Sammy's been going through what I hope is a short-term phase of skipping his afternoon nap. In the past seven days, he's probably gone down for a nap only twice, and even then he fought the inevitable for nearly two hours before succumbing to sleepiness. Normally, as long as he was entertaining himself quietly in his room during that time, I wouldn't care, but that is not the case. The kid has turned into a one-toddler wrecking crew; in the course of what has become our typical afternoon around these parts, Sammy's managed to break the drawer under his old crib from trying to use it as a step for climbing, moved his bed from one side of the room to the other, dumped out his trash can (that was full of dirty wipes, ugh), and pulled a telephone jack completely out of the wall (granted, this one wasn't completely his doing as a closer examination of said jack revealed that it was not even close to being installed properly and probably some sort of horrible electrocution hazard). Short of duct taping the kid to his bed, I'm completely out of ideas as to how to keep him from tearing his room apart while he's supposed to be resting.
I had some minkee fabric left over from a previous sewing project so I thought that perhaps I could entice Sammy to sleep (or, you know, just stay in his freakin' bed for an hour or two) if I made him a super soft and comfy pillow cover out of it. The kid loves soft stuff after all and already sleeps with approximately 20398 fuzzy blankets--even when it feels like a hundred degrees in the house. Well, the jury's still out on whether or not Sammy's new pillow cover has made any kind of improvement in his napping behavior (although he did sleep for a whole two hours yesterday, thank goodness), although I'm now thinking I should probably make one in a body pillow size for myself because that fabric is amazingly soft and cuddly (albeit a huge pain to work with). Any tips or tricks for getting a toddler to take his naps like a champ? I've already removed any toys and other things that could be considered distracting and hung black-out curtains a few months back, so I'm seriously at a loss here; surely not-quite two is too young to be completely forgoing an afternoon nap, right?
4 comments:
I hate to say it, but my oldest stopped taking regular naps at 20 months. He would take one in the car once in awhile, but the days of him napping in his bed were over.
My youngest stopped taking naps sometime after his second birthday.
Even though I knew they wouldn't sleep, I still put them in their room, saying it was quiet time. Occasionally the little guy would fall asleep, but most of the time, they just played around.
*If you have Desitin in your house, or anything like it, make sure it is out of reach!! That stuff is a bear to clean up.*
Good luck! Toddlerhood is hard.
I have the same problem. I had to move everything out of her room also. i do allow her to look at books, but when she gets bored, she rips them up. Eventually she does end up falling asleep though, but I had to gate the outside of her door.
We have been through a few of these phases. I don't have much advise as Amy only naps or sleeps with me lying on the floor beside her crib. I doubt she'd stay in a big bed ;-) it is a phase...so I don't get too wound up about it just now. Also, I can always make her nap if I take her out in the bike carrier...doubt that is an option;-)
On a positive note, if they don't nap at least they go down earlier and easier.
Luckily, ours still naps like a champ, but welcome to the twos! My son, if left alone for more than 10 minutes, will dump out every "container" in his room, including his trains, his blocks, all stuffed animals, and his paper supplies.
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