Thursday, September 11, 2008

To Nap or Not To Nap...

The little guy woke up this morning at 6am and crawled into bed with me. Is it possible for a three year old to be more on the move than mine right now? He's currently jumping on my bed and watching Caillou as I type this. The Nap Issue has become a special bone of contention lately.

We've worked our way to one (usually very necessary) sleep session and skipping it has usually led to a Code S - shrieking meltdown. Or crashing at suppertime and totally messing with bedtime.

Lately the daily Impending Nap (insert VOICE OF DOOM here) has been met with cries of, "No nap, I said NO NAP!" And much struggling.

On Tuesday I experimented with no actual nap, and he actually did OK. Although I was met with a bit of a wild-eyed, bouncy - obviously overtired child by bedtime. Yesterday I went back to trying for a regularly scheduled naptime. I had a nice sleep. The kid dug in his heels until 4pm, and then crashed for an hour on the couch.

Naptime provides a great break for me. But in some respects I would gladly give them up if I could have a happy, well-rested kid and be able to plan my day.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I have been through this naptime struggle. My kids are champ sleepers, but now my 4 year old is not needing a nap everyday. What I do is put him in his room anyway. He has a clock, and he knows he can come out at 3pm. So, I get a break, and when he's really tired, he goes to sleep.

I also have found that if I wait too long, there's no hope for a nap.

It is definitely a struggle!