Tag: toddler

So the nap transition hasn’t gone well since that first day. Wednesday, Hayden was sick, and spent six hours sleeping during the day and went to bed early—but that much sleep meant he wouldn’t go to bed until after 11 PM Thursday night, and you can forget about a nap.

Tuesday, Thursday and Wednesday, Hayden was much less enthused about sitting in his bed looking at books. It was less like “quiet time” and more like “scream at mom for two hours.” For some strange reason, this is incredibly stressful for me(twenty-eight exclamation points and several ones). The whole point is for me to have a break (lie: the whole point is for me to work, which makes this even more stressful), and I’m just not getting it.

I’m 32 weeks pregnant, and I really don’t think my blood pressure can handle much more of this. I can hardly do this now; I don’t know how I’ll make it with a new baby and next-to-no sleep (let alone time for myself).

Since my son was about four months old, I have been a self-proclaimed nap nazi. Hayden has been very compliant with this, even during difficult transitions (3 to 2 naps, 2 to 1 nap).

And, most unfortunately, it’s beginning to look like he wants to go from 1 to no naps. I refuse to believe that a boy of 2 years and 4 months (today) gets enough sleep by sleeping 12 hours at night and none during the day. And, indeed, he’s often quite grumpy and more difficult to put to bed at night when he hasn’t had a nap.

But after several letting him sit in his dark room for hours while he refused to sleep with increasing frequency, I finally gave up. Last Thursday, there was no mention of napping in our house. No move toward the bedroom. No screaming and thrashing to avoid a nap. Friday, same deal.

Granted, this wasn’t a great thing, since mostly this involved him watching television instead. And, also me freaking out because I just mentally can’t handle the idea of not having a break (and by “break” I mean mostly time to work) during the day.

I have a deep need for a certain amount of silence and time alone on a daily basis. The prospect of not getting this—plus no time to work at my job, let alone the little pet projects that keep me sane and happy—was enough to bring me to tears.

And then . . . Saturday, he was rubbing his eyes and yawning in the afternoon. Sunday, he threw a fit in the afternoon. We put him to bed and he fell asleep.

And I knew I needed to institute a “quiet time” for Hayden.

So today, I put him in his bed and told him he didn’t have to take a nap. Rather than crying and trashing, Hayden seemed to think this was fun. I brought him some books to look at and left the light on, but closed the door most of the way and turned on the fan.

I had to go back to help him twice over the next hour—once because he’d dropped a book and the second time because he wanted new books. Let me say that again: he wanted new books. Not to get out. I brought him more books and he was mostly quiet for an hour.

And when I went to check on him, he’d tossed all of his books, his pillow, his blanket and his two stuffed animals out—and was fast asleep.

I know it’s too early to draw a definite conclusion, but maybe I was pushing him too hard. (Knock on wood!)