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Napping later in the day


I have twins, boy & girl, they are 26 months. I wake them up at 8am and they usually go to bed around 10-10:30. Lately they have been taking naps later and later, which makes it hard to get them to go to sleep at night. If I try to take them somewhere after 3pm they fall asleep in the car. Should I give up naps all together and plan to stay home every afternoon or how do I get them to nap early?

Posted: 08/27/2007 by MChilds1

Mom Answers

If your babies are falling asleep in the car they are definately tired. I think you are actually not having them sleep enough. It seems strange, but the more a child sleeps the easier it is for them to get to sleep when you put them down. This means they fight napping and going to bed less if you actually have them sleep more. Keeping them up during the day so they sleep at night really is not an effective strategy. They could probably nap in the very early afternoon, and they could almost definately go to bed earlier at night. This might be hard on you if you work, but a 10:00 bedtime is really most appropriate for teenagers. You might want to read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" in which Dr. Weissbluth suggests a bedtime between 7 and 9 and one two hour nap in the early afternoon(he suggests the 7pm). Placing importance on sleep has made waking hours full of fun and happiness for my 4mo twins and has made nap and bedtime battles very rare.
posted 09/06/2007 by avssmith
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I agree with avssmith...I think you are having difficulties with the naps, because the bedtime is too late. I would suggest slowly transitioning to a bedtime closer to 8-8:30. They will probably sleep until 7 or so, making it easier to develop an earlier naptime of 1-1:30pm. You will likely have some "transition" days/nights, but if you stick with it, your babies will adapt. Sleep begets sleep, even thought it seems counter-intuitive. Keeping them up later doesn't make them sleep or nap better/longer. I would highly suggest the book Heathly Sleep Habits, Happy child (Weisbluth). I got it when my daughter was 4 months old - lifesaver. She has been napping and sleeping consistently since (she is 13 months now). I hope it of luck!
posted 09/07/2007 by a BabyCenter Member
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They definitely need to nap at their age. They seem to up awfully late at night. I would suggest a two-pronged approach. 1. Incrimentally try to adjust their bed time earlier ... by, say, 5-10 every couple of nights. 2. At the same time, YOU set their nap time earlier ... around 1 or 1:30 p.m. Go through the whole routine and hope they go down. During this transistion, get them up from their naps at 3 or 3:30 (whatever you decide is best -- pick a time and stick with it) whether they've slept or not. You might have a couple of rough days. Try not to run afternoon errand so they're not tempted to sleep in the car while you're resetting their schedule. You will slowly be able to restructure their schedule so that it works better for you and them. Good luck!
posted 09/06/2007 by CaptK
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mine goes to sleep 10-10:30, gets up at 8 or 9 and naps for 2-3 hours at 2:30pm. it works for us. i think a bed time as to be determined by each individual family, not by "what's supposed to be". this isas long as your child acts appropriately in the daytime. he does all errands, play dates, visits, speech therapy, or gymnasitcs until a bit before nap time (depending on if we had lunch out or not) and it works very well. don't let people dictate when you should be putting your child to sleep. do what's right for you.
posted 10/24/2007 by alingone
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It sounds like your twins need an earlier bedtime. Many sleep experts recommend putting children to sleep between 6-8 pm. It sounds like they are waking up later than most children their age if you have to wake them up at 8. If they go to sleep earlier, they will probably wake up earlier, and be ready for naps earlier in the day. Try to put them in for naps when they show the first signs of tiredness. They say that the ideal time for an afternoon nap is around 1:00. If possible, maybe try to wind down their activities at around 1:00 and then maybe they'll show signs of tiredness. If you decide to try to put them to sleep earlier, I would suggest that you wake them up by 7 in the morning temporarily, or just don't let them take a nap during the day-make sure to keep them home if you think that they will fall asleep in the car. Once they start taking earlier naps, you will probably be able to go anywhere with them later in the day without worrying about them falling asleep.
posted 10/02/2007 by
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If you have to wake them up at 8am, they may not be getting enough sleep at night. Try letting them sleep for as long as they want in the morning for a few days to see what their nightime sleep needs really are. If they have to be up by 8am, you may need to adjust their bedtime to give them enough rest. Also, my daughter has started the late napping thing, and what we've found helps is winding her down and having her play quietly in her crib, even if she doesn't want to nap. More often than not, she ends up nodding off, but even when she doesn't nap, she at least gets a break from all the stimulation. Good luck!
posted 12/26/2007 by BethaWetha
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I wish I could help you. I have 2 boys + 1 on the way. Our boys are 16 mo's & 4.5 yrs old. Our oldest was in daycare until he was 3.5 yrs old. Since having our youngest I've been a SAHM. I've let our boys decide when to take their naps & bedtime. Both are good sleepers since about 2 mo's of age. Our 1st hardly took naps unless he was in daycare. Our 16 mo old takes 2 naps. The 1st nap is at 9 am to about 11-1130am. He takes his 2nd nap at 2pm & sleeps for about 1-1.5 hours. His bedtime is 630pm. There have been times when he sleeps for 4-5hrs during his 1st nap. I let him sleep for as long as he wants to. He has been on that routine for at least 14 months. On a few occasions he has skipped naps here & there. I will let him continue that routine for as long as he wants to or until he goes to preschool. I hope our 3rd baby is also a good sleeper. One thing we did w/both our boys is to continue living our day to day life. They would sleep through he noise.
posted 11/05/2007 by melinajlis
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I have a 27 month old and we cut his nap out completely. He would usually not get tired until 3 or 4pm which resulted in a 10:30 or 11pm bedtime. When we finally cut it out, he would sleep around 6:30 and 7 and now, he is literally wide awake all day, may sometimes on occasion need quiet time but really not anymore, and goes to bed easily at 7:00pm although last night he was wide awake at 8pm. I got so much flack from friends who kept insisting he needed naps but to nap at 4pm just wasn't good for any of us. And, yes, for awhile he was tired and needed down time but now his body is used to it. If my son napped at 1 or even 2pm, I wouldn't have tried to get rid of his nap but 4pm is just too late. Best of luck to you. Oh, and my son would sleep in the car but now he is back to falling asleep in bed and won't sleep in the car even when it's his bedtime.
posted 10/27/2007 by AquariusMoonchild
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i had a similar problem for my 14 month old and we transitioned her to 1 nap in the afternoon and its working much better. she wakes up 7-8am and we keep her up till about 11:30/12. then she naps for about 2 hours. she then goes to bed at 8pm. the first few days she was a little cranky in the late afternoons but once she started going to bed earlier she was fine.
posted 01/08/2008 by spygyrl
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My sugestion would be to put them to bed earlier. Both of my children (3 1/2 years and 14 months) take one long nap durring the day (my 3 1/2 year old doesn't always get his nap), and that's usually from around 11am to about 1 or 2pm. They go to bed between 8 and 9pm. The baby gets up earlier than my 3 1/2 year old. He is usually up between 7 and 7:30, while my 3 1/2 year old will sleep in till about 8:30 or 9am if it's a week end. We started PreK this year, so I usually have to get him up around 6:30 or 7. Good luck.
posted 10/13/2007 by joshs_mom_in_august
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