Dropping naps…

Over the last few years, I’ve learned how to sleep in chunks. I think it all started when I signed up for a job with a 7:30 am start (I know!!). To most people this may not be a big deal, right? Well to me it was. Remember, I come from the big, bad, ‘glam’ world of advertising. There’s very little, if anything, that happens before a respectable 9:30 am. Talk 10:30 and you may well have a bit of success. Given that, and the fact that I was one of the ones that managed to be called a latecomer frequently in THAT scenario and you get my drift…

So when I got the 7.30 job, with a half hour commute… you do the numbers on the wake up time! I first decided I’d sleep way early. 9:30 in bed and 10:00 out cold, I said. Yeahhh... that didn’t work out so much! So after many months of various things I tried, I settled on a late afternoon nap to catch me up. An hour to an hour and a half saw me through some pretty rough days. So I fully respect ‘the nap’ and how great sleep time is.

And then baby came along. In the early days, all she did was nap. No day; no night. Then I slowly understood that babies needed a night sleep and some naps and that these get fewer as they grow older. Makes sense. I totally get naps, as we discovered. Now, however, the little lady is transitioning from 3 naps in a day to 2. Which is great on the one hand. Because no one said that getting the da*n baby to nap was hell warmed over.  And the less number of times we have to do it in the way, the better!

The trouble though is that we had at one stage, finally got her on something of a routine. We knew that roughly every 2 hours, she went to sleep. It might take a few minutes to get her there, and sometimes she woke, but essentially it was fairly predictable.

Now… My husband is a pretty hands-on dad (which is great, because love her as I do, I can’t see myself doing this without the now and then break). Unlike many, he actually seems to WANT to come home and hang out with her in the evenings and on the weekends so who am I to interfere ;)? But even with Mr. Great Dad, its fun to see the after effects. The other day I see him looking particularly frazzled! So I come in and ask, ‘what’s wrong?’, ‘When’s her next nap he asks,’ with a slight tinge of desperation.’ So I giggle inwardly and say innocently, ‘Not for a couple of hours yet, why?’. Of course he doesn’t answer because he’s a good guy. I then proceeded to make him feel guilty ;)… and said something like ‘Why, are you waiting till its time for her to sleep?’ And he looked shamefaced. Whaaaaat???? Why not? Its fun!!! :P

But seriously, I know where he’s coming from because I’ve been RIGHT there. Sometimes you can’t wait till its time for them to go to sleep. And then you truly appreciate how fantastic sleepy time can be! Right? Oh come on, you know you’ve been there!