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Nap Time Cannot Go Away
I mourned the day my oldest stopped napping. I had actually just gotten to the point when my infant and my then three year old were taking a nap at the same time. It was blissful. There were two hours of quiet to do things we do when our kids are napping – clean, make phones calls, anything but actually take a nap yourself.
But I quickly got over it. My oldest, Ashley, was then required to have quiet time in her room or just “rest” while watching a little bit of television. Now she gets on the computer to play games or helps me do chores around the house. I still get a little bit of quiet time while my youngest, Audrey, naps.
But now that isn’t a constant either. For the past few weekends, she has only napped one of the days. The other day she refuses to go to sleep and instead chooses to destroy her room. She turned two in January, and while I think she still needs a nap everyday, she will beg to differ.
It’s actually kind of nice knowing she is giving up the nap. I am no longer strapped to the house between the hours of 1:00pm to 4:00pm every Saturday and Sunday. We can actually plan to do things that cross over those afternoon hours. No longer do we have to rush home so that Audrey can nap. And yes, I was psycho about getting her home to nap. I know how important sleep is to my kids and how it affects their behavior.
So the first Sunday Audrey didn’t nap, she fell asleep eating dinner. The next weekend, she fell asleep in the van late in the afternoon. But this past weekend, she stayed awake, no crashing at dinner or even going to bed early.
I know I need to embrace this whole not napping thing anymore, but I am having a hard time. And maybe, just maybe it’s because I realize I no longer have a baby….
Amy appears every Wednesday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Amy at A Family Story.
Amy Williamson
Amy is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Wednesday.
She lives in Holly Springs with her two
daughters, a four-year old aspiring High School Musical character and a
two-year old who believes every day should start at 5 a.m. Amy and her
husband met while attending Virginia Tech and relocated here two years
ago from Virginia to escape the traffic and intermittent snow. Amy
works in finance and her husband is a real estate agent. Amy enjoys
playing bassoon for the Holly Springs Community Band and can often be
found in her garage practicing and scaring off the neighborhood cats.
I mourned the day my oldest stopped napping. I had actually just gotten to the point when my infant and my then three year old were taking a nap at the same time. It was blissful. There were two hours of quiet to do things we do when our kids are napping – clean, make phones calls, anything but actually take a nap yourself.
But I quickly got over it. My oldest, Ashley, was then required to have quiet time in her room or just “rest” while watching a little bit of television. Now she gets on the computer to play games or helps me do chores around the house. I still get a little bit of quiet time while my youngest, Audrey, naps.
But now that isn’t a constant either. For the past few weekends, she has only napped one of the days. The other day she refuses to go to sleep and instead chooses to destroy her room. She turned two in January, and while I think she still needs a nap everyday, she will beg to differ.
It’s actually kind of nice knowing she is giving up the nap. I am no longer strapped to the house between the hours of 1:00pm to 4:00pm every Saturday and Sunday. We can actually plan to do things that cross over those afternoon hours. No longer do we have to rush home so that Audrey can nap. And yes, I was psycho about getting her home to nap. I know how important sleep is to my kids and how it affects their behavior.
So the first Sunday Audrey didn’t nap, she fell asleep eating dinner. The next weekend, she fell asleep in the van late in the afternoon. But this past weekend, she stayed awake, no crashing at dinner or even going to bed early.
I know I need to embrace this whole not napping thing anymore, but I am having a hard time. And maybe, just maybe it’s because I realize I no longer have a baby….
Amy appears every Wednesday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Amy at A Family Story.
Amy Williamson
Amy is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Wednesday.
She lives in Holly Springs with her two daughters, a four-year old aspiring High School Musical character and a two-year old who believes every day should start at 5 a.m. Amy and her husband met while attending Virginia Tech and relocated here two years ago from Virginia to escape the traffic and intermittent snow. Amy works in finance and her husband is a real estate agent. Amy enjoys playing bassoon for the Holly Springs Community Band and can often be found in her garage practicing and scaring off the neighborhood cats.
Comments
I dread nap time going away, too. When I had my second, I would ask other mothers-of-two: "But what do you do when the older one stops napping? What happens? Chaos? Does the world stop spinning? It must stop spinning!" Apparently the world doesn't stop spinning. It just spins faster.