Nap Pushback

This morning I pushed Sullivan's nap back to 11:00. She usually goes down around 8 or 8:30 for her first nap and sleeps (almost always) for two hours. But what happens is she goes down at 8:30 and sleeps until 10:30. O and K go down at noon and sleep until 2:00. Sullivan goes down for her second nap around 1:30 or 2:00 and sleeps until 3:00 or 3:30. It works out that we have about an hour of free time from 10:30 until 11:30 and then from 3:30 until dinner time. It's getting easier, but it still takes us a while to get everyone ready and out the door for an outing. One hour in the morning for an outing just isn't worth it! Plus, I don't get anything done when I only have 30 or 45 minutes to myself all day.

The mistake I made with O and K was dropping their afternoon nap instead of the morning nap and moving afternoon nap up. I took me all summer to get their nap moved from 9am to noon. Sullivan did well this morning and at 10:45 she was yawning and getting cranky. I put her down and she didn't fuss at all and was asleep by 11:00. At least this way maybe their naps will overlap for an hour or a little more and I can get more done during the day. I don't know if she's ready for one nap a day, but if the total hours napping during the day come out to be the same, I'm not too worried about. She sleeps 11-12 hours at night and usually a total of three hours during the day; I think she's well-rested. Maybe in another month or two they will all sleep for two hours (or more...fingers crossed!) at the same time and I can finally start to have a regular break during the day. Trust me people, that time won't be spent on watching my favorite shows or doing my nails. When I think about free time during the day, I fantasize about the chance to empty laundry baskets, clean my floors and unload the dishwasher without two extra sets of little hands helping. We'll see how this goes - today was easy and maybe that means this is the right time to do this.