My kids have always slept very well. The first three months of each of their lives are kind of a blurry haze. After that magic point, something clicked in their little heads and they began sleeping all night. Not only did they sleep all night, they napped. And they napped well. And they have continued napping well, save for a nap boycott in the two-year-old range (BigBrother).
Until now.
I’ve known that his nap time was coming to an end for awhile now. In fact, sometimes his naps would throw off his bedtime. You see, he sleeps twelve (plus) hours at night. According to Elizabeth Pantley, our preferred sleep book guide writer, that’s the amount of sleep he needs all day at age four. (See page five of the linked .pdf booklet.) It makes sense then that any napping would throw off bedtime. I like bedtime. But I also like naptime.
Parenting dilemma.
I have always used naptime as a catch all for what needs to be done but can’t always be done with two boys running around, driving tractors over my toes and asking to play Candy Land eighty-six times. I throw in a load of laundry, wash the morning dishes, take a shower and apparently use a lot of water in a two hour time span. I return phone calls because that’s an impossibility with the volume output of these two. I finish up any freelance articles that need finishing, do some editing and write a blog post or four. It’s what I’ve done and when I’ve done it for four years.
And now that’s changing.
I’m trying to figure it all out. I’m trying not to get frustrated. For awhile, FireDad and I thought we could get away with letting BigBrother “rest” in his room as some parents have blogged about regarding the transition out of naps. And, yes, he’ll stay in his room. He really will. He’s great about that. But did you catch the mention of volume in the previous paragraph? Even when he thinks he’s being quiet and just humming along to a song or reading aloud, he’s not quiet. (I wonder where he gets that? Hmm.) As his room shares a wall with LittleBrother’s (who still needs a nap), the quiet resting plan isn’t working for us.
I’ve started lining up activities for BigBrother. One day I placed my laptop at the dining room table so that I could still work while he sat next to me working on the workbooks I’ve been buying/collecting for him. He’s getting better with a pencil, something he struggles with regarding his fine motor skills which stem from his texture issues (not wanting to touch anything). Another day I sat on the floor, texting one of my bosses while we did a big puzzle. And another one. And another one. Today’s plan is to sit next to him in our playroom-slash-office and let him play games on the new computer (of which I need some software suggestions, please) while I finish up some important work. Of course, that was the plan yesterday. Do you know what he did yesterday?
That kid napped.
He hadn’t napped since his birthday. In mid-November. Minus vehicle rides that fell in mid-afternoon, the kid hadn’t taken a nap in almost two months. As I was setting up the computer for him yesterday, I noticed he was whining and rubbing his eyes. When I suggested that he go to the bathroom and get in bed, he didn’t even argue. I was so shocked for a bit that I forgot to get caught up on things. When I peeked in his door and found him asleep instead of reading his way through his bookshelf, I quietly shut the door, did a quiet, little jig in the hallway and raced around the house cleaning and smiling.
I have the computer games lined up for today. Tomorrow we’ll do more workbooks. And by Thursday I’ll be praying for Spring so I can work outside while he runs off the energy that he has apparently been bottling up since the cold weather rolled into the area. I also acknowledge that’s part of the problem. As much as I love winter, we need to get outside and run off some energy. Myself included.
I’m pretty sure that yesterday’s nap was a fluke, brought on by the exhaustion of spending the weekend with my parents. I’m willing to bet that this really is the End of an Era. As much as I’d love for him to keep napping forever, rumor has it that I’ll be annoyed when he’s a teenager and I’ve told him to mow the lawn and instead find him sleeping. If they’re anything like their father, they’ll be able to fall asleep in the middle of the living room floor after supper despite the noise and commotion of two children with too much energy crawling all over him. Maybe BigBrother will nap on occasion, like yesterday, but maybe not. I’m learning to be okay with that.
And, so, we are making yet another transition in this house. I’m relearning my time management right now, taking advantage of little moments here and there to get things done. I’m realizing how lucky I’ve had it for four years. I’m also enjoying the little moments we’re having together. I wish my attention didn’t have to be so split sometimes between work and home but the truth is that I have deadlines. They slow in the summer so there’s hope for that time as well. Right now, it’s working for him. When my mom called and asked to talk to him the other day during one of our afternoons at the dining room table, he told her that he was “working with mommy.”
I’ll take that.