When Two Becomes One
We’d like to think that Henry is advanced in everything that he does. (He is my son, you know.) But it’s not true. He’s definitely nap delayed.
What’s that, you ask? Well, when most babies his age were at three naps, he was at four (or sometimes five). When he finally dropped to three naps, other kids were at two. And it wasn’t until Saturday — yes, this past Saturday, when he’s nearly 21 months — that he dropped that second nap.
We have friends with kids Henry’s age who so.me days don’t nap at all. At all.
That’s incredible.
So when we decided that it was time for him to get rid of the morning nap, we were a bit worried. You see, Henry loves to sleep. Loves it. We put him in his crib and he’ll roll over and fall asleep right away.
But his sleep during the day was cutting into his night-time sleep, to the point that he was starting to wake up at 5 in the morning. While this was okay for Henry (what’s 5 to him?), it was brutal for Kristen and I. The remedy we thought was cutting out a nap.
On Saturday morning at 8, instead of putting him down for his first nap of the day, we all stayed up. We went to his swim class at 10, had some lunch after, and had him in bed by a little after noon. By the time he finally fell asleep, it was obvious that he was really tired. But there were no tears. No tantrums. No throwing of toys. He happily fell asleep and ended up taking a three-hour nap.
Sunday was the same. We kept him busy all morning (so he didn’t even have the chance to even think about a nap), and when he finished lunch, he slept the sleep of a contented youngster.
On Monday and today, Super-nanny Silvia did the same as we had over the weekend, and Henry was perfectly fine.
And best of all, he’s been waking up a little later in the morning. Today, in fact, he slept until nearly 6:45. SIX-FORTY-FIVE! Halleluja!
Of course, we’re all giddy now, but we’re dreading that day when he goes completely napless. That could mean the end of all the goodness in the world. Hopefully, we have a few more years until that happens.
May 19th, 2010 at 5:14 am
Henry is my nap idol and inspiration.