It seems like it has been ages since Dylan took a nap in his bed. In reality, the last time that he regularly took naps in his bed was at about four months ago. Even then, he did not nap every day. Once he started refusing to nap in bed, I knew that it was the beginning of the end for nap time. That was a hard thing for me to come to terms with because his nap time was always a much needed break in my day where I could get a few things done, spend some one on one time with Blake, and recharge my mind and body.
Of course, I wondered whether Dylan was too young to be heading down the road towards losing his daily nap. I looked around online for information, and I found some interesting statistics. Apparently, a quarter of all toddlers give up napping entirely by the time that they are three years old. Half of all toddlers stop napping between age three and age four, and the remaining quarter keep their daily nap after age four, until they are five years old or sometimes even older. So, it is possible for a toddler to stop needing daily naps at age two and a half, as Dylan has.
Before we went on vacation last week, I had settled into a routine where I would not push the nap issue unless Dylan was very cranky or out of sorts. When that happened, I would get everyone into the car for a long ride to see whether he would fall asleep. Some of the time, he would, and if he did not the change of scenery was almost always enough to help him calm down. In the evening, I tried to put him to bed at eight on no nap days or nine if he had napped. There was always a lot of stalling and it was often ten o’ clock before he was asleep. Of course, he would sleep until nine in the morning so he got the rest that he needed.
While we were on vacation, he napped a couple of times on car rides but not in the bed. He was so excited the whole week that even on days when he did not nap he was up late. When we got home, I decided to try returning to an eight o’clock bedtime. The days are getting shorter, and it is easier to get him to come inside in the evening. For the past three days there have been no naps, and he has fallen asleep by eight thirty each night. It seems as though we have completed the transition from napping sometimes to not napping at all. I am okay with that, because it gives me plenty of time in the evenings to do my work and household chores as well as a little “me” time.