The Great Nap Debate

I have always had really good sleepers with both of my girls. We like to say we "sleep trained" them early on (5-6 weeks old) & have always kept them on a fairly routine nap schedule during the day. Usually Sadie goes down for her nap around 2:00. We used to let her stay up there until 6:00 but she has had a harder time going to sleep these days so then I started getting her up at 5:30. Now I have pushed it to 5:00. Even though she is 3 & she has her independence, she still needs a nap. We always tell her she can stay up & play in her room as long as she is quiet & doesn't come out. She will usually play for 30 minutes or so & then she goes & lays down & will sleep a couple of hours. But at bedtime, she is having a harder time going to sleep. We put her to bed at 8:00 & she will usually play for 30 minutes to an hour. That's why I have started getting her up earlier & trying to make her naps shorter but it hasn't made a difference. I have even tried to keep her downstairs & let her skip a nap, but that didn't help either. I'm kind of thinking that she is more of a night person instead of a morning person. She used to sleep until 9:00 every day, but since we started school back up in August she is usually awake by 8:15 or 8:30 because she is used to me waking her up.

 

I asked her pediatrician about it at her check up & she said most kids drop their naps between 3-5 & toddlers her age sleep about 11 hours. She is definitely sleeping around 11 hours a night, but she is not ready to drop her nap yet. So what should I do - make her skip her nap & eventually she will tire out & go to bed sooner? Or just let her go to bed when she is ready since she is mostly staying quiet & playing by herself in her room. I most definitely am not ready to give up my 3 or 4 hours of peace in the afternoon!

 

I'm not gonna lie & tell you she is a perfect angel, because she does sneak out of her room occasionally. I was working on the computer the other night while I thought she was sleeping. I happened to hear something so when I went upstairs to check, this is what I found:

 

 

She had pulled every single book off of the bookshelf. Our normal rule is only 2 books at a time & your have to return a book before you get a new one. When I caught her in the act & asked her what happened, she told me that her friends did it - that they wanted to read. Uh-huh, sure. And then Bryan pointed out that she had turned into a mini me because she was organizing the books down the hallway for her "friends":

 

 

As you can probably tell, we made her go to bed immediately & then we cleaned up the books the next morning, which is when I took the pictures. Thankfully we haven't had anymore fiascos like this since then......