Sam has said goodbye to his naps.
I am still slightly mourning this as I really loved nap time. It was just so calm, quiet and peaceful in this house for a whole two hours and really did wonders to recharge me.
I knew the end was coming a couple of months ago. Sam has never had a problem falling asleep for naps and is usually out in minutes. He is an early riser (6:00 but he needs to stay in his room until 6:30) and is exhausted by mid day. However, we were starting to notice that nighttime was beginning to be a bit of a struggle with him and knew the naps would have to go soon. We were getting too many out of bed questions like:
"Mom what comes after 39"
"Mom what are you scared of because I am going to be scared of that too"
"Dad, did you know I did __________ today?"
"This is an emergency where I need to get up - it's a love emergency! I love you"
"I need to go to the bathroom"
"Mom can I live with you forever?"
"I'm still thirsty"
"Dad why is it staying lighter outside now?"
Oh he had a big list...his little mind was just not able to shut down at nights and we found him still up sometimes at 9:45 at night - almost two hours after he was tucked into bed! It was a few weeks of this where it was finally decided that it was time to drop the nap.
At first we thought we could try to wake him after a half hour power nap but he proved to be a total bear and that plan was very quickly abandoned and now instead of nap time we have quiet time.
Sam actually took to quiet time really well. He feels pretty important that he doesn't have to nap and loves to tell Cole every afternoon that he will be having 'quiet time' not nap time. I was really nervous about it and convinced he would be a wreck by supper without a nap but this 'quiet time' really seems to recharge him in the same way a nap would. We got away with just a big pile of books for the first few days but it is clear this kid needs some other independent activities to keep him amused for the hour in his room. Hence the creation of his 'quiet bins.' We put them together today while Cole was finishing up his nap and Sam is pretty excited (one for every day of the week). They are filled with all sorts of goodies we found around the house that he doesn't play with daily, a bunch of fun stuff from my days teaching, and a few good dollar store finds. I am hoping that they can keep him amused for awhile as some of the activities are pretty open ended and allow for his imagination to take over. His favorite was a pile of foam laundry (shirts, pants, socks, shorts) that we cut out that he gets to 'mix up' in the baggie washing machine and then sort (by color or style) into mini laundry bins. My favorite is a baggie of about 150 beads and an ice cube tray that he can sort by color...it should take a VERY long time - ha!
So with these bins and a pile of books our boy will get the calm, independent time he needs, his mama (who is constantly exhausted with this pregnancy) will still have a nice break, and we will enjoy the fact when Sam's head hits the pillow at 8PM he is out like a light!
I am still slightly mourning this as I really loved nap time. It was just so calm, quiet and peaceful in this house for a whole two hours and really did wonders to recharge me.
I knew the end was coming a couple of months ago. Sam has never had a problem falling asleep for naps and is usually out in minutes. He is an early riser (6:00 but he needs to stay in his room until 6:30) and is exhausted by mid day. However, we were starting to notice that nighttime was beginning to be a bit of a struggle with him and knew the naps would have to go soon. We were getting too many out of bed questions like:
"Mom what comes after 39"
"Mom what are you scared of because I am going to be scared of that too"
"Dad, did you know I did __________ today?"
"This is an emergency where I need to get up - it's a love emergency! I love you"
"I need to go to the bathroom"
"Mom can I live with you forever?"
"I'm still thirsty"
"Dad why is it staying lighter outside now?"
Oh he had a big list...his little mind was just not able to shut down at nights and we found him still up sometimes at 9:45 at night - almost two hours after he was tucked into bed! It was a few weeks of this where it was finally decided that it was time to drop the nap.
At first we thought we could try to wake him after a half hour power nap but he proved to be a total bear and that plan was very quickly abandoned and now instead of nap time we have quiet time.
Sam actually took to quiet time really well. He feels pretty important that he doesn't have to nap and loves to tell Cole every afternoon that he will be having 'quiet time' not nap time. I was really nervous about it and convinced he would be a wreck by supper without a nap but this 'quiet time' really seems to recharge him in the same way a nap would. We got away with just a big pile of books for the first few days but it is clear this kid needs some other independent activities to keep him amused for the hour in his room. Hence the creation of his 'quiet bins.' We put them together today while Cole was finishing up his nap and Sam is pretty excited (one for every day of the week). They are filled with all sorts of goodies we found around the house that he doesn't play with daily, a bunch of fun stuff from my days teaching, and a few good dollar store finds. I am hoping that they can keep him amused for awhile as some of the activities are pretty open ended and allow for his imagination to take over. His favorite was a pile of foam laundry (shirts, pants, socks, shorts) that we cut out that he gets to 'mix up' in the baggie washing machine and then sort (by color or style) into mini laundry bins. My favorite is a baggie of about 150 beads and an ice cube tray that he can sort by color...it should take a VERY long time - ha!
So with these bins and a pile of books our boy will get the calm, independent time he needs, his mama (who is constantly exhausted with this pregnancy) will still have a nice break, and we will enjoy the fact when Sam's head hits the pillow at 8PM he is out like a light!
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| Our bins at the halfway point! |
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