Thursday, 07 May 2009

• To nap or not to nap? That is the question.

  My first daughter was never a good sleeper. She gave up napping before she turned one. She sleep in three hour increments at night time. But time passed, a lot of time. Now at seven I can't get her out of bed in the morning to go to school.
  
  Then my son came along. He started sleeping through the night when he was two months old. As a toddler he would tell me when he was tired and ready for bed or a nap and went down without a problem. He's still my best sleeper.
  
  And now, last but certainly not least, there's my youngest daughter. Some nights she sleep soundly from when I put her down until when the alarm goes off. Other times, well let's not go there.
  
  She's now a toddler, almost two-and-a-half, and we've hit a sleep dilemma: to nap or not to nap. I understand she's going through a transition period moving from having a nap to no nap at all. All my kids have been there, in one form or other. But somehow I've put those moment out of my head since I don't remember them being anything like what's going on with my youngest.
  
  TO NAP
  Not unlike many toddlers, my daughter is busy playing and growing and learning and that's hard work. When she doesn't sleep she can get cranky and difficult to reason with. And when she's in a difficult mood, she tends to need more of my attention. She seems to lack the ability to entertain herself.
  
  Having a nap helps her to recover this lost energy. Plus it gives me time to get other things done. You know, like laundry and tidying and blogging oh yeah, and working.
  
  NOT TO NAP
  But there's two sides to every option. Not napping is the other side. When I can keep my daughter busy with other things (like right now she's playing with tree blocks) she's not unreasonable and I can still get a few things done, like blogging and laundry and oh yeah, work.
  
  Not having a nap also means my daughter will go to sleep without much fuss between 7:30 and 8:00pm (the kids normal bedtime) and she'll fall asleep fairly quickly. And most nights not wake until the alarm clock in my room goes off.
  
  The problem with transition periods is they through routine right out the window. I did try getting her to continue her regular naps, but most days it just doesn't' happen. And on those days I at least try to get her to do some sort of quiet activity like reading books, colouring, or playing with her dolls.
  
  To nap or not to nap seems to be a day by day thing. And most times it's fine, but on those other days, well, let's just say I'm ready to move on and fumble through the next transition stage. 
  
  

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