Over the past two or three months, Charlotte has “outgrown” her nap. And by “outgrown,“ what I mean is that she no longer naps with any sort of consistency at a reasonable hour…but she is still physically incapable of making it past five o’clock in the evening without crashing. We have Quiet Time for about forty minutes most afternoons, but she refuses to use it to sleep.
And now that she can unlock and open our doors independently, I’m no longer allowed to use Quiet Time to sleep either.
Bedtime is at eight o’clock, which gives us time to play when Donald comes home, read some stories, take a neighborhood walk, and enjoy dinner together as a family. So this business where Charlotte crawls up beside me, snuggles in, and falls asleep at four o’clock in the afternoon isn’t really a GREAT habit.
But I’ll be damned if it isn’t the most darling thing in the world.
** Charlotte is two years and ten months old. I am sixteen weeks pregnant.
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Goodness! LOVE this photo. It IS the most darling thing in the world.
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So sweet..we have been battling the no nap thing for almost a year now. :-9 My son needs it so badly and crashes out every day from about 4 PM. Drive me nuts..he refuses to take it during rest time of course. :-)
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So so so cute!
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Monique - LOL, what is with that?! Don’t they realize that in twenty years, they’ll be wishing they could have a designated rest time?!
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Why is it that they always outgrow the need for a nap before we do????
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I often say to children “There are any things to fight in life—hunger, cruelty, oppression, but dear little children DON’T FIGHT SLEEP.“
Well, I don’t really say it to them, but often think it.
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I have been struggeling with the exact thing with my two and a half year old. It is especially hard when you have more than one child’s schedule to manage. I often feel like the late nights and the evening outburst because she is so tired is taking away from the much needed time and attention my ten year old needs. When she has to have a late nap it’s so hard to wake them so they don’t sleep to long. No one likes to wake a sleeping angel.
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Yes indeed, I always needed that nap more than my kids did. We solved the “open the door by themselves” problem by having a dead bolt that needed a key to open it from both the inside and the outside. We hung the key up high, close to the door so we could get to it quickly in case of an emergency. Hate to say it but this problem can come back to bite you when they are teenagers sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night. Little kids, little problems, big kids, big problems my grandmother used to say.
And yes, you two napping are just the sweetest picture ever.
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Both of mine started refusing naps right after 2 years old. I started getting desperate so I took them for drives. I would drive 10 minutes to get them to sleep then park in the shade somewhere. An hour later they would wake and it would be so much better. 6 months later naps meant staying up till 11pm so instead of taking car rides I had to make sure we would not be in the car after 1pm. Finally, at 3.5 and 4.5 they rarely fall asleep. Why must the full nap transition be so difficult?!
And that picture is so sweet!
By on May 22, 2012
sweetest picture ever.