Bye-Bye Naptime

So Jack is almost 5 years old and will be starting full-day kindergarten in August, which is quite a long day for the kiddos. Jack has always been an awesome sleeper and napper, so much so that he takes about a 2 1/2-3hr nap each day and never misses one. I am often referred to as the Nap Nazi because I am religious when it comes to schedules and bedtime. I could be in the middle of waiting on a checkout line at the store and if it looks like it might cause us to be a bit late for naptime, I will leave without my stuff. When I was pregnant with Jack, a friend swore by the book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and it became my life saver and I constantly refer to it as my kiddos sleep schedule needs a change such as taking naptime away. The whole book is basically about how children need a sleep schedule and the importance of naptime and how it can actually affect the capacity to learn and the time the brain needs to grow.
So....in my book it began talking about taking away naptime at about the school age because children need to be prepared to go a whole day without a nap and if they are not slowly introduced to this, they will become cranky, irritable, frustrated because their body's are not used to a full-day without the nap in between. Also, without a nap, the child will go to bed earlier, fall asleep faster and be fully rested for an early morning wake up for school. Over the last few weeks, I would let him skip nap here and there and during that time when Nolie was napping, we would go relax in my bed for that time and watch tv. I did notice that at 7:30pm, he was cooked and when we put him to bed, he fell asleep instantly and did not wake again until 8-8:30am the next morning. So this week, I decided that it was that time to stick with it and get him used to no nap. I must say he is ready for it now, where as a few months ago, he was not. He is not having breakdowns from being so exhausted and truly does rest for those 2hrs. I must admit, it is nice that at 7:30pm, the boys are both in bed and it is Rob and I's time to chat, relax, watch tv and just wind down from the day. When Jack took the 3 hr. nap, we didn't put him to bed until about 9pm and he would be up for quite awhile in his room before falling asleep. It also left us no time to chill out before we went to sleep. My sweet boy does let mommy nap during relax time and rarely makes a peep because he says the baby in my belly needs quiet time. All in all, skipping naptime and making it quiet time isn't as hard of an adjustment as I thought it would be.