{"id":8731,"date":"2015-07-20T08:17:04","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T12:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=8731"},"modified":"2015-07-20T08:17:04","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T12:17:04","slug":"transitioning-away-from-nap-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/20\/transitioning-away-from-nap-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Transitioning Away from Nap Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of transitions in childhood that are all about timing and some of them, like potty training<\/a>, breatmilk\/bottle weaning, giving up the pacifier<\/a>, and moving to a toddler bed<\/a> are parent led. \u00a0The parent often decides when it’s time for these transitions and how to implement them.<\/p>\n

Giving up nap time<\/a> is another one of those choices that I think is parent led, though like other transitions, children will often start to show signs of being ready.<\/p>\n

I, for one, hold on to nap time as long as possible but obviously there comes a time when children no longer need the day-time sleep and this is how I decide when that time has come:<\/p>\n

Evening crankiness<\/strong>. \u00a0If my children are consistently a hot mess by dinner time when they don’t nap, they still need it. \u00a0If they can regularly hold it together until their normal bedtime then\u00a0maybe<\/em> they’re ready to give up the afternoon sleep.<\/p>\n

Trouble sleeping at night<\/strong>. \u00a0I’m not talking about the child that fights going to bed, the child that stays wired until 10 or 11 o’clock or the child that constantly comes out of his\/her room; these are just bad bedtime habits. \u00a0I’m talking about the child that lays down easily at their normal bedtime, ready for sleep then just\u00a0can’t<\/em> fall asleep.<\/p>\n

Car naps<\/strong>. \u00a0This is my golden determiner: If my kid can consistently and easily stay awake for a 1-2 hour drive during their normal nap time, they probably don’t need that afternoon sleep (and chances are they haven’t been sleeping at nap time anyways). \u00a0But if s\/he gets drowsy after 30 or 60 minutes of being strapped down in the car on a regular basis, that is my prime indicator that his\/her little body still needs that daily rest time.<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Things that I don’t factor in:<\/p>\n

Early waking<\/strong>. \u00a0Kids wake up early for lots of different reasons and in my experience, this usually indicates a lack of\u00a0good\u00a0<\/em>sleep, not that they’re getting too much.<\/p>\n

Fighting nap or bedtime<\/strong>. \u00a0Just because a child doesn’t\u00a0want<\/em> to lay down to sleep, has nothing to do with whether or not they\u00a0need<\/em> to sleep. Young children are wired to push boundaries and test their independence, they learn by\u00a0trying<\/em> to get their way; whether or not they do is up to the parent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are a lot of transitions in childhood that are all about timing and some of them, like potty training, breatmilk\/bottle weaning, giving up the pacifier, and moving to a toddler bed are parent led. \u00a0The parent often decides when it’s time for these transitions and how to implement them. Giving up nap time is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-mommys-life","category-family-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8731"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8745,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8731\/revisions\/8745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}