Astrid's daily nap routine has been: Nap #1 at 9 AM and Nap #2 at 1:30-2:00, for two hours each (4 hours total each day). Just like clockwork, around those times she starts rubbing her eyes showing how sleepy she is and ready for her nap. However lately her afternoon nap has been getting shorter in length (from 2 hours to sometimes only 1/2 an hour), and yesterday our nanny said Astrid refused to take a 2nd nap. She would just sit in the crib and cry every time our nanny closed her bedroom door.
Yesterday my company had an afternoon bbq party for our interns, as it was the last day of the 2006 summer internship program. I was looking forward to it all week since: a) it was in the afternoon which meant I could go with the baby (and not have to try and find a babysitter), b) it was only a few minutes from work, c) it's fun to socialize with coworkers outside of the office, and d) this is the best company I've ever worked for and I really like the people I work with.
But without a second nap, it was a great big unknown how long I'd be able to stay at the party with Astrid. She fell asleep in the car on the drive over there, but didn't seem to mind when I woke her up and took her out of her car seat.
Overall she did surprisingly well. There were some tears because of all the people, and she would hide behind my skirt and peek at the stranger who was trying to play with her. But there were many other young children there and they all seemed to gravitate towards her and tried to play with her. She enjoyed running around on the grass and playing with the outdoor toys.
Knowing that it's the natural progression to go from 2 naps, down to 1 eventually; today I tried to hold out on the 1st nap for as long as possible. We got up this morning, and Astrid ate her breakfast. We got a nice morning phone call from Uwe who is in Las Vegas for a friend's bachelor party. Then we got dressed and went to a local restaurant so I could get some breakfast for myself. I was craving a Denver omelet. I let her walk the block from the parking lot to the restaurant and back. She loved it. While I was eating my breakfast I fed Astrid some cut up pieces of fresh fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, melon, bananas). Again, she loved it. Around this time it was past 9:30 (half an hour past her morning nap time). I could see her starting to rub her eyes but she wasn't getting cranky so I decided to make a stop at Costco for some diapers and such. On the drive back home she fell asleep in the car, and I put her to bed at 11:15 (2 hours and 15 minutes past her nap time).
The change from 2 naps to 1 will take some time to adapt to. But on the other hand, it will allow her to do more activities during the day (like music and swim classes) without a nap interfering with the scheduling. And when we travel through Europe next month, we definitely won't have the luxury of going back to the room for 2 naps a day (but she can always nap in her stroller).
For those of you who already went through this, what time does your child go down for a nap?
(Update: Astrid took a 3 hour nap today.)
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2 comments:
Mine took two naps/day up until daycare started, at 9:00ish and 1:00ish. Baylee started trying to drop the morning nap before daycare started, but Brayden really wanted two.
Daycare's schedule is lunch at 11 and down for a nap. They record how long each baby naps each day, and mine almost always sleep until 1:30, when they get all the babies up. It is working really well, and they aren't overly cranky when we get home, but are ready for bed at 6:30 p.m.
Amy,
Astrid's on the same schedule now as B&B. She now has a single nap at 11 (and sleeps for 3 hours), and then we start getting her ready for bed at 6:30. She seems to be doing fine with it and I'm going to try and get her signed up for more activities during the day like swim class and gymnastics for toddlers.
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