Farewell, sweet morning nap

It’s official! The girls have gone two weeks now without a morning nap. Earlier in August, the morning nap was hit or miss, and the lack of consistency was driving me crazy!

At first, I was horrified by the idea of giving up the morning nap. How would I get anything done? How was I going to keep the girls busy all morning? Now that we’ve gotten into a rhythm, I’m actually loving the recent nap consolidation!

Our current schedule:

7-7:30 a.m.: Girls wake up
7:45-8:00: Breakfast
8:00-8:30: Playtime while I clean up
8:30-9:00: Walk with Bandit
9:00-9:30: Get the girls ready for the day
9:30-9:45: Small snack
9:45-11:00: Outing (usually the park or gymnastics class if it’s their day to go)
11:00-11:15: Lunch
11:30-2:30: NAP TIME WOOT!
2:30-2:45: Girls wake up from nap
2:45-3:00: Snack
3:00-5:00: Playtime outside, have a friend over for a playdate, sometimes run errands, Daddy gets home
5:00-5:30 Bath time (we do baths well before bedtime because I read somewhere that for highly spirited kids, taking a bath is not calming, and therefore makes bedtime more of a struggle because they are riled up. Ever since we moved bath time back, bedtime has gone a lot smoother).
5:30-6:00: Dinner
6:00-6:45: Jake takes the girls to run out their extra energy at the park or we all take a walk together
6:45-7:00: Pajamas on, girls drink their milk, brush teeth, read stories, and soothing massage
7:00: Daddy kisses girls goodnight and returns to work
7:15 Lights out
7:30: Girls conk out!

Now that the girls have consolidated their nap into one three hour nap, I’ve found I actually like this a lot better than having to get them ready for two naps. Although the girls are absolutely exhausted and pretty cranky by 11 a.m., they go down without any trouble and stay asleep for a solid two and a half hour to three hour stint. This is a huge chunk of time for me to get things done!

For example:

My nap time project earlier this week:

This only took about fifteen minutes during the girls’ nap time, but since I don’t have to worry about the girls waking up in the middle, I’m more inclined to start projects. I’m not going to lie–it’s also nice to put my feet up and take a little nap myself some days!
Every day is a little different, but that’s pretty much our new schedule. I’m liking the new adjustments, but definitely dreading the day when the girls give up naps entirely. My goal is to keep them napping until kindergarten (not likely, I know, but I can hope!)

 

Lots of love,

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Comments

  1. I wish I could nap like that! Sounds like a fun adventure everyday!