Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Naps and Fall Fun

Things are interesting around here at the moment. Colin is on the road to losing his second nap for sure now and I feel like I am just along for the ride at the moment. We have been having all sorts of nap battles for at least the last month. Some days are great and he takes two naps like always, but then lots of days are not so good and he takes one nap and battles the other one. The last 4 days have seen Colin skipping the morning nap. Before that, it was the afternoon nap that he would skip. If Colin is going to one nap now, I need to start helping him move that nap to the middle of the day. When he wakes up from a nap at 11:00am, it is far too long a stretch to be awake until 7:00pm and he gets really upset for the last two hours of the day. We have been experiencing a lot of fussy baby evenings around here lately. I am going to keep trying to follow my instinct and put him in bed if he is showing signs of being tired. He is fighting these naps tooth and nail, but I know he still needs them if he is getting that fussy by 5pm. I think my only option at this point is to hang on for the ride and keep trying to get him sleep. I can certainly see the difference switching up his schedule is making. He has woken up twice this week in the middle of the night, which he has not done since May. Colin is textbook....when sleep schedules get messed with, he starts night waking.

Yesterday Colin and I went on another picnic in the park and it was actually chilly in the shade!! I had us sitting at our usual table under the trees and ended up having to move into direct sunlight because it was too cool for Colin in his shorts!! How great is that?!?! Last night I made dinner with all the windows in the kitchen and living room open and Colin played on the patio with Jer with I cooked. It was so wonderful. Last night we even slept without the air on! I found a local farm that is tucked away behind our neighborhood (I can't believe this place exists and I just now found out!) and I plan to take Colin over to check it out today or tomorrow. This weekend we are taking him to the Pumpkin Patch (if the rain holds off), so we have a lot of fun outdoor activities to do in the next few days. I love fall!!!

4 comments:

Shannon said...

I don't know how I lucked into an easy transition to one nap a day with the twins, but somehow I did. When they hit a year old, we switched to napping from 11 AM - 1 PM. Often they will sleep until 2 PM. Of course they get up at the butt-ass crack of dawn (5:30-6AM!!), but that nap time gives them enough energy to make it until their 7:30 PM bedtime.

For me, I put them down exactly at the same time every day even if they are hyper and active. They know when I say, "It's nap time" they start climbing the stairs and never make a fuss about it. I think they know that if they fuss I won't go get them. I don't even turn on their monitors until 1 PM.

Kate woke up 3 freakin' times last night. I don't think it's teething. I think she just wanted to get up and play. Yuck.

Melibelle said...

I know I heart fall too! Last night I put out my halloween decor! Makes me happy! :):)

The Murrays said...

We might as well just share one blog. LOL. Everything you write is happening just the same over here. We dropped Schafer's first nap just a few weeks ago. Now he wakes up at 8:00ish, goes down for a nap after lunch and sleeps for two hours, then down for the night at 8:00. It is working well for us. And YAY HOORAY for you finding that farm...isn't it weird how things like that can be right in your backyard? I hope you have a blast at the pumpkin patch too. Can't wait for the pictures!

Anonymous said...

It took us a couple of months before Gabby really got adjusted to taking 1 nap. We had to start putting her to bed around 6:30 for a little while, which helped. On the days when she just couldn't make it to her afternoon nap, we let her take a mid-morning nap but woke her up after an hour so she would be more likely to still take her afternoon nap- because if she took morning only, evenings were always a disaster.

Since she has been on one nap, it has made things so much easier since we just have to have 1 block of time where we need to be home.

Also, we follow the same rule as daycare...2 hours of quiet time whether she is sleeping or not. She will often sleep for 2.5 to 3 hours, but if she doesn't, I know she will play quietly in her crib and not scream to get up. Which is nice...I hated not knowing how long she would sleep, and not knowing if I would have a 45 minute break or a 3 hour break. At least now, we know it is at least 2 no matter what.

 
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