For some reason when all of my sweet darlings turn the ripe old age of two they decide that they no longer need a nap… but guess what!! Mom thinks they STILL DO! Isn’t two years way to young to be quitting? I have yet to be successful in getting a child to nap once they realize that they are missing out on tons of fun by having to take a nap.
” No nap!! Waa aaaa a aaa”
Dear me.
Please excuse the messy room. I am human.
The battle with Leah has begun. We have a little routine, you see. It involves going potty, turning on the fan, reading her favorite book of the month and singing a couple of songs. This used to work like a charm but now she wants more stories, more songs, and even more potty time. Sheesh. Before I know it I’ve spent an hour trying to get the girl to sleep. Today, for an example, she wanted a band-aid on her (week old) ouchie. I got one for her and then she happened to see another scabbed over ouchie and wanted one for that. OK, fine. Well, when she found a teeny, tiny 3rd ouchie and I’d had enough. I just had to say, “It’s nap time. Love you. Go to sleep.” and put her in her bed and shut the door. “Waaaaahhh!”
When I do that she ends up climbing out of her crib and sleeps on the floor by the door. I can see her shadow there and she’ll roll over and bang the door sometimes. Apparently she likes to sleep in her chair too. Is she ready for a big girl bed?
I hope every mother has those days when they have no more patience left at all and has to just shut the door.
Sigh.
It’s getting worse; the crying, the kicking of the door. She’s getting better and better at not falling asleep. It takes longer and longer and longer.
Not to mention the taking off of the diaper and pooping on the floor and then sitting in various spots on the carpet to spread the lovely brown mush around the room. Nice.
I’ve started to skip days because it’s just easier… but that means I’m on the path of phasing them out. Blast. That’s not what I want. Nor do I want a grouchy girl in the evening.
So are you going to tell me to be more patient? more consistent? more compassionate and that I should have given her her third band-aid? lay her down at the same time every day?? Hum, what to do?
Have you had a toddler that fought naps at 2? Did you continue to make them have them or did you give up? Do you have 4 or 5 year old that still naps? I’m not sure how anyone gets to that point. It’s a mystery to me… but at 31 I still like to have a nap. Maybe that counts for something.
My name is Manda and I love creating 
I so enjoyed reading your blog.. hang in there, naptime is worth “fighting” for
it can still be found with 4-5yr olds…I know plenty in my family and friends circle.
A narrow strip of duck tape over the tabs of a diaper… works wonders
Bless your heart…
If she can crawl out of her crib she is probably ready for a big girl bed plus it might make her a bit more excited about spenting time in it. I wasn’t a stay-at-home mom but for weekend naps, I would nap with them for the first half hour and then slip away. Honesty, I miss that excuse to nap now that my munchkins are 6! Mine napped until they were 5, but I have friends that their 2 year olds stopped taking naps. This was only alright as long as they weren’t tired and could function through the day but 30 minutes of quiet time a day is a must. I still require my boys to have quiet time to this day.
I have twin boys that slept in the same room and resisted sleep (even with the bandaide over a week old scratch trick) so in the evening (might work for nap too) I, with book and book-light in hand
, would sit in a chair facing out of the room, half-in-half out. When they would get out of their beds, without saying a word I would just place them back into their bed. Believe it or not, they finally get the point. Then slowly my chair would move out of the room inch-by-inch until going, going, gone! And victory!! Now this takes about 2 montns but I didn’t mind as much because I actually got time to read 
I now also miss that excuse to read for an hour a night!
Good luck and best wishes. Also, praying to your angels for assistance helps…mine work overtime
Bright Blessings,
Jennifer
Silly me forgot to mention how much I love your templates and am so thankful that you share your talent with all of us! Thank you!!!
Well, the good thing about missing a nap is that they usually go to bed at bedtime easier. Sometimes mine (3 and 6) nap and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they have quiet time and sometimes they don’t. We have all had the poop on the walls and the floors. One day you will miss this time. I tell myself that all the time, and somedays I do.
I’ve had days where my oldest did her best to not nap, but I would *try* to stay calm and consistant, insisting that even if she doesn’t want to nap, she has to stay in her room for x amount of time. What works for her to this day (she’s 4 1/2) is letting her bring a few of her favorite books with her to “read” until she falls asleep. I’m a SAHM and their naptime is my *me-time* so I am very persistent they take naps. My youngest daughter turns 2 today and I’m very afraid of what the future brings in the nap dept. So far she’s always been willing to take naps, heck most of the time, she even leads the way to her bed. I’m just afraid it’s not going to last long, especially once we get that dang nukie away.
Hi
I just had to say that I can totally relate! My son would take his diaper off and “paint” the walls of his rooms…the only thing that worked to fix that was to place a sleeper on backwards and secure the zipper. This didn’t always work but after a while he stopped.
You are doing just fine as far as i can tell
Thank you for all the wonderful comments. I so glad I’m not alone. I have had 2 successful days of naps and one not so successful. Humm. I’m going to keep at it though. Hopefully she’ll nap for a while more for me. Now… I need to decided about a big girl bed??
Yea, she is probably ready for a big girl bed. We also had a 2 year old take off her diaper and pee every night… we found sleepers with out feet and zipper them up the back. She could figure out how to unzip her back! If you can’t find footless jammie, cut the feet off regular sleepers. We also left a small bucket with board books for her, and told her she could look at them during nap time. She almost always feel asleep with a book. Yea and 2 is too early for most to give up nap, they all try this at 2…. all 4 of my children tried. My children all napped till 5 years old and into kindergarten… Good luck!