What is the latest time you will allow your dc to fall asleep for a nap?

[guest^]

We had a wonderful time at the park today....we stayed for 2 hrs!!!

Dd met her little friend there, and the mommy and I were chatting away...VERY beautiful day....

Well, ds hadn't napped...and i thought he would nap as we walked to the park...nope! he stayed awake and played hard!!

Fell asleep on the way home at 4...and is still asleep...dh is a little annoyed as we were planning on an early bedtime for kiddos...and that is now out of the question!!

The other mommy seemed surprised I was willing to just let ds fall asleep on the way home....I *figured* he would only sleep an hour or so....not more than 2 hrs!!!

I see this as the classic scene for me trying to meet the needs of dd(6 yo and homeschooled) and going with the flow for ds!

Am I crazy? He will not go back to sleep until midnight or so...and if any of you follow the nightwaking forum-you probably know sleep is an issue for us!!!!

Can't keep from thinking that in a couple of mos...we could be snowed in for a few days...just trying to take advantage of the weather!!!


mamapoppins

[coracle]

The latest I'll try to start a nap for ds (now 3yo but this has been true at least a year) is about 4:00--but then I wake him up after an hour! His sleep cycle is in 1-hr chunks--he stirs and rolls over at 1 hr, then wakes up at 2 hrs. In recent months I wake him after 1 hr regardless, but I started the practice on days when we would start his nap late, because having him wake up at 6:00 was no good for getting him to sleep at night. If we missed regular nap time (2 or 3) and were coming home around 4:00 and he didn't fall asleep in the stroller or car, we would skip nap and either start bath/bed routine a little earlier, or (rarely) skip bath and go straight to bed if he was melting down after supper. If he does fall asleep in the stroller or car, I note the time and wake him up after an hour, regardless of whether I move him to the bed or not when we get home.

HTH
-Sue

[MSings]

My ds (23 months) has to get up from his nap by 3:30 PM or 4 PM or his bedtime moves from 8:30 to later. If he is not asleep by 3:30, I will skip the nap altogether and then he goes to bed an hour earlier. After many nights of spending an hour plus trying to get him to sleep after a late nap I now wake him up at 4 PM if he doesn't wake up on his own. I open the curtains and take him downstairs to nurse in our chair. If I don't do this, naptime and bedtime and wake time just get later and later.

[oceanbaby]

The latest I like ds to go down for a nap is 4:30-5:00. The main reason is not that it will affect his bedtime all that much (maybe 8:30-9 instead of 8) but that he will be totally cranky the whole time from when he wakes up at 6 or so until he goes to bed at 8:30. He has napped until 6:30 many times, without much of a bedtime problem, but is best if he falls asleep before 5. I think if he goes to sleep after that, that when he wakes he feels like he is not quite ready for bed but not quite ready to be awake either.

I have never woken him from a nap, because he will just be a major sourpuss. I've always been pretty flexible about when he sleeps, so long as he does sleep!

[adb252001]

Gosh, now that we have our own baby I have to say that I would let him sleep. Somes kids are soooo grumpy if woken up. Plus , the time with your other child is nice. I love it when babe takes a really long nap. She is happy for hours afterward and I feel good to.

[seagan]

I'm with Oceanbaby -- we let the sleeping dog lie! And it's not because of the bedtime thing (thankfully, we can usually get him to sleep at his normal time of 8:00ish even if he's had a really late nap). It's because he is SO dang grumpy and tyrannical if he's woken up. Actually, he's miserable even if he gets to sleep (what is it about naps after 3:00 making kids cranky?), but he's WAY worse if he's woken up.

As for trying to keep them awake if they've missed their normal naptime and it's getting late in the afternoon, we try to do this and usually succeed if it happens to be a leisurely weekend and we can go off to the park or do some other fun, active thing with him until it's closer to bedtime, but if that's impossible for some reason (and there are plenty in our lives, and we only have 1 child!), we let him fall asleep and try to nap ourselves.

Good luck to you!

[oceanmommy]

Well, dd keeps "rockstar" hours... to bed at 11pm, up at 11am (approx.). It just works for us, KWIM ? So usually I get her down between 4 and 5 for a nap and she sleeps till 6 or so. I noticed she needs at least 4-5 hours after nap before bed to be tried enough to go to sleep.

Some kids sleep better at different times of day I think. I have let dd sleep in in the mornings cause she seems to sleep better at that time of day than in the evening when most kiddos her age are off to bed. I will wake dd up if the nap is going late at about 6:30, it definetly affects her ability to sleep that night if she naps too late.

If we reach 5:30 and she hasn't napped I generally forgo the nap and move bedtime up a bit. Unless I think I will be staying up late that night

Example... on new years eve I will probably give her nap at 6 or so... that way she will be able to say up for the party !!

[Trishy]

Billy is 17 months old now and he usually takes one nap a day for about two hours around 12. Sometimes he will just stay in his bed and play, the take a micro nap which usually results in a cranky toddler somewhere between 3-5 pm. I don't like him to go down for a nap after 4 but sometimes it is necessary for him to go down at 5pm. I leave him to sleep for around 30 minutes and then I start tooling around upstairs and that usually wakes him up. He is grumpy if I go wake him but if he wakes up because I am making noise upstairs he's not. If he takes a late nap his bedtime will slide from 7/7:30 to 7:30/8pm.

Trish

[simonee]

If my dd (3.5yo) naps AT ALL, as in 10 mins while bf-ing, her sleep time will move about 3 or 4 hours. Since she never goes to sleep before midnite anyway, we try to avoid it at all costs. If we keep her awake, she'll be grouchy for 15 mins but fine afterwards. We've done this for the past year or so (but every now and then she sneaks a nap in anyway )

[tessamami]

I don't try to regulate naps, at all.

I wouldn't know where to begin. If she needs to sleep, then she needs to sleep. Don't know how it would help, anyway.

I do miss being up by myself when DD is sleeping but I usually sleep when she does. And now that she is older, I fit in my online time somehow while she plays with DH, etc.

[guest^]

Ds did not wake up till almost 7pm!!

Though he fell back asleep at 10:30, we had a very wakeful night!(duh!)

He would NOT stay asleep! I am hoping it is cuz of his out of sinc nap yesterday, but fear that it is his ears again!

I have been a zombie today..somehow managed to fix 2 meals,clean the kitchen, and read to dd for almost 2 full hours.

He slept today from 11:30-1:15.

I thought I might lose my mind around 7pm as he was so cranky.

He is now asleep,dh is reading to dd I am winding down ready to hopefully sleep a (gasp!) solid 3-4hours!!!!!

I guess I cannot wake him once he has fallen asleep as he too is a monster upon waking, but I think we'll try what we can to preventy him from sleeping past dinner time!



mamapoppins