reinstill it by-
1. making sure she wakes up at her usual time.
2. getting her outdoors, running around and tired.
3. replicating the evening routine at naptime.
4. doing little to no interraction during naptime.
Personally I would give up after about an hour, because that's a lot of time for a kid to be stuck in a crib while still awake.
If you can't get a nap out of her, you can still go through the process, and have her do "quiet time". It's about an hour in the crib where she can play, look at books, sing to herself etc, while you recharge your own batteries.
Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.
