Breaking the Nap Barrier

Well, it's finally done. Sydney is not taking daily naps anymore.

I know, some of you are thinking that it is insane that my daughter, who turned 5 yesterday, took naps regularly nearly right up until that date. As I have been informed by many parents, most kids are done by age 3 or 4 at the latest.

Well, what can I say? Sydney has always loved her sleep. Even as a baby, she could not miss a nap. She would actually smile and giggle as I put her to bed, because she was excited to go to sleep.

Also, why would I make her give it up? If she loved it so much and I was still stuck at home regardless because of Isaiah's napping...wouldn't I want a couple of hours to get stuff done by myself?

We started by telling her she didn't have to go to sleep, just have rest time. Well, she couldn't even make it an hour without falling asleep! I played with her nap schedule, keeping her up later than Isaiah, until around 2:30 so that I could have a private reading lesson with her and then let her watch SuperWhy! before she took a nap. I also started waking her up at 4:00 so that her long naps wouldn't interfere so much with bedtime.

Around December, I knew the time was coming. She had started sleeping deeper at naptime and it was harder to wake her up. And I did let her go a few days without naps when she had an exceptionally good attitude. However, when January hit, so did her growth spurt. And what does that mean? More sleep is needed.

So, Ryan and I reluctantly let her keep taking naps throughout January until we could see that her growth spurt was ending. Toward the beginning of February, we just started not letting her take naps.

She has done really well, except we're still working on a bedtime routine time so that she'll still wake up around 7:00 when Isaiah does. And it's funny, but if we travel anywhere in the afternoon time/early evening, she is almost guaranteed to take a nap in the car.

With her birthday having just ended, we tied this into a new responsibility/freedom for her - she must practice her piano songs an additional 3 times per day, but if she does it with a good attitude, she will be able to choose whether or not she wants to lay down for a nap.

Of course, I am very excited about all this non-napping stuff - I've been looking forward to it for a good 6 months! This means more freedom on when I can have school lessons with her and also another sign of independence. I am fairly sure that Isaiah will give up his napping well before the age of 5; he has just never needed as much sleep. I am already starting to tailor his naps to an earlier schedule and cut them short so that he will be able to adjust to Sydney's earlier bedtime schedule as well.

However, nap time at home will once again become a reality when I have this baby and start this cycle all over again.