Levi has never been a good napper (much to my dismay). I have always longed for those 2-3 hour naps my friends claim their toddlers take in the afternoon. Usually Levi is up and ready to play after 45 mins...1.5hrs on a rare, really good day. Ever since we made the switch to the big boy bed his naps have been consistantly 45 mins to 1 hour long. About a week ago I decided to try and put him back down when he woke up (especially when it had only been 30-45 mins). The first 2 days this actually worked and he slept another 30-45 minutes! Yipee! Well...sadly that did not continue.
Philip and I have been noticing, however, the more and more often he needs "discipline" (which seems to be more often every day...ha, almost 2 I guess!) that he responds really well to simple, black and white instruction. Such as "do not throw rocks they can hurt people", or "you have to stay in your bed and sleep when it is dark outside". So, today after struggling to get Levi to nap for about 1 hour (he hadn't gone to sleep yet...rrr) I told him, "You cannot come out of your room until you have been asleep." I did NOT think this would work. Well...after playing in his room alone for about 1 hour (and occasionally saying "Momma? Levi out?" which I could hear on the monitor...cracked me up!) He went silent. I was shocked...1 whole hour of playing and he went to sleep?! I had been about to give up. I had to sneak a peak to make sure he was sleeping and hadn't killed himself...and what did I find?
A very adorable worn out looking crazy hair little boy sleeping on his bed...
and a crazy messy room with toys and books all over the place.
3 comments:
Hope this continues to work for you! That's awesome! We've always done the same thing with Nora. The rule is she has to stay in her room, but I don't make her stay in bed either. She almost always plays for at least thirty minutes before she gets in bed and goes to sleep. The way I see it, that's great because that's an additional thirty minutes of break time for me! ;) only down fall is her room always looks similar to levi's after nap ... Like a bomb went off! Ha!
We are going through the same thing. It has been about 2 weeks now of nap battles and him running all over his room. Glad that worked for you. Ill have to try it!
So cute! I think this is common. A few months ago I let Caden have quite time instead of a nap. But I noticed when he didn't nap he would sometimes start to fall asleep during dinner. So, a few weeks ago I started putting Caden in his bed and kindly saying, "Caden, it's night, night time. Please lay down." He would sometimes stand up and I'd say, "nope, you need to lay down please. Mommy will stay in here until you are asleep" Then I sit in the chair in his room and read for about 15 minutes and he's asleep. Knock on wood this will continue. He sleeps 1.5-2 hours but has also never been a good napper.
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