Does your toddler still nap?
My boy is almost 3 and very active.
He used to nap for 2 hrs a day.
He gets up at 7:30am and goes to be at 9:30pm
I don't want to change his sleep as it works for him & our family
I'm a SAHM & I like him to spend the evening w/his dad & sister when they get home at 7pm.
He was good. until I started taking care of my mom three times a week.
She "requires" a little drive around the neighborhood for her self esteem & happiness as she cannot do much so it's very little
to ask. However, he started falling alseep the minute we'd get in the car and now I think it's thrown him off .
I've altered the time and duration of her "rides", try to have him play outside weather permitting to burn off energy before I pick her up.
What does your toddler do?
Preferably those w/active boys. TIA
Mine stopped napping at age 2. Every once in a while she will fall asleep in the car in the mid-late afternoon, but that tends to screw up the nighttime routine, and she'll go to bed far too late.
My oldest is 4.5 and until about 9 months ago I was still forcing him to take a 2 hr nap every day. He is "active" and then some :)
Can you do your mom's rides in the morning, like shortly after breakfast? I'd do breakfast, ride, outdoor play, indoor play, lunch, nap....
I would say my son is average active and he hasn't napped since he was 2 1/2. He is 3 1/2 now He will only nap if he is ill or I have woken him early. He goes to sleep by 9:30 and he wakes up around 9:00 or 9:30. You can continue the drives (my son gets drowsy too if the cartrip is around 4:30 or 5) but only let him sleep for the duration of the drive. It may push back his bedtime to 8 or 8:30 but I think that's ok, right?
My son is 5... he still naps, in the afternoon. Not everyday now, because I don't have time and he is in Kindergarten and has homework after school.
My son naps for 2 hours. Always has, since he was a baby. Sometimes 3 hours, when hitting growth spurts.
If he does not nap, he turns into a hyper/cranky/fussy/obnoxious... mess.
He goes to bed at 8:00pm. Wakes at 6:30am.
Same as my 8 year old daughter.
Per naps, I always have gone according to my kids' needs and cues.
My 8 year old girl, will nap still... if/when she is very tired. 1 hour.
My 3.5 yr old active toddler naps MOST days. Maybe in one month he'll skip 4 or 5 days, often b/c he'll stay up super-late one weekend and then sleep in, so when he wakes up late, he's not tired for his nap, so we skip it (and he goes to bed early those nights YAY!)
So for us, a normal day is
7:30 or 8:00 wake up
play, run errands, lunch, etc
1:00 or 2:00 take a nap
4:00 or so wake up
9:00 in bed, asleep by 9:30.
(so our wake/bed times are very similar). He normally naps two hours.
On days when he doesn't nap, sometimes it's b/c we spend too long on errands and we'll get back home by 3:00 and if he didn't fall asleep in the car on the long drive home, then he generally skips the nap. It's somewhat nice, b/c I can then get him in bed by 7:30 and he's out like a light by 8pm.
Is he cranky? If not, it might just be his time to be done. My son took 2 naps until 18mo then took one 2hr nap until 4 or so. My daughter went down to only one nap at age 9months and stopped napping completely by age 3.
I think every kid is different. I have a friend who's daughter stopped napping before turning 2. My kids (I have 3 year old boy/girl twins) are very active and stll nap well. We can go a day without a nap but it makes for a rough evening and they crash by 7 pm the latest! I try to keep my kids busy (but not overscheduled) so that they nap well (I too am a SAHM and enjoy the quiet time!) and they will nap for generally 1 1/2 - 2 hours and then go to bed around 8/8:30. Like your son, my kids crash in the car when we are driving around naptime or if we are driving for more than 20 - 30 minutes.
My son napped until he was 5-1/2 when we took away his afternoon nap because he was in school.
