Miss K (3) has taken a nap every day since Saturday when she LOST it ... Yesterday she didn't fight taking a nap at all. She slept for 1.5 - 2 hours. She went to bed at approximately 9:45, but didn't fall asleep until after 11 pm. She got up at 9 am. (10 hours of sleep.)
She seems to need about 12 hours of sleep a day total. If she doesn't take a nap, she often sleeps 11 hours at night and then gets really tired and cranky after a few days, because she's missing an hour of sleep she needs a day. If she naps, she will go to bed later. It's not that big of a deal because 1) I'm always up late and 2) if K keeps N (5.5) up, N will usually sleep in and make-up for the late night. N needs 10-11 hours. If K and N stay up, they usually stay in their room and talk, play, and giggle. Sister bonding time. T (almost 2) is in a different room and sleeps.
What should I do?
a) Nothing... Have K nap and go to bed late (the evenings are a little more pleasant)
b) Nap every other day
c) Nap for a shorter period of time (me wake her after about an hour)
d) Other Please explain in the comments
Any one else have experience with a kid who didn't need to sleep? If you did a, b or c, how did that work for you?
I feel I should add a little more about our sleep parameters...
I don't want K to get up earlier. That's a big thing. MWH and I just don't do mornings. Getting out of bed before 8 am on a regular basis is very very painful. (He and I both went to school and worked to find jobs that don't require on early. Seriously. We both chose careers that had flexible hours because of our dislike of mornings.) N hopefully will be in afternoon kindergarten and then in first grade, it doesn't start until 9 am. I'm thinking we'll be able to sleep until 8 and just hurry in the morning!
Back to the K situation though.... Miss K can't nap in the afternoons too early because soon she'll be in preschool from 12:30-3:30 and we don't get home until 4 ish. She's also usually not tired at 1 or so because she gets up around 9.
It works for us and our family to be on this schedule. I don't think K would sleep more hours if she went to bed earlier. I love the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and pretty much everything he says EXCEPT the part about get the kids to bed earlier. Um, no. If I put K to bed at 8 pm she'd probably wake up at 7 am. If I put her to bed at 9:30 and she falls asleep at 10 and gets up at 8:30-9 (or sometimes later!) then that works for me! I think Marc Weissbluth (author) is missing understanding that some people just AREN'T wired to get up in the morning. MWH and I are not made for mornings.
One other thing....My hope is that as we get into a routine this fall with K in preschool and the same schedule everyday, it will probably help her a lot. Right now, we're on break from preschool and things are a little wacky schedule-wise.
3 comments:
d)I would still attempt the nap since she still needs it. I'd probably try to get her down earlier for the nap. If she is done napping by around 2:00 or so, then hopefully that would make her tired enough at a reasonable bedtime.
Lauren gave up her naps when Ken started working from home, basically because sometimes she would fight it (loudly) and so we couldn't have her screaming right down the hall from his office. Some days she still does need the nap, so she gets little car naps. This was especially true during the school year, although she has been napping during roadtrips, which is nice (seeing as she barely would sleep in the car from infancy through age 2). Often she would fall asleep either on the way to get Rachel or on the way home from school. If she did, I would wake her up after 15 minutes. Too much more than that and she would be a big crab!
Hope this wasn't too wordy!
I would wake up her from a 1 to 1.5 hour afternoon nap AND I would work at slowly making her bedtime earlier and earlier. But, I know that may not work very well with your lifestyle/routine. I definitely wouldn't let her sleep too long in the afternoon and push the bedtime later. Shorten the nap and move up the bedtime.
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child - that's the sleep book I recommend.
It is hard!
Currently K could do with a nap from time to time but H has grown out of it and K is harder to get to sleep so I've kinda given up. A few months ago when they were napping they were regularly going to bed at 7:30pm and to sleep at 9pm. Mostly they spent the intervening time chatting happily. Now they go to bed at 7:30 and are asleep in 10 minutes. (They wake at 7am-ish which is OK for us.)
My advice is that different patterns work for different people (children and adults) and that if the pattern works well enough for all of you it is fine.
a) is fine,
b) is fine if she'll do it (K finds it hard to have an inconsistent routine),
c) is fine if she doesn't wake up cross (waking by stroking a hand is gentle, K needs cuddling for a while on waking).
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