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Good-Bye Nap? Say It Ain’t So.

I think that the moment that I have long dreaded is here: Nicholas is giving up his afternoon nap. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! It’s the end of a peaceful-afternoon-era. I am officially not ready for this milestone.

So, Benjamin gave up his nap about 6 months or so ago. I know, I was spoiled that he napped for so long, and really have nothing to complain about (but, think I’ll complain anyway). For the past half-year or so, Benjamin would play upstairs in his room (sometimes quietly, sometimes not so much), while little brother snoozed in the room across the hall. Ah, bliss. It was an hour to an hour-and-a-half that I could get stuff done: phones calls, studying, cleaning, even (gasp!) drink a cup of tea and catch-up on The Bachelorette on occasion (don’t judge me, you know you love it too!).

However, in the past few weeks, I’ve been noticing a new phenomenon in our house: Nicholas will still nap in the afternoon. He’ll fall asleep for an hour or more, but (and here’s the big BUT) on days that he naps, he doesn’t fall asleep until about 9:30 p.m. (bedtime is usually around 7:30 p.m.). The next day, he is a bear. Not the cute, cuddly, baby-bear or Winnie-the-Pooh type of bear either. I’m talking full-out bear-with-teeth-and-claws-just-woke-up-after-hibernation-looking-for-something-to-eat-DO-NOT-get-in-his-way type of bear. There is nothing even remotely cute about that kind of bear, except for maybe when it falls asleep, which Nicholas is obviously not doing.

Case in point, Nicholas napped yesterday afternoon and fell asleep around 9:15 p.m. last night. Today, the boys got into a fight at the pool over who would get the starfish towel. Nicholas just about pulled his shoulder out of its socket while trying to get said towel away from his brother, all the while screeching like a banshee. Time-outs all around, thank you very much. Each hassle over a toy, snack, water-bottle, what-have-you has resulted in a meltdown of nuclear proportion (alright…I might be exaggerating just a tad, but it hasn’t been pretty).

So, what to do? Do I say goodbye to nap hoping for a better night’s sleep for my youngest, or do I hang onto that hour of (relative) afternoon silence for just a little longer?

This afternoon, we skipped nap and I sent the boys to the basement playroom for an hour of quiet time. Nicholas lasted about 20 minutes before dissolving into a puddle of temper-tantrumish-mess. He was banished to his room where, incidentally, I think he fell asleep. Great.

Better go wake him up.

xo Naomi

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