At what age did your twins give up all naps?

[helene1108]

My oldest twins turned 3 last October so they're not quite 3.5 yet. They don't seem that interested in taking a nap anymore...in the times I have been able to get them to sleep, they stay awake until 10:00 at night...ugh!!

I thought 3 was a little early for them to be giving up their nap but maybe I'm wrong??

So I'm curious is your 3-4 yr olds are still napping?

[twogirlygirls]

my girls also were three in october and they are still taking naps...as a matter of fact, they are taking one now :snicker:
i know several friends of ours have trouble getting their kids to nap after age three...i think that this is the year we should prepare ourselves...we may no longer have that kid-free time during the day...

[ourtwinmom]

We are right there with you on the nap issues! If they take a long nap they are up late! If they do not nap 5-7p.m. is painful!!!! But they are usually asleep by 7pm. If it is bath night and they are super tired sometimes I will put them in the bath at 6:15 p.m.

What I have started doing is putting them in their rooms with 3 books from 2-3:30 p.m. for "quiet" time.

If they fall asleep - great but I will wake them at 3:30 p.m. regardless of how long they have slept. I like easy bedtimes!

Note - they are in separate rooms.

[2blessed]

My girls turned 4yrs the end of Aug and were on 2hr naps still from 1-3ish...they started JK in Sept so the naps were not always able to happen. If we are home, they don't nap but if we go in the car around that 'nap' time, they do fall asleep.
Often, they fall asleep after a full day at school on the way home.
I find that at this age, they are still needing that nap however it happens to happen!!
I do not put them down for naps anymore though...it just tends to be whenever it happens...usually in the car! I carry them into the house and they continue to sleep for about 1 1/2hrs.
Regardless of a nap or not, they go to bed around 730 and up around 5! THAT has never changed!

[Kim-mom2MnEm]

My two stopped taking naps at 3 1/2.

[1sttimemommy]

I was so glad to see this post! My guys aren't even two yet and I am finding that they don't nap on more days than they do. I was thinking that it is WAY too early for this. The thing is, they are not usually fussy over it, so I haven't pushed the issue. If one does fall asleep for a nap, and the other doesn't I will pull the one who is awake out of the room (otherwise he climbs on the sleeper) and make him do quiet time on the couch downstairs. When they don't nap, I try to put them to bed early, but that doesn't always happen either. They sleep great at night, from about 7-8 until 7-8 in the a.m. Any advice from others with this kind of problem? I'm listening.

[mylittlelovebugs]

My 3y/o twins stopped taking naps when they were around 20months.
My nearly 5y/o gave up naps around 3 years.
Needless to say our home has been 'napless' for a long time in which seems like eternity :o:

[virginiagirl74]

31 months is when they stopped. EVERY now and then, they will nap, but it is rare.

[CHP'S MOM]

H&P stopped at 3 & 1/2 yrs.
Sometimes they fall asleep in the car, but I wake them up when we get to where we are going no matter how long they've been sleeping.

[2blessed]

Carrie, I found that my girls went through periods from around 19mths onward, where the naps seemed to be not happening. BUT I had read in an article to encourage the naptime, even if they do not sleep, to put them down for that period of time anyways. I always used 2 hrs for that period of time and you know what?
They did start napping again! Sometimes I would have one that fell asleep and the other did not or they both would fall asleep eventually with one waking earlier.
If one woke earlier, I did remove them so the other could sleep.

I don't bother putting them down for that 'quiet time/naptime' anymore, but they are over 4yrs now. I'm sure that if they had not started into JK last Sept, that they would probably still be napping to some degree!

Good luck, its a tricky stage to try and figure out!

[1sttimemommy]

Thanks Kelly Anne. I do try to put them both down, but I don't want one waking the other, which they will do If I don't remove one. It would be great if we had another room to use for naps, but we don't. Anyway, thanks for the advice.

[Steph211]

Mine stopped napping shortly before age three, I think. They still have "quiet" time everyday though but they never, ever fall asleep during it. In fact it's really not particularly quiet. It's just time when they are supposed to be playing quietly alone in their rooms. Most of the time they get together though. Lately we've actually been referring to it as "Mommy's quiet time." :snicker: Very occassionally they will fall asleep if we are in the car in the late afternoon. At night they sleep pretty well from about 7:30 or 8:00 until almost 6:30.

[Milligrace]

It seemed that a switch flipped in my guys on their 3rd b-day... They learned to climb out of their cribs and they stopped napping (we had also taken their binkies away - BIG incentive for naps/sleep!! but they had to go).

If they get any sleep during the day - which they do still need - I pop them in the car for a drive :anon: and they sleep for about an hour or so. On school days, they just pass out on the way home. On non school days - depending on the activity of the day - I might just make an excuse for them to get in the car (Let's go to the bank!)

I get a McD's coffee and read my book while they sleep - I park in a parking lot about 10 minutes from my house.

[Kaper]

Shortly after their third birthday here.

I have a couple of friends whose kids still nap at 4 and 4-1/2 years old, but they're up until 10:00 every night. My kids are asleep at 7:00, so it may be a trade off.

[helene1108]

Thanks for the feedback! Today I told them they needed some quiet time and they did end up falling asleep. Bella slept 30 minutes and Cole slept for 60 minutes. Come bedtime, neither wanted to go to bed...ugh!

