Nicole - posted on 11/05/2009 ( 6 moms have responded )
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I have a 3 yr old boy who sleeps from 7:30 pm to 6am every night. What i would like to know is how long should his afternoon nap be or should be having one at all? He normally has lunch at 11:30 am (because that's when his daycare has theirs and he likes routine!) and i put him to bed at 12. He will normally sleep for about 3 hrs. Is this too long? Should he be having one at all? And at what age should he be shrinking this nap time?
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Nicole - posted on 11/05/2009
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Thankyou for all the comments, and yes i do LOVE my me time! With my second child about 7 weeks away that afternoon break is so needed! And yes he does get very cranky and upset if he doesn't get his afternoon sleep around 5ish it becomes arsenic hour where he is so not himself and so hard to control. So i think i'll let sleeping dogs lie and he can sleep all he wants to. Thanks everyone for their input. Cheers.
Jennifer - posted on 11/05/2009
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My son is 3 1/2 and at 3 he completely stopped napping at home.. and when he does fall asleep during the day he ends up being so wired that he can't fall asleep at 7:30. At daycare 2 days a week he does nap for about 1 1/2 hours probably because he does still need it especially with all the excitement there. Kids all have different sleep rhythms .. if he can nap 3 hours and still fall asleep at 7:30 and then sleep the night.. i would consider yourself lucky. I imagine he will grow out of that and you will notice that he is wide awake at night.. in which case i would discourage his long naps.. is he cranky if he doesn't get his nap or if his 3 hour nap is disrupted? if so he probably still needs it.
Diana - posted on 11/05/2009
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I put my 3 year old daughter down for nap everyday at 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm on school days. She sleeps till 4 o'clock everytime. It's like her body knows when it's four no matter what time she goes down. She sleeps through the night just fine. I would suggest keeping the nap time in your day so that you can have some me time. As long as he's sleeping, you should keep naps in!!
Suzanne - posted on 11/05/2009
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As long as he takes his nap and it doesn't distub his sleep at night, then that means he still needs it.
Robin - posted on 11/05/2009
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Hi Nicole. Sounds like he enjoys sleeping. I can't see how this can hurt him, and I believe that he will let you know when things need to change. I only had one of my own, but have 5 grands and each are/have been different in sleep patterns.
Hope this gives you some comfort.
Robin Hendricks
Holly - posted on 11/05/2009
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If he's napping that long and still sleeping at night then there is no reason to stop the naps. My MIL runs a home daycare and all the kids take an average 2.5-3 hour nap (from 12-2:30 or 3) and all the kids sleep fine at night (at least their parents tell my MIL they do). Her daycare takes kids from 2 months to 4 years old and the kids 12 months and up are on the same nap schedule (the kids under 12 months are usually on a 2 nap schedule, but my 8.5 month-old is on the same schedule as all the big kids as is my 2 year-old).
His little body will start to phase out the nap on it's own. When he doesn't need as much "charging up" in the middle of the day anymore his body will just automatically wake up earlier. As my MIL alwasy says, "Leave a sleeping child alone and all will be well!"
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