[PajamaMama]

My daughter was 3 in May. Over the summer she had given up her nap and was awake from about 6:30 am until 7-7:30 pm. Now that school has started, we drive to pick my older dd up from school which gets out just before 4pm. Invariably the 3yo falls asleep in the car, and is hard to wake up when I get home. Even if I DO wake her up when we pull into the garage, she has gotten an hour nap by that point. And then she usually ends up falling asleep on the couch for another hour or so.

Well, I'm sure you can imagine what this has done to her night time sleep...she is up until 11 or 12 o'clock now! Dh and I will be in bed, lights out, exhausted, and she is bouncing off the walls. I can't take this much longer!

When the weather cools off a bit older dd will be walking home from school. But, since we live in Florida, that could be another 2 months.

 

[oneotamama]

No advice. Offering hugs! We had similar issues last fall when ds was attending preschool for a brief spell. We pulled ds out of school so that took care of our problem. Maybe you'll just have to suffer through 2 months of it?! Doesn't sound easy now I know!!

 

[oneotamama]

love your dd's names btw!

 

[HappyNewMama]

No real advice here, just wanted to let you know my son turned three in April and he's having an insane sleeping schedule this summer... Apparently his new bedtime is 12:30--and he hasn't slept before midnight in over a month at this point...I remember reading threads about this happening with other preschool aged kids last summer, so I'm really thinking that we can do the best we can to help them realize that we are expecting them to sleep (that expectation may or may not be necessary to you, I do it because I feel like my son will likely let himself transition out of this 'phase' more smoothly and quickly if I keep the 'regular' expectations in place while making a few changes to accomodate his current situation) while still taking into account what they're feeling like their needs are (I am doing this by encouraging lights out/low lighting after a certain time and allowing calm quiet-ish play/behavior like reading in the bed, etc. and explaining to him that I am tired and am not able to play late at nighttime because my body needs its rest.), and other than that just wait for it to pass. But these days that's usually pretty much my approach to everything parenting related! The first few weeks of this I really tried hard to keep his sleeping schedule on track but when I realized it was time for me to just accept that he can't sleep before midnight right now at least the aggravation disappeared (for both of us!).

 

[Zach'smom]

You probably have already tried this, but I will throw it out there anyway.
How about playing upbeat music, singing loudly, chatting loudly, special car toys that she doesn't get except for when you pick up DD, giving her a snack and a drink in the car and trying to keep things lively and your daughter engaged with you so she doesn't have a chance to fall asleep.

 

[PajamaMama]

Thank you for the sympathy and suggestions...yes I have tried keeping her awake in the car, to no avail.

At least I know I'm not alone here!

:

 

[Dakota's Mom]

I don't have a solution either, just commiseration. My 4 year old doesn't always nap. If he doesn't nap he's in bed by 8:30 or 9:00. If he naps, it's more like midnight before he'll settle down. Now I don't know about you but I like having a bit of down time with no child care responsibilities. But if he needs a nap and doesn't go to sleep he is a wild child. It's hard to know what to do. He does not go back to sleep if he takes a 5 minute nap in the car so maybe for us that's the solution. Take him for a car ride, let him sleep for 5 to 10 minutes than go home and wake him up. Maybe that will be enough to get him through until bed time. I don't know. At best we can only hope they outgrow it soon.

Kathi

 

[newmommy]

although this is an old thread it has brought me much comfort because this is a big issue for me right now.

I am not alone.

 

[A Mothers Love]

Each day start nap 15- 30 minutes earlier than the day before, untill you reach a time that works & don't let em' sleep to long!!!

 

[Flor]

Similar issue. Ds's natural rythm is up at around 8, nap at 4-5:50, bed at 10. However, now that he's in preschool, and I'm working, that just doesn work. As you are trying to do, our solution is to force him to not nap then he crashes out at 7, and is up at 6. There are times though that he REALLY wants to sleep, but no way. Like your dc, once he is out, he is out and there is no waking him. The ONLY solution I have found for car naps in the dvd player. He will force himself to stay awake for a cartoon

. Not great, but I do use it if I need to be in the car at that time (BTW, I just have a portable dvd player, my car didn't have one). Can someone watch her while you pick up other dc?