Nap Dilemma with 4.5 DS

[mjdmom]

My ds still naps.  The only way to get him to nap is to drive him in the car which we have done is whole life.

The problem now is if he naps it will be later in the day and then won't fall asleep until 9:00/9:30.  He is an early riser -- anywhere between 5-6 am.  So if goes to bed that late and wakes up that early he is not pleasant at all until his nap.

We have been trying to wean him off the nap and get him to be by 7:00/7:30 which works out fine.  However, his behavior has been TERRIBLE.  I don't know if it is an adjustment period of the no naps or a phase he is going through.

He becomes very aggressive and has no impulse control.  It has been very difficult to deal with.  He is better with a nap but I don't have any downtime with my dh when he goes to bed late and I need at least 7/8 hours asleep myself to function.

The other issue is he is prone to night terrors when overtired.  He generally doesn't have them when napping.

I am conflicted about dropping the nap because it seems like he manages better with one.

WWYD?

[JudiAU]

We are at a similar place but if it required me to drive him awhile ago we would have dropped it long ago. What we've found is that the sleep loss is really cumulative. So we can go two days with no nape and early bedtimes but the third day is unpleasant and the fourth day is unlivable.

[meemee]

i would give it a reasonable amount of time and see what happens. perhaps two weeks?

while night terrors might look frightening to us he does not remember anything right?

but driving around at 4.5 is a bit much imho. in dd's ps/dc all the 4 year olds and older had to lay quietly for an hour (or was it half hour) and then the next hour they got to get up and do quiet activities.

can he do quiet activities?

[CarrieMF]

If you stick with no naps, he'll adjust & his behaviour will too.  He may go to bed earlier on those days.  There will be days he falls asleep on the couch/floor.

[bdoody11]

We went through something similar with DD#1 when she was close to 3 years old. If she took any sort of nap she would be up to 10 pm or so. I am a SAHM and needed some down time so we dropped the nap. She would get extremely agitated/overtired around 4-5pm, but she was in bed by 7 or 7:30pm so it was definitely worth it. I agree that low-key activities/rest time is the way to go. If you do TV, a few shows at the "witching hour" can be a life saver. However, sometimes it was just plain unpleasant anyway you sliced it. It's tough. I found once she turned 4 years old she didn't break down anymore and had much more energy late in the day. I assume that is the normal time she would have given up naps on her own.

DD also has night terrors when she is over tired. They just started for us a few months ago, but I also found they peaked on days when she had an abundance of physical activity. They too have also gotten better/gone away as her body has adjusted to being more active due to the nice weather. Hang in there, mama and go with your gut. If it's time to stop napping for you sanity I say go for it. He'll adjust, I promise.