I need some bed/naptime suggestions

[Sarah8914]

Originally Posted by mummytothree

Could you do a "power nap" with her? I do this with my 3.5 year old. He is like your DD, he needs a nap everyday but If I give it to him (he will easily sleep 3 hours) he is up all night but if he doesn't get one he is a CRAB by 6:30PM. I give him lunch and a glass of apple juice/orange juice then I put him down for a nap and set the time for 25 minutes. When the time goes off I wake him up and give him a few minutes to "adjust" and then we play about 15 minutes of silly games and sing silly songs.

The juice helps "rev" him up but it doesn't kick in for about 20 to 30 minutes so I can sneak a nap in and then by the time he wakes up the juice helps him not feel groggy from his nap and the games and songs help too. We have been doing this since our newest addition in Jan (they share a room and needed him to be able to sleep at night and no be playing and wake the baby up) and it's been working great for us!!!

Also wanted to add that he can easily make it to 8PM bed time with this routine and not a crab in site!!!!

Maybe I could try that. The problem is that it usually doesn't matter how long the nap is, it will mess her up. However, if it's early enough (RIGHT after lunch) she might be okay.

[mrsmbm]

Is it possible to put her down at 7? My almost 4 year old is the exact same way, and she's in bed by 7 every night, most of the time asleep by 7:30. But if she naps, she's up until ten, sometimes eleven! (Awake in her room, not running around.) Sometimes my DD has a melt down around four, but then she perks up if I distract her with a craft or outdoor play. Maybe try an earlier bedtime if she's not napping and is crabby in the late afternoon...that's my advice.

[rach3975]

My almost-5 year old is the same way. We DO NOT let him nap if we can help it. If he takes any nap in the afternoon, even 15 minutes, he is up 2-3 extra hours at night. On any day with a nap, he ends up getting several hours less sleep than if we'd forced him to stay awake in the afternoon. So I'm comfortable waking him up ASAP (if he falls asleep in the car) or making him stay awake (when we're home) because I know it will ultimately lead to him being better rested.

When he was about 3.5 we had to cut out his nap because he couldn't fall asleep until 10 at night. As soon as we cut it out, he started falling asleep by 7:30. On days he really needed something, we let him sleep 10-15 minutes in the car. It was enough to improve his mood, and he coped better with being woken from a car nap than a home nap. (We can't let him take those short naps anymore, but it was a good transition back when he was first giving up the nap.) 1.5 years later, he still falls asleep easily by 8pm as long as he doesn't nap.