As I sneak away to write and munch a salad, with both children snoozing happily, I wonder how long I can hope for it to last. Not just today, you understand, but future weeks or months. At 3 1/4 Imogen still naps for up to two hours a day, right after lunch. If we are out and about, she sleeps in the push-chair or car seat, but she almost always sleeps. In fact she asks to, or tells me when it's time if I'm busilly scurrying around. On those few times when she skips it, then the afternoon is a near right-off with her griselling and clumsy, then in bed around 6pm.
She tried to give it up a couple of times, and we battled it out. I told her that she needed to have some quiet time after lunch on her bed. If she didn't need to sleep then that was fine, but she had to play or look at books by herself for half an hour. Only a handful of times did she actually stay awake.
None of her friends nap still, or her classmates and both teachers and friends' parents are surprised when I mention it. But she sleeps well at night (solidly from 7pm-7am usually) and obviously needs the daytime rest. I need it, too- even if baby Atticus is up then I can tuck him in the sling and get busy. If both are asleep, like now, I can have some selfishly indulgent time (like taking a shower, doing the dishes, making a cappucino, catching up on email or prepping dinner, oh how things have changed!)
I do feel a slave to the nap, though, and it is well that I am a morning person. We often pop into the city on the bus for the morning, then get home by lunch/nap. In some ways it would be easier if she didn't nap- we could have a long, slow morning, then head off somewhere with our lunch in a backpack. Instead we are out and about right after breakfast- either walking the fields and footpaths or down into the village. I am a cruel mother and make her walk everywhere- no monstrous double-buggy for me! It does mean that we move more slowly, but I get to notice all the details that she sees (oh- that leaf, stone, puppy, squashed bird etc). So maybe I am wearing her out in the mornings, I don't know. And I don't know how long it can last, but I do know that my days will be very different when she is up from 7-7!
2 comments:
I can relate to the nap quandary. On one hand, nap time is so precious. It is when I get things done. On the other hand, it keeps us from going on outings that last into the afternoon. If we don't get our act in gear early enough, we can't go on an outing at all!
That said, I prefer to have the nap than not to have the nap. The kids just both went through a 2-day nap strike, and it wasn't pretty. We made Esme stay in the bedroom during naptime (she wasn't happy about it), but she kept herself awake. I was hoping that she would go to bed early to compensate, but no such luck. She actually stayed up later both nights! Fortunately, she and Emil seem to be back on schedule now.
Don't know whether I cursed myself with writing this entry, but Imogen has been a nightmare around sleep for the last week. It doesn't help that we're so near the solsice- at the moment the UK daylight hours are 4am-10:30pm, and the birds are so bloody loud at dawn that she's been waking up then. Ah, well, fingers crossed things settle down soon.
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