I feel like writing a sonnet to the toddler nap, in the hopes that it will stick around a bit longer. Very, very sadly, it seems to be on its way out. I would say Owen naps maybe 4 days a week, but that estimate could be generous. He just truly seems to not be tired often, and unless the sleep overtakes him, he doesn’t relax enough to nap.
Sean is the nap king: he’ll go up to Owen’s room and hold him while sitting in the chair, and forbid him to talk or wiggle, and more times than not Owen will then fall asleep. Susan and I can’t really make this happen. The frustrating thing is that on the weekend I’ll try to get him to sleep and have no luck, and so Sean will go up and get him snoozing, and then Owen will sleep for two hours! So clearly there is some need for sleep; it just is hard to unlock.
I can sometimes get him to nap on Saturdays after he gets tired out at his swim lesson…but sometimes not.
And what makes me think the nap is departing for good is that Owen really isn’t cranky on the days when he doesn’t nap. He’ll get a little manic by the end of the day and have some impulse control issues (knocking over glasses of water is a favorite, for example), but he’s not really temper trantrum-y like he used to be on nap-less days.
We’ve tried, too, the “quiet time” version of naptime, but I really can’t understand how people make this work. Owen will happily scream “Mommy! I’m awake!” at full throttle for a whole hour. I’ve tried putting books in his crib, but he throws them out.
When he does nap, though, it is still so wondrous! He gets up about 5:30, so after playing with him from 5:30 to 1:00, it is so lovely to be just me on the couch with some books and some coffee. Alas! It was the best of times! O nap! – we hardly knew ye!
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