I am so frustrated?

Question

my 19 month old will only take naps half the time. When she doesn't take a nap she gets real grumpy around 4pm which by then it is too early to put her to bed for the night. I know the is normal.. I am just wondering how you other mommis dealt with it?

We definately have a routine. This change in the routine (not taking naps) was her idea. I keep her in her toddler bed and sometimes wait for 1 hour but she is still resisting, crying or singing and playing.

I don't really know whats the perfect way to parent but when I keep forcing her to do something she doesn't want to do or wont do I feel like I am torturing the poor girl.

Answer 1

Try laying down with her. Stop any or as much noise in the home as you can. Make sure that you make lunch time early. Make sure she gets up early in the morning. If and her sleep in then she will not want to take an early nap.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

I say just keep on putting her in bed for naps at the same time...stick to the routine. If she cries, don't go in(that tells her that you mean business). If she is playing, don't go in(at least she's in bed semi-resting, not running around). Going in the room gives her "mommy" time which is probably why she's decided she's done with naps. Finally, move her bedtime up 30min to an hour from when she normally goes down. You might think it's too early, but you'd be surprised that an earlier bed time does NOT mean waking earlier in the morning. Sleep begets sleep and the more tired she is, the more her body gears up to fight it. I had a similar situation with my 18 month old son (he's always been an aweful napper), but by moving the bedtime up to around 6-6:30, he now takes one 1 hr. nap and sleeps the night until 7am. I hope this helps. Good Luck!

Answer 3

Unfortunately you may have to accept that she's giving up naps. She may get grumpy in the afternoon, but ultimately you can't force her to nap...all you can do is try to make her rest by putting her in her room for "quiet time" basically what you're already attempting. My mom said I gave up naps at 9 months...she was so tired of fighting me to go to sleep during the day.

Answer 4

I have to agree that the routine is the most important thing you can do. If you enforce the idea od quiet/nap time then if she needs the sleep she will sleep. If she doesn't sleep at least she will have some quiet time so she doesn't get over stimulated as easily.

Answer 5

my son is 19 myhs also and he did the same, lay her down and let her cry for a min and she'll tire herself out to sleep. its not late for her to go to sleep at 4 pm my son now takes 3 to 5 naps and 2 big ones and 2 small than he is in the bed at 1045 to 9 am.

Answer 6

I let my daughter know what's coming up. A solid routine is what worked for us. She had to stay in her crib during nap time, whether she slept or not. She sometimes cried but usually went to sleep after ten minutes or so. But when she's crying, those ten minutes can seem life forever!

Answer 7

yes this in normal my twin boys are going thru this motion as i typing the have to take nap every day even if the don't go to sleep the have to lay quiet Lay in there bed for at least a hour1/2 unless the dose of many times this work

Answer 8

welcome to parenthood....my daughter is the same way and she's 3, she refuses to take naps and she hates her room unless someone is in her room with her, when she is really grumpy i just send her to her room and make her stay in her room for at least an hour and if she falls asleep thats great, but if she doesn't fall asleep then she has to stay in her room til she calms down! if your haveing problems disiplining her now it's going to get worse, if you dont stick to your plan of action! my daughter has become really bossy, mouthy and rude in the past few months since she turned 3, she wont listen to me at all and she wont even look at me when im talking to her, i can't even sit down to play with her cuz she wont let me teach her anything and she's soooooo hyper she can't sit still for more than 30 seconds unless i set a timer and make her sit! i made a mistake with her by spoiling her too much and letting her get away with things and ive also used my voice by yelling at her everytime she did something she wasn't suppose to do and now yelling at her isn't working and i hate to spank her but sometimes she needs one, but that doesn't seem to work either....i have run out of ways to disipilin her, but the past week if i tell her to go to her room, she runs right upstairs, i use to have chase her up the stairs! as for the nap again if she continues to refuse taking naps, just send her to her room for an hour like you said you do and ignore her for an hour, instead of saying it's nap time or whatever then say it's quiet time and quiet time is spent in her room for an hour by herself!

Answer 9

Mrs Strain had a good answer. I'd only add this: Get a good pair of earmuff-type hearing protectors to get you through the crying times. My wife laughed after our daughter was born and I came home with a pair of shooting muffs from the gun shop. She didn't laugh very long!

Answer 10

routines are good.stick with it. also it doesn't hurt a baby to cry. if you give in when she cries then you're teaching her that she can have her way if she cries.if your baby does not want to sleep during naptime then don't make her but don't let her sleep until bedtime. this will be hard at first but it will work.be patint and good luck.