After this weekend, I think I can say that Charlie has officially given up on naps. Ugh, it pains me just to type that out! That glorious 90 minute period that I have come to expect between 1:00 and 2:30 every Saturday and Sunday is gone.
That means, on productive days, there will be no more afternoon workouts. On unproductive days (which seem to be the norm, lately), that means no more relaxing time on the couch with a book without pictures, no more naps of my own, no more catching up on junk TV on rainy afternoons.
And then I feel like a horrible parent for even thinking about mourning the loss of naptime. I should be overjoyed that we get to spend another hour together. Don't get me wrong, I love Charlie, and love spending time with him, but by the time lunch rolls around and we've played Star Wars action figures and cooked pretend grilled cheeses in the kitchen and built the same lego house over and over again and walked to the park and back... well, I'm tired. Shouldn't he be, too??
Perfect timing, too, because we had our 3-year well-check at the pedi's office last week. I blame her, because she asked the question. "Is he still napping?" Then I blame myself, because I smiled happily and said "Oh, yes! 90 minutes every day!" And then I'm back to blaming her for telling us that we should expect those to come to an end.
Now I'm WTF-ing her, too, because she also said that when the naps go away, we still need to encourage him to have at least an hour of quiet time. Quiet time? 3-year-old? Those two phrases don't really belong in the same sentence.
Of course, I took the question to Facebook. All moms commiserated with me on the loss of naptime. Some offered "Quiet Time" advice. It ranged from books and quiet toys to making them lie down anyway to (my personal favorite) Blackberry Whiskey (is that for him? or for me?).
Looks like we'll be hitting up Target this week for a quiet toy and an egg timer. I also found a super cute pattern for a Jedi Quiet Book online. I may have to get it, it can be my second crafty sewing project.
What, I didn't tell you about the first? That's coming soon :)
I implement about 45 minutes of quiet time mid-morning and about an hour right before Clayton gets home. The boys go to their room and are free to play (quietly), take a nap, look at books, etc. Anything not obnoxious, basically. It works well! Everyone's much happier after a good rest. ;)
ReplyDeleteHow old is Charlie now? Brady is 4 and still takes napes...thankfully.
ReplyDeleteHey this gave me an idea. Do you think quiet time would work with my wife?
ReplyDeleteOh, you may not have naps but you have "rest time". We still occasionally have rest time. It still occurs when nap time did but we "rest" -- he must stay on his bed and no loud noises. He can play but it has to be on the bed and quietly. Sometimes, it's Mommy who needs the rest but no one is worse off for the quiet time. :)
ReplyDeleteHmmm, you can try, but I can't promise that it will end well!
ReplyDeleteJust turned 3 in August. He still naps at school, the difference is that he's up around 6 M-F and sleeps until 8 S&S, so I guess he just doesn't need the extra sleep.
ReplyDeleteAny fantastic quiet toy suggestions? We don't have a lot of toys, but the ones that we do have are noisy (thanks to well-meaning friends and family!). He's got a hundred books, but I don't know that I can rely on those forever!
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of things does he play with? Does he mostly read up there? We definitely need some kind of quiet time, somehow.
ReplyDeleteMy older son stopped napping at 18 months. AGH! My 17 month old is still taking 2-3 hour naps each day. I am hoping it will last quite a while longer.
ReplyDeleteDavis gave up naps for good at around 18 months, he had slowly started skipping them around 14 months though. The slow transition made it a little easier and to be honest, I like him not napping. We no longer have to plan around the damn nap!!!!
ReplyDelete