The No Nap Endeavor

Okay, so much of what I post here on the site (for those of you new readers) is related to myself and my life as a stay at home mother. I'm blazing the trail, here . . . forging my way into our life with 2 kids, one experience at a time.

Our newest endeavor: life with no nap for Big.

No nap for my nearly 4-yr old. At least, that is the way it's going around here. She has been wavering on the fence of the to-nap or not-to-nap debate for months, but I finally have come to the realization that it is time for Big to drop the nap. She no longer needs the daytime zzzz's. I say that I have come to this realization . . . but, really, the late nights and bedtime fights forced me understand that the time for napless days had come.

I know -- many of you are saying to yourself, "Stop complaining! You made it to 4 years old with a daily nap! Consider yourself lucky." And I get that. But no matter what age the nap is dropped, I imagine it is still a big adjustment.

Ah, but who is the adjustment bigger for? For my daughter, who has to struggle to stay awake some evenings and make it through our nighttime routine? For the lovely preschooler, who wants so badly to be a 'big kid' but still falls asleep on the couch in the early evening (if I let her)?

Nah. Probably not. I would venture to say that it is a bigger adjustment for me. Me, the mom who now has to keep her kiddo occupied daily for better than 10 hours with NO BREAK. This, my friends, is going to take some getting use to.

This means no more mid-day break. It means Big from sun up to bedtime . . . though, bedtime is back to being on the earlier side, now that naps are gone. It means that my precious time to blog, email, return calls, clean, do laundry . . . that time is fading. We tried the 'quiet time' thing, but it doesn't really work. The only thing that works -- scratch that, the easiest thing that works -- is TV. So on days when I really need my break and I really don't want to fight with Big for 90 or so minutes, she gets to watch more TV than I'd really like her to. That's life.

Let's look on the bright side. Please -- there is a bright side, honestly there is. I now get a bit of time each day with just my Big girl. That really is a treat for us. I don't typically entertain her for the two-ish hours her sister sleeps -- I won't make myself out to be THAT great of a mom -- but I do try and take some nap time to just be with Big.

And it's not like I miss out on my downtime all together. For heaven's sake -- Little still needs her nap, so we still have a definite 'nap time' at our house.

Bedtimes are back on track, and there is little fighting after a long day of playing. That is certainly a plus. See? There is a silver lining.

I've posted about the napping many times . . . schedules, routines, patterns, etc. It's such a part of the life of a mom, it's something that I couldn't help but write about. And now I can't believe that I'm posting about our NO nap lifestyle. I can't believe Big is old enough to skip her nap. Daily.

Wish me luck in the no nap endeavor. There is certainly a 'learning curve' to this all . . . the afternoons aren't easy as we stretch Big's ability to go without sleep. And I'm having to figure out what to do with a wakeful preschooler in the mid-day oasis that is the 1-3pm hour. It's tough around here some days, but I'm trying to make the best of it. I hope that by the summer's end, we'll be back on track, less moody, well rested, and ready for PreK.