From 1 Nap to None
I dreaded it when my firstborn did because I had a newborn and I desperately needed to nap while he napped but she was up and talkative and active. She was only 2 years and 9 months old. I learned that some kids keep napping til they’re 5 and I felt cheated out of that extra time to rest!
As my youngest got older, I cherished his naptimes when I could read with her 1:1, read my books, work on my business, and/or take a nap. When he transitioned from 2 naps to 1, its was great because he napped for almost 3 hours and we had longer wake windows to go on outings.
Then I went on my first solo trip since having kids and my youngest (2 yrs 4 months old) became super clingy and started climbing out of his crib even with his sleep sack on. So, for safety reasons, we had to change his crib to a toddler bed, which just means replacing the front wall to a lower half-open fence.
My older child transitioned to a toddler bed shortly after he was born when she was 2 yrs 8 months old. We were really nervous that she’d come out and play and open the door when it was time to sleep but she remained self-contained in her toddler bed and later floor mattress 98% of the time. We hoped our younger child would follow suit.
No such luck. He stayed in for 2-3 days at first until he realized he had the freedom to get out of bed, open the door calling for me, and eventually come for snuggles in my bed until the middle of the night.
It was a harrowing transition I was definitely not prepared for, especially to face alone cuz my husband went to his family reunion for the week.
But I’ve come to realize that this is the beginning of the end of naps and it would be easier to accept it - embrace it even! I recalled that Buddhist philosophy I learned from studying Dialectical Behavior Therapy:
Pain + Resistance = Suffering
So as I like to do, I decided to make a pros/cons list of no more naps:
PROS | CONS |
No need to wake him up early in the mornings | Crankier in the afternoons |
No rushing home from outings - leisurely days | No midday break for me to read/nap or my daughter to draw/color/read together |
No time restrictions on any daytime invitations | |
Early bedtime around 6:30pm (for a while) |
Funny how no more naps allows our days to be less rushed but I’m also more tired...
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