A new frontier

Well, the time has finally come: We are transitioning to a no-napping household. Gabe no longer needs a nap – which I have finally accepted and embraced as of yesterday – and, well, I'm still oscillating on what to do about Will. His behavior often tells me that he needs a nap, but he has been resisting, so the jury is still out on how it'll all go down. I'll note that Gabe will be 5 in less than a month and Will is 3.5, so they've really done remarkably well at napping up until this point. And I will say I've been quite intentional about wearing off their energy so they would sleep during the day.

I have been dreading this transition despite my many older and wiser friends assuring me that it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be. I was leery of my friends' opinions, and so I have to say, it hasn't been nearly as bad as I anticipated! After all, both Gabe and Will were asleep by the time I left their room at 7.15 PM. In fact as I was rocking Gabe, he told me that he was done rocking and needed to go to bed because he was tired!

I'm a creature of habit and love a good routine so the fact that their sleep routine has been hairy as of late (hard to get them to nap, later bed times with routines full of resistance to sleep, night wakings), is not what I consider fun. I like to know that they're going to sleep at a given time every day so that I can organize my time and count on my expectations of what is going to happen and when. (I know I sound very rigid, and I've come a long way toward embracing flexibility.) So the fact that my boys are back to going to bed early and on regiment is fantastic for my heart and knowing that I have an extra hour back into my night! ...Though I know that will disappear at some point as well.

For me, the number one lesson in parenting is that kids cannot be controlled. It took me a long time to realize that I needed to remind myself daily that my role was not to keep my kids under control, but instead view my role as managing them. ...But that is another topic.

On a more practical note, both boys will definitely still have a quiet time in their room alone by themselves for about an hour. Gabe has transitioned beautifully because of our routine; For the last few months, while I was putting Will down for a nap in the boys' bedrooms, I would have Gabe keep himself busy in my and Jon's bedroom (where he napped) with worksheets, coloring or reading and such. He enjoyed this independent time as part of his nap-time routine and so now he's already used to going in our bedroom and keeping himself busy in a constructive way.

It's been a challenge to teach the boys to sleep and prioritize the rest of two little dudes that are 15 months apart. Yet, it's definitely been well worth the journey both to me and my character (patience and perserverance!) as well as an asset to their well being.

I've been rather obsessed with keeping my boys well rested because it truly means for a much happier child and family! So if I can share thoughts or nitty gritty details of keeping energetic children close in age on a sleep schedule, by all means, ask, because I'd love to pass on what I've learned.