I guess this phase will work itself out, like some of you mentioned! I don't know if I'm ready for them to be nap-less yet...LOL!!!

[Mom of 5]

Mine gave up their naps, gradually, around 38 months.

Molly still takes a nap sometimes, but then she is awake until 10PM. If Anthony falls asleep mid-day, he's up until 12 or 1AM! I have a hard time with that, so I try to avoid car rides exceeding 15 minutes in the afternoon.

But some day, they really would do better with a nap.
Mine will be 4 at the end of March.

[fitz]

Luka stopped napping totally just before two years, and only once in a blue moon (like maybe three times this whole year) has just conked out in the middle of the day. All things considered, I nap more than he does...

Leo goes in spurts. Sometimes he'll go for four months with no naps, and then suddenly he just needs them--badly. When he's in those stages, I have to fit errands in early in the day, or he just falls asleep the second we get into the car.

But he's starting school the week after next, so who know what'll happen then... He'll be there every day from 9:45 - 1:45; all I can say is, thank heavens he wasn't put into the early-morning class, because he's just not an early-morning kid...

[mymarvins]

Mine still nap most days. Even if they don't sleep, they are put down for some "quiet" time. They usually end up sleeping for a little bit. On the days they do sleep, I get them up between 3 and 3:30 so they will go to bed easier. On nap days, bedtime is closer to 8, no nap days are 7. I am not looking forward to the end of the naps.

[bridgettes]

Mine quit napping somewhere around 3 years old. I was one of those moms that SWORE I'd never let my kids stop taking naps before they were in school for full days, but that just didn't work out. Around the time they turned 3 their nap times became full on battles. I would have to go to their room (they share one) and break up fights, make them get back in bed, tell them to be quiet- I was in there every 10 minutes or so. Also, they started giving me LOTS of trouble at bedtime on the days they did happen to fall asleep.

Now, at just over 3 1/2 we have a new routine worked out. The baby eats lunch at 10:30, then I put him down for his nap, then the big kids eat lunch at 11 and then have 'rest time' in their playroom. They watch a feature-length movie while either playing quietly or laying on the couch or sleeping bag. They know that the rule is: if you can't play quietly in the playroom until rest time is over, then you can go to your bed and take a nap like the baby. Most days I manage to get a good 1 1/2- 2 hour quiet time in the house. :)

[mrsljb]

The boys just turned three in January. Naps have been hit or miss here for quite some time. It used to be that whether they took a nap or not, they would pretty much go to bed around the same time, or wake up in the morning around the same time.

Lately, when they nap, they have still been bouncing off the walls at 10:00 and 11:00 at night. So I have been thinking about just cutting out the naps altogether and then start planning things for them to do around that time that they start getting sleepy, which is right around 4:00-5:00. I don't know what else to do, but I am tired of being up late with them. The worse part is that I know that Kyle could still really use the naps, but it is almost impossible to get him to lay down without Kevin.

[maryk]

Mine turned 3 in December and still take naps. They are very early risers though, so by noon or 1, they are tired. The naps aren't as long as they use to be, and occasionally they will skip, but then will fall asleep around 4pm, which is not good.
I like that they still nap, but there are days I wish I didn't have to schedule my day around one.

[Kristen]

mine are three at the end of this week and gave up naps months ago

[helene1108]

Well, we tested the nap/no nap thing out this wkend and trouble is if they take a nap, they're up until 10:00 pm, which is what happened again last night. Then they wake up all cranky with bad attitudes. But they also need some sleep during the day b/c like another PP mentioned, they're falling asleep at the dinner table.

Would it be cruel to let them nap for maybe 45 minutes and then wake them? So maybe that way I'm letting their bodies rest but also not jeopardizing their bedtime?

[maryk]

What time are they napping? If mine nap too late in the day, they are up late.
I would try keeping their naps to an hour or less and see if that helps. It's hard to wake them up and they can be very cranky, but it's better than letting them sleep too late and have them up all hours of the night.

[jerseygirlie]

It all depends...at daycare thry take naps but rarely fall asleep so they have "Quiet time" On the weekends it's a whole other story. Sat. they refuse to nap and Sunday they take a nap.

[MomtoA&S]

Helene - Mine stopped taking naps consistently about 2 months ago. Every once in while they will, but that's maybe once every 2 weeks or so. I still put them down at 1pm in their rooms every day. Most of the time they are calling for me 15 minutes later.....so I know they're not going to sleep. But if they do end up falling asleep, I wake them by 3. Bedtime every night is at 8pm, unless their completely exhausted, it will be 7:30, like last night.

A few problems we have: If they don't nap, they usually fall right asleep but are up between 5:30-6am. :eek: And that is regardless of what time they do to bed. I really thing they are in that adjustment period of sleep where they have to figure out what to do if they dont' nap and get the sleep they need.

So frustrating though!

[helene1108]

Seems like many of us are running into the same problem...no nap means they're tired and cranky by late afternoon and fall asleep early for bedtime but napping means they don't wanna go down at bedtime!

What I've been doing is encouraging them to "rest their bodies" so they'll lay in bed with a book and I'll lay on the floor and pretend to snooze. They usually fall asleep within 20 minutes and then I make sure to wake them up after an hour. It seems to be working so far. When they're at preschool MWF I made arrangements with their teacher to let them read books on their mat as long as they're quiet..she said most of the time they fall asleep but don't sleep for that long.