Question for You

Q: How long is/was your newborn awake between naptimes?

Sunday Sleep Dilemma

Q: My non-napping four-year old son will not stay in his room during his daily quiet time? How do I get him to do this?

A: First you need to make sure you are being clear in what he needs to do. Maybe use a timer for the time or be clear in the cause and effect of the situation or set-up a few easy to remember quiet time rules. You may need to try out a few things and see what works:

• silently take him back to his room over and over again for a few days until he gets it.
• punish him with a consequence for disobeying
• use a sticker chart everytime he stays in his room and follows your quiet time rules/expectations or some other motivational tool
• try having his quiet time in another room- maybe his room is too stimulating
  

Saturday Sleep Tip

Some good rest time activities are workbooks, puzzles, magnadoodles, books- maybe a different basket for rest time books, a sorting or matching activity. I suggest something quiet they can do while lying on their bed- if this works for your situation.

Sleep Ponderings from Me

What do you do with the loss of naptime? It is a sad day when naptime ends all together! This is a SAHM's time to get everything done- you have a couple hours to clean, prep dinner, do the laundry, maybe take a nap or sometime for yourself on a good day.... and now it is gone.

I encourage you to continue expecting some sort of quiet time or rest time from your child. Set a timer, so you both know how long this period will be. Have them lay down and rest, or read a basket of books, or choose an activity out of a basket reserved for this time, or play quietly in their room during this time. You still need to get stuff done, and they need to have some more chill and relaxing time during their busy day. Again, like everything in parenting be consistent and set up this expectation clearly for your child.

Question for You

At what age did your child stop taking a nap?

Ponderings from Me: Transition to NO Nap

The dreadful transition from that oh so precious afternoon nap to no nap occurs sometime between age 3 and age 6. Marc Weisbluth, author of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child states that at age 3- 91% still nap daily, at age 4- 50% still nap about 5 days a week, at age 5- 25% still nap about 4 days a week, and at age 6 the nap is pretty much gone.
My daughter transitioned out of her afternoon nap at around 3 1/2. She had been a good sleeper and good napper since she was 5 months old. Always had an early bedtime and no problem going to sleep at night. Then, around 3 1/2 my great napper started staying awake for hours when I put her to bed at night... just talking in her bed or whatever until 10 o'clock or so. This went on for a week or two. (I was not ready for her to not have a nap.) Finally, one day we skipped her nap and did a quiet time instead. That night she went right to sleep at 7 o'clock. From then on, she has been fine without a nap and goes to sleep immediately at 7 o'clock and wakes up at about 7 o'clock every morning. A nice, solid 12 hours of sleep.
And then, then follow-up question: what do they do during their past naptime? How can I continue to get stuff done?
I have a bunch of quiet activities that my 4-year old pulls out during her "quiet time". She knows that I have stuff to do during naptime and has become quite good about finding quiet activities to occupy herself. You may also try having them play in their room, spending sometime with them alone, having them watch a short show, giving them a stack of books to "read" on your bed, or?? Readers please share any of your ideas. And good luck finding solace in no naptime.