My 2.5 year old no longer naps at home. At school he still takes an hour and a half nap, ending at 3:00. It doesn't seem to affect his mood either way, but he has now pushed his bed time to almost 10:00pm!!!!! It is driving this tired, pregnant mother crazy. I have asked his teacher if they could wake him up early and she said she tried but he gets really upset if they wake him up. We wake him at 7am for school. We could wake him earlier, but then I'm afraid he'll just nap longer at school! Might be worth a try I guess. Anyone have any other possible solutions?
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I would just tell them they can't nap him! What do they do for kids who don't nap?
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@winniebee: There aren't any in his class.
They all nap. DH tried again to talk to his teacher this morning and said she wasn't much help. Should I try to talk to the director and see if she has a solution? I'm a teacher and I'm sensitive to parents going over the teacher's head but I am getting desperate.
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@travellingbee: My view is you pay them to take care of your son....if you don't want him to nap, then they have to follow your instructions! They can give him quiet time or allow him to play with older kids in another room! I'm sure he's not the first 2.5 year old to stop napping!
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@travellingbee: what is your routine like when you get home? What time do you get home and what time do you start bedtime?
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Napping until 3:00 is pretty late! I'm surprised they let him sleep that long. I'd tell to wake him up early or ask if they can send him to the office/another class that doesn't nap during that time since it's ruining his nighttime sleep.
Also, I feel you - my daycare have put my 11m old on a one-nap schedule and now he's miserable when we get home and I get to spend zero time with him since all his awake time is spent at daycare. Jerks.
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My DS (almost three) usually naps at daycare from 1ish until 2:30 or sometimes 3. Luckily this doesn't seem to affect his bedtime, but I have friends who have this same issue. There ARE days there that he refuses to nap and they give him books to look at while he rests on his cot. Maybe you could suggest they give your DS books, puzzles, or a quiet toy at the start of naptime to occupy him and hopefully divert sleep? If it's a center, I understand why they can't offer other activities or a change of classroom at that time - at DS's daycare, it's cots out and lights out for a designated period of time for his age group.
@Adira: Yep, we had this issue when DS moved to the 1 nap classroom. It sucked. He didn't drop his 2nd nap on the weekends until he was 18 months!
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I feel for you. I went thru this with both my kids but they were older
Our DCP has a policy that says that they wont keep them awake and they wont make then nap.
They are required to sit/lay quietly on their nap mat for 30 mins to give other kids time to fall asleep and then they may read/color after that if they are still awake. Ask if they will do this and cross your fingers he wont fall asleep quickly
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OMG this was my nightmare around the same age with DD. 10 o'clock bedtimes were seriously driving me crazy! I was getting so frustrated every night - but it wasn't her fault, she didn't need a nap anymore!
Theres only one solution to this problem - no more naps! I had to have several heated discussions with the preschool teacher about this. She was very resistant. Partly b/c she thought she knew best and partly b/c I think the nap time was her break time. DD was also going to be the only child who wasn't napping. After after weeks of pushing, she finally agreed
DD got to do something quiet like read or play with toys in the other room. Low and behold, a couple months after she stopped napping, so did another tot and then she had a playmate during nap times!Its one of those situations where you just gotta push and the preschool/daycare is working for YOU so they really need to adhere to your wishes as best they possibly can.
Good luck and keep us posted!
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I know in Tennessee, there are actually state mandated guidelines for sleep. I think until a certain age they have to provide the opportunity for sleep every day like @Mamaof2 said. In TN you also were not supposed to ever wake a sleeping child - you can turn the lights back on, turn off music, etc. to help transition from nap time but they are supposed to be allowed to sleep as long as they need and wake up on their own.
So, if he falls asleep right away, there's not much you can do.
But maybe if he is taking a while to fall asleep you can check your state guidelines and if there is nothing specific about how long they should "try" to get them to sleep, I would ask that if he is not asleep in 20 or 30 minutes to allow him to do a quiet activity. Perhaps a book or puzzle he can do on his mat would be a good compromise.
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I feel your pain. We're going through this with LMW right now. She rarely naps on the weekends, and if she does, it's in the car and we wake her up after a bit. But she takes monster naps at daycare and then she doesn't fall asleep until around 9 or 10pm.
Luckily her usual daytime teacher is a doll and is trying to limit her naptimes to 30 mins. However, we can't really consistently depend on that. So all we can do is continue with our normal bedtimes (she's in bed by 7 or 7:30) and require her to stay in her room. So far it's been going ok and she cries for us once or twice before going to sleep.
I know this doesn't help at all
but know that I feel your pain too!!!
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@mrs. wagon: She stays in her bedroom for 2 hours by herself? Man, that wouldn't fly with DS.
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@travellingbee: Ugh. This is one of the reasons I've not moved to any full day preschool for DS (though I'd like to). He would fall asleep in a flash and take a monster nap and not only would bedtime be 10 p.m., but there would be long MOTN wake-ups. Luckily my work is super flexible and I can do some at night at home so I pick him up after lunch time at preschool. Good luck!
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We have the opposite issue in that LO naps most days that he is home, but naps at daycare are rare and only last 30 minutes if they happen. When he naps, we also have bedtimes around 9:30pm. At our daycare (fairly small), he is in the 2 and up room, so they have kids stay on their cots from 1-3ish, but the kids don't have to nap. They can quietly look at books and they play quiet music. I find it hard to believe that he is able to lie quietly for 2 hours without getting disruptive, but his teachers tell me that he does pretty well with it.
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Update: I spoke with the director and she said their hands are tied because licensing requires that they allow all students to have at least an hour nap and he falls asleep so they can't do anything about it.
Of course he falls asleep. He is up until 10 pm and we wake him at 7. He's exhausted. Argh. This is so frustrating. There is apparently nothing we can do but just stay up until 10 with him. I am too tired to function. This late in my pregnancy, I am dog tired by 8pm and still have to push through 2 more hours of entertaining LO. 
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@travellingbee: we have same issue here. But we keep light on for him and give him bunch of books to look at until he falls asleep.
They all nap. DH tried again to talk to his teacher this morning and said she wasn't much help. Should I try to talk to the director and see if she has a solution? I'm a teacher and I'm sensitive to parents going over the teacher's head but I am getting desperate.
DD got to do something quiet like read or play with toys in the other room. Low and behold, a couple months after she stopped napping, so did another tot and then she had a playmate during nap times!
But maybe if he is taking a while to fall asleep you can check your state guidelines and if there is nothing specific about how long they should "try" to get them to sleep, I would ask that if he is not asleep in 20 or 30 minutes to allow him to do a quiet activity. Perhaps a book or puzzle he can do on his mat would be a good compromise.
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