This Was the Nap

This was the morning nap that I was supposed to take away today.

But when you wake not just with the roosters, but before them at 5 a.m., you are the model morning nap taker, falling asleep promptly at 9 a.m. That hasn't happened in awhile. Nap plan thwarted.

Sam's afternoon naps on the weekend have been a little off since May, including a few days that he had no afternoon nap, only "rest" time in his bed. Most days at home he just took a long time to fall asleep. It was mainly weekends since during the week we're out of the house earlier. Shortening the morning nap helped but he doesn't like to be woken up.

Then he started taking longer to fall asleep for his morning nap, probably because we passed that particular teeth bump and he was sleeping until 6-6:30 a.m. He doesn't get out of bed until 6:30 but those early times helped the morning nap. So then we had 2 naps starting later, which lately has been causing him to still be awake in his bed at 7:30 p.m. or after. Then we have an early morning the next morning. So needless to say we're off schedule which is not my favorite, and he had some limited afternoon nap days for the sitter.

I was prepared to observe this week then make a change next week if needed, but his naps were so late starting yesterday that I thought I'd bite the bullet today. But that early wake time threw us off, and other than taking awhile to fall asleep this afternoon, today has been pretty normal. So I don't have any idea now.

Moms on Call says the morning nap goes between 12-15 months when you've had two bad weeks of naps. They say pick a new afternoon nap time and keep the baby awake until then. This worked pretty well for Avery but she was 17 months old. Other advice will tell you to gradually move the morning nap back. Although I'm much better than my early days with Avery, nothing shakes my confidence worse than changing my children's schedules. I think a nap from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. or so could just really throw us all off. But that may be what happens. I know kids in daycare usually have the nap taken when they move from the infant to toddler room, so we've been lucky that both kids could do it on their time. It's definitely my time and my schedule causing the issues now. If we're dropping it, I want it done now so that we're happily re-scheduled before vacation. And if I'm being really picky I'd like it straight by the week of the 4th. So time's a tickin.'

Now that I've typed it all out, my sweet buddy will probably take a morning nap until he's 20 months old, and that will be just fine. And we won't even talk about the almost 4-year-old that just called me to her room at nearly 9 p.m. and only wanted to talk about what I'd been eating. Her good nap days and Ned on the lawnmower outside are the apparent culprits there. One day I'll wonder what I was doing for my first week of summer vacation 2013 and look back and wish my biggest issues were sleep schedules.