Goodbye Nap

Goodbye Nap. Goodbye rest. Goodbye to three hours of quiet in the afternoon. Goodbye to well-rested toddlers and projects completed. Goodbye to long, peaceful baths all alone. And goodbye to "grown-up" time with the big kids, when they are home.


Zeben is no longer allowed to nap. We've noticed over the past month or so that on the days Zeben would take one of his lovely, lengthy 3 hour naps (which we so deserved after surviving our napless twins), there was an unfortunate consequence of a lack of ability for him to fall asleep at bedtime. Like, he'd still be awake at 10:30 p.m. when Lena and I would finally give in and decide to just go to bed with him. Usual bedtime in our house is 7:00-7:30 p.m. And we cherish the few hours of kid-free time that come after the little ones are asleep. We need that time to recharge our parental batteries. To enjoy each other. To remember that this is fun.

So, I decided to try a little experiment and not put Zeb down for a nap one day. And, he did really fine. He stayed chipper and pleasant throughout the afternoon and promptly fell asleep at 7:00 p.m. after only a couple minutes (as opposed to a couple hours) of nursing. And, just like that, we said goodbye to naps.

Except, of course, for the type of nap that happens on the kitchen floor when the too-tired-to-keep-his-eyes-open two-year-old just falls asleep admist the chaos of dinner preparation. And I do let him sleep a bit when this happens. I wake him up after about 30 minutes or so, and he just gets right back to what he was doing before he fell asleep. We've been loving having him take a quick cat nap in our laps or lying on our chests. It's like he's a baby again. And a big kid. All at once.