14 months old
Naps are a wonderful thing for babies and their mothers. Baby gets well rested as their minds sort through the myriad of external stimuli absorbed woke awake. They wake refreshed and happy. (Most of the time.) Mommy gets a chance to tackle the perpetual laundry/dishes/meal prep/cleaning or maybe catch some zz’s herself.
For the last half a year, Nessness had been getting two 1.5 hour naps a day. In addition to 10-12 hours of sleep at night. She eats well, plays well. She’s happy. Her Mommy and Daddy are happy.
I was hoping she’d continue with two naps a day until about 18 months. But no, she’s in a hurry to grow up even though her little body can barely keep up with what her mind wants to do. She would get a good first nap but fight through the second one. Then be clingy, tired and cranky all through the evening until she’s in bed. But because she’s now overtired, she fights bedtime for another hour. And when she doesn’t sleep early enough, she wakes earlier too. (It’s counter intuitive but they do need to sleep earlier to sleep longer.) And if she wakes earlier then I wake earlier. And the cycle perpetuates itself further…until, I suspect, everyone is constantly grumpy and acting out.
So we started troubleshooting to see what sleep solution works. The next post will have schedules.