Hi ladies, I read everyday. Loved the pic of Z, bless her. I'll share our napping world in order to help anyone out, I hope.
N doing well, naps most days but not at all on the days he wakes past 7:45am, (or he would but like at 2:30, no way!) which is fine, he is good with just the chill out for an hour in our room (I've been letting him nap in our room since Feb.never asks at bed to go there thankfully) and put to bed 12 hours from wake. He is dealing with things well, mainly due to fine weather now. So he is out and about and very busy. This helps with keeping the grumps away and also making him tired for the nap and bed.
I basically never let him sleep past 2:15-2:30 no matter what the start time was. We have also had a nap last week in the buggy for an hour, he fell asleep after waking at 8am at 12:15
so I covered him with a blanket and he was great when he woke up. I was still able to get him off to bed at 7:30ish as he had been awake since 1:15, so no struggle. He fell asleep on Sat in the car on the way home and woke up with the transfer, which before he never would of woke, so that was weird, he was a bit miserable, but no more so than how he is sometimes when I have to wake him from nap, he just cries and needs me to cuddle him for about 10 min and then he snaps out of it. I still hate waking him..grrrr.
I had a bit of a power struggle today (temper tantrum-ish IYKWIM) as he did not want to go inside, we did lunch outside and then he was like: "No nap, no rest Mummy, it morning, look sunny, no tired, pleeeeeease stay outside...." It went on. I just dealt with it how I would with other situations where he doesn't want to do what I am suggesting. I explained to him that we all have to go inside and rest, I told him the squirrels, the birds, the neigbourhood kids, the bulldozer man,
everyone needs to take a break, so they can be strong and able to play again and not feel grumpy. Then I told him that he didn't have to sleep, he could read, play or watch TV in the room, but either way, we were going in. He went in protesting, but as soon as we were indoors he asked if he could have some water and a granola bar. He took it to our room and I put on Little Bear. He asked me to come and rest too and I said ok and lay beside him for 5 min and he asked me to open the granola bar and then I said ok, when I offered it to him, he said no thanks...
then I said I had to go do the dishes and he didn't answer, I snuck back 5 min
later and peeked in and he was sound asleep. When he woke I asked him if he slept well and he said with a very enthusiastic Uh huh! Then I reminded him again that resting is good for everyone, even the bulldozer man! LOL! So will see tomorrow how it goes. All in all, so far so good touch wood.
HTH,
A x
ps. ETA: the days we don't nap and only rest or if he was to only do a half hour in the car lets say, I would do supper for him early at 4:30, and then make that a chill out time for him from 5-6pm which is great as I can putter in kitchen etc... and just leave him quietly on his own playing. Then he could eat again with DH and I or have snack before bed. This has helped us through the evening hours A LOT!
