Napless (my child)

Hi All,

My daughter is ready to go without naps now. She is turning 4 in March. My issue is that to be napless she sleeps 6pm-8am. It is NOT easy to have her in bed by 6pm, We end up eating supper earlier than my grandparents (and I spent decades of my life laughing at how they ate supper at 4:30pm)!!

On nights we need to be out I still nap her, she goes down no problem and sleeps 2hrs, but then she needs to be awake 6hrs after nap to be tired again. Which means it is well after 9pm before she falls asleep. She is a very awesome sleep child. Even when not tired we can put her in bed and she just lies there singing, talking and playing with her stuffed animal until she falls asleep but this can often mean her awake in bed for 1.5hrs.

It isn't as easy as just continuing the naps because I am finding she NEEDS 6-7hrs of awake time to be tired. But she NEEDS 14 hrs of sleep (12hrs at night a 2 at nap) but with 6hrs of awake time in the morning and 6hrs after nap I need 26hrs in a day.

I am just pulling my hair out because neither is ideal the 6pm bedtime or the 9+pm bedtime. How did you all manage this stage with your kids? I know she sleeps more than most. She was born 5 weeks early and I think that just set her up for being a good sleeper (preemies sleep more in the start).

She NEEDS that 14hrs of sleep because she is non-stop, full of energy, doesn't stop talking, fully engaged with the world while awake. She's healthy and happy when she is well rested. Less than the 14hrs she loses coping skills, gets whiny and uncooperative and even more energetic.

Any tips? Will she just get used to being without naps and in time shorten her night sleep? It is hard to accommodate 14hrs when we have any evening events and for her preschool etc in the mornings. I know I likely sound like a lunatic, I am hoping someone on here has been in my position. My friends kids this age all seem to function on less than 9hrs of sleep total and I obviously can't ask them for tips here. But I am going bonkers trying to figure out the best plan for her (me).

Why not shorten the nap to only 30-45 mins and make it a bit earlier .... we eat lunch at daycare at 1130 and kids are in bed by 1215. Find out when lunch time will be when she goes to school and follow that.... if she is in bed at 1215 and up by 1 then she can go to bed at 7-730.

My son was like this when he was little. I used to feed him left-overs at 3:30pm. He was falling asleep at 4:30/ 5 until 7:30/8 the next morning. He was very young (14 mths) but he settled in to a reasonable bedtime within a few mths.

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Originally Posted by Crayola kiddies

Why not shorten the nap to only 30-45 mins and make it a bit earlier .... we eat lunch at daycare at 1130 and kids are in bed by 1215. Find out when lunch time will be when she goes to school and follow that.... if she is in bed at 1215 and up by 1 then she can go to bed at 7-730.

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The catch is that she doesn't wake until 8am (or 9am). She really isn't needing sleep at 12noon, 1:30 is more or less her prime nap time. I might consider the 30min nap (likely a 45min nap since that is one sleep cycle for her and she'd wake better then).

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Originally Posted by teddybear

My son was like this when he was little. I used to feed him left-overs at 3:30pm. He was falling asleep at 4:30/ 5 until 7:30/8 the next morning. He was very young (14 mths) but he settled in to a reasonable bedtime within a few mths.

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Until about 19 months my daughter slept 13hr nights and had a 2hr morning nap and a 2 hr afternoon nap. When I switched her to one nap she did 4hrs naps. She likes/needs her sleep. It's only recently that we run into this not enough hours in the 24hr period to get all her sleep in problem. Her awake time as extended but her amount of sleep time hasn't really lessened.

My son has always slept a lot too. He just wouldn't nap at that point. After a few weeks of going to sleep at 5ish, he settled in and made it until 7. His bedtime stayed 7pm until he was about 7 or 8 yrs old. He always slept for 12/13 hrs.

I wake my 4yo to have breakfast with me alone before anyone else comes (7am). I drink my tea, we chat about the day, then she gets dressed before the first child comes at 7:30. She rarely naps, up to an hour if up late the night before, unless we do errands (loves to sleep in the car), so depending on the day, her bedtime is 6:45-7:45. If she's been emotional and cranky, we start getting ready for bed right after supper (5:30).

Any chance she could wake earlier to fit in the nap?

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Originally Posted by kindredspirit

I wake my 4yo to have breakfast with me alone before anyone else comes (7am). I drink my tea, we chat about the day, then she gets dressed before the first child comes at 7:30. She rarely naps, up to an hour if up late the night before, unless we do errands (loves to sleep in the car), so depending on the day, her bedtime is 6:45-7:45. If she's been emotional and cranky, we start getting ready for bed right after supper (5:30).

Any chance she could wake earlier to fit in the nap?

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She's never woken before 8am in her life (even as an infant) so truthfully I don't know that I have considered waking her at 7 (or even earlier). I suppose she'd have to be waking around that time once she starts school so maybe this is a possible solution.

She unfortunately is like me and is just not a morning person. Neither of us can eat until awake for a good 1.5hrs so it wouldn't be us waking her early and sitting around chatting over food like you do but she could go off and play.

I need to ponder this. Part of me worries that if I start waking her and training her to get up before 7am, when she no longer is able to nap she will need to be asleep by 5pm, instead of 6pm. And that is even worse!!!

personally i would start rolling back the wake up time over the next few months especially if she is starting school in the fall. I would just start with waking her up 15 minutes earlier ever week or so, even if she doesnt get out or bed, at least she is up.
My kids also hate to eat in the morning, they actually prefer a bit of two then to eat a huge lunch and a smaller dinner. It makes school morning really difficult.
Even if she isn't sleeping at least just have a snuggle on the couch with a blanket, so that she is resting. Also if she has a small snack an hour after dinner it might give her a bit more energy:)

I agree with the waking her up in the morning ... what time will she have to be up in the morning when she starts school ... if she doesn't like to eat as soon as she gets up then how long once she's up does she eat cause she will will have to eat before school so she will need to get up early enough to do that so start now and do it gradually ..... back up her wake up time by 15 minutes every week(or bi-weekly ) use this to get ready for school so it's not such a huge routine change by sept