Nap time woes
I adore my children. Really I do. But one of my favorite times of day is nap time (see also: bed time). Once Tessa was about 8 months old, I managed to work their naps out so they both napped at the same time . I need that break in the day. It allows me to facebook, read blogs, shop online, catch up on TiVo, make phone calls, shower, do the dishes, and eat. I’ve been holding tight to this tandem nap time but came to the sad realization this weekend that it needed to change.
For the past 3 weeks, Sabrina has only been napping maybe 2 out of 7 days. Instead of sleeping, she was spending that time playing in her bed. I was prepared to allow her to stay awake and make it “quiet” time in her room to rest because that would still give me a break. But I realized that she naps on the days that we are out running errands and she gets to bed a bit later. And she is whiny on the days she doesn’t sleep at all. It was obvious that she needed the nap – she just needed it later in the day. Tessa, on the other hand, still needs the earlier nap. I’ve adjusted them so that they still overlap for 30 minutes so that I can grab a shower without an audience.
Sabrina loves this new schedule because it gives her 90 minutes to play with the things that only come out when Tessa isn’t around (games and puzzles and things with small pieces easily lost – we have a rubbermaid container of “big girl toys”). Tessa likes it because she gets an hour without Sabrina grabbing things away and generally bossying her around. Momma, very selfishly, doesn’t love it. I love the individual time. I like that Sabrina is napping. I don’t love losing my 2 hours of quiet time during the day.
I am reminding myself that in 6 months Sabrina will be starting pre-school and I will have 2 days of quiet(er) time which will make me sad in a different way.
Totally relate! The beauty of sleeping children — I have three napping at the moment and two in school. Which means I ate lunch uniterrupted! 🙂
I am so thankful that my 3 still nap at the same time. Lilly still typically takes a 3 hour nap and the boys usually 2-2 1/2 hours. I can’t imagine no nap. I’m dreading that. I get dinner, laundry, cleaning, etc done then. I will miss having time to do those things without interruption. One of our criteria for preschools is that they have openings in the morning so that they can still take their naps if needed.
Those precious nap hours are the best. I understand your state of mourning. THe girls napped until they were almost 5. Reese gave it up over a year ago…I am still in mourning!! But, sounds like you have worked out some positive things with it. I hope they stick to your new schedule……..
I miss nap time! But it never fails if we go in the car between 4-6pm Alexis will fall asleep. But we already have issues with bedtime, raising a night owl. So even though I miss naps on the weekend it does make bedtime a little more managable.
We are ALL miserable on the toddler no-nap days so I’m determined to keep them going for at least another 5 years or so! We have a similar schedule to your new one. I’m sitting for a Little Baby who still takes a morning nap. So that’s when I do art projects, puzzles, and games with Cara. She will usually sit at the table and color while I unload the dishwasher, put dinner in the crock pot, etc., too. Then I put them both down together in the early afternoon, but Little Baby usually wakes up first so that gives us some time together without Cara competing for attention. Now we’re about to add 2 more sitter babies younger than Cara so I’m assuming all will be on different schedules and I’ll need to shower or fold laundry at 4 am instead of leaving long comments on blogs!