I did something rather out of character today.
I deliberately skipped the nap for both kids.
I know, I know. Pick your jaws up off the floor. But I have come to a few very, very sad realizations.
1. My kids can handle a day without a nap. Not every time, of course. But today, along with some other days we’ve had, they have gotten through more or less until bedtime without a complete meltdown.
2. On the days that they do nap (which is still every day for Rebecca, maybe 3-5 times a week for Daniel), it takes them much longer to fall asleep at night. Long gone are the days of “sleep begets sleep” that I swore by in the infant days, when a better nap meant even better overnight sleep. Nope, no more. This has been the case for a while, but it hasn’t been problematic until recently, when the miscellaneous requests for water, backrubs, rearranged blankets, and the like, have gotten a bit out of hand. Not total chaos, but definitely prolonged stalling. There are nights when one or both of them is still awake at 9:30 or even 10, which is entirely too late, even if they are staying in their rooms. The days with no nap, however? Asleep within minutes of finishing the final song.
Tonight, I really needed them to fall asleep right away. I couldn’t risk marathon naps from either of them this afternoon. So, instead of going home after school, we went to the mall for lunch and playing. Came home and watched a TV show. Hung out and played. Rebecca briefly talked about being sleepy as we left the mall, but stayed awake in the car and seemed to catch a second wind after a little Super Why. I never spoke of napping or the skipping thereof, I just kind of pretended it wasn’t happening. I didn’t want to even introduce it as a topic of conversation. We had an early-ish dinner, and early-ish bedtime, and that was that. They were fine.
Sad and Glad, all at the same time.
Sad to realize that the afternoon nap is, indeed, on its way out for good. This is a huge bummer. While the kids did fine this afternoon, I was the one getting kind of cranky and wanting that break. Glad, of course, because at least they were able to handle it without turning into total beasts by 4PM.
Nearing the end of an era. Dammit.
We mourned it for a long time but we’ve recently started skipping quiet time because they are just too insane. Alex has started skipping some naps at school recently and that is a CLUSTER. He’s exhausted by 7 and Nate is wide awake until 10.
SO ready for kindergarten and no napping!!
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The same thing is going on over here. Julie is sleepy at nap time and will happily fall asleep so I feel really guilty on the days I skip it. But then at bedtime she is up until at least 9 or 9:30 and considering her brother wakes up at 5:30 AM… yeah. That doesn’t leave many hours for the big folks to unload the dishwasher and get some sleep ourselves. Plus when she stays up late we have to wake her up to drag her out of the house for preschool the next morning. I can’t bring myself to say for sure we are done with naps but I know it is coming.
I’d tell you all the advantages, but with number 3 on the way, I suspect you won’t see many of them. Sorry the nap era is ending for you, though.
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I get it. I wish we could successfully have our kids nap until they were 18, but skip the nap on days where we have big afternoon plans. Getting in the habit of doing solo play in their rooms or a little TV time in the afternoons to give you a little bit of semi-relax time might be an option if they’ll do that. I’m sure you could use a little down time each day given the pregnancy. Good luck with this transition!
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Right there with you.
We had two 10:00 nights in a row where I was in and out of their room, trying to cajole – and threaten – them into settling down and going to sleep. It finally occured to me on one of the trips into their room: they are just NOT TIRED. Damn.
So, now I would say they nap one weekend day and one or two days during the week. They still take “quiet time” on the off days which means playing quietly in their room or watching a little TV QUIETLY so Dad can get a break but night time is MUCH smoother.
Yup…I see the same thing only my guys are flippin 2!! On days when they don’t nap, they aren’t a total mess…in fact they are kind of cheery and go right to sleep! CRAP!! On days when they fight it and do get a nap they wake up super weepy AND bedtime is a struggle. DOUBLE CRAP!
Not giving up yet, but its coming…
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I’ve got one who naps, one who doesn’t and the tug of war between the two. Do we go out all day and skip my 2yo’s nap? Do we go home for naptime and force my 4yo to play quietly? It’s a strange place to be. I do know that I loathe the dawdling. From both of them.
My guys (who will be 3 1/2 in December) officially won’t nap for me anymore and I mourn the transition because that nap really structured our day. Now its just a non-stop energy & activity packed day with no downtime. I need to create a new schedule but don’t have it in place (yet). I have no success enforcing “quiet time” either. The big upside is we do an early bedtime. The day starts at 7 AM, the day ends at 7:15 PM (which is lights out). They fall asleep immediately and don’t make a peep until morning. But ohhh the day is long and intense, complicated by about a thousand million trips to the potty. I’ve started taking extra vitamin B and a huge megavitamin / caffeine energy drink at about 2:30 – so I can make it through the day with them. I’m noticing though that one of my boys will likely catnap in the car if I take a long (well-timed) drive at 3:00 or so, going nowhere. So the afternoon drive will likely become part of our new routine.
we’re kinda dealing with something like this at my house: moving from two naps a day to one.
i’m glad to hear that you were able to seamlessly do it this day…but it can’t be like that every day, right?
isn’t it crazy how much sleep kids need??? not to mention the “recharge” time for the parents. I definitely find myself getting a little cranky when the naps are short!
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Thanks for your comments on RookieMoms.com yesterday. I really thought that I went to check your blog before I listed it in the main post and found that it hadn’t been updated for a while so I was not sure if I should link to it. Apparently I was lost in the Internets and looking at someone else’s blog.
We are in the same phase with naps… I’m not ready to toss it, but trying to look on the bright side, it’s nice to know it can be skipped for special events or convenience.
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I hear you.
I wish they would just consistently sleep, 1pm-3pm until they go off to school. Then I could actually eat lunch, maybe knit, sew, have some mummy time…
Sleep begets sleep was a great time wasn’t it. Sigh.
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