Goodbye Sweet Naps

I’ve been holding on to the afternoon nap for dear life. Those few hours during the day where I could get things done, or do nothing, or just listen to the beautiful sound of silence. I persisted despite knowing, deep down that it was over.

And then I realised between it taking half an hour to an hour to get her to take the nap and the extra hour it was taking me to get her to bed at night, it wasn’t exactly giving me any extra time. And that bedtime was getting closer to 9pm. Which meant I was eating dinner at 10pm and not getting to bed at a decent hour. So finally, this week, I threw in the towel. I figured she might nap every second day for awhile, but I’d leave it up to her.

The first night saw her in bed at 7pm and asleep at 7:15pm. Oh, heaven. Actual time for myself in the evening. Time that doesn’t involve madly shoveling food down my throat before bed.

The funny thing? Once I released my vice-like grip on the damn nap – most days since then she’s napped. And she’s been sleeping better at night. Yes, she woke up at 5:30 this morning, but she didn’t come into our bed. And I enjoyed sleeping alone – undisturbed sleep. And being able to wake up on my own when Josh was leaving for work. Without being slapped awake by teeny little hands.

I could get used to this new routine. In bed at a decent hour. Up early. Mostly still napping because of the 5:30 start. I don’t mind the early start. She is very happy to play on her own in the morning and I can get plenty of work done. Right now she’s next to me on the couch arranging some of her books into a line – counting them – messing them up – and starting over.

Maybe it’s not goodbye to naps after all, but it is goodbye to my control freak tendencies as far as daytime sleep is concerned.

‘

Pages: ‘, ‘after’ => ‘

‘, ‘next_or_number’ => ‘number’)); ?>

Tagged as: Napping, sleep, toddler