Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Naptime dilemma

Okay, Garrison has been consistently taking two naps a day since he was about 4 months old. Once I was done with the school year and back at home with him, I was able to establish a consistent routine with his naps. One in the morning that lasted 1 and a half-2 hours, and one in the afternoon that lasted 1 and a half-2 hours. Now... he's about to be 15 months old and I just can't decide what to do about his naps. He is still taking two a day, but they usually aren't two good naps. He actually takes his best nap in the morning. He settles down easily, goes to sleep quickly after being laid down, and typically stays asleep until I go in to wake him up. The afternoon nap on the other hand is a whole different story. He usually plays/talks/sings for several minutes before he finally goes to sleep in the afternoon. By "several minutes", I mean like a good 30 minutes on average. Most days he will eventually go to sleep, but only for about an hour before I have to wake him up. And, the days he doesn't go to sleep are not fun for mama and daddy because he's so ill up until bedtime.

My dilemma is.... Should I still allow him to take 2 naps a day until he starts resisting the morning nap? (Because the morning nap is what will be eliminated eventually) Or, should I start to shorten the morning nap so that hopefully his afternoon nap will be better? Or, should I try eliminating the morning nap altogether to see how that effects our day and the afternoon nap? The reason I'm making an issue over it is because one- I know that one day that morning nap has got to go, but that he will still definitely need a good long afternoon nap, and two- I know how important those naps are to me. Naptime for Garrison means "work time" for mama. That is when I accomplish 99% of my Premier "stuff". One nap a day is a scary thought to me. But, if that one nap is a good long one every afternoon, then I think I'll be able to manage okay... although it won't be as easy as having two naps.

Decisions, decisions. Right now I think I'm just going to be really strict about keeping that morning nap short- no more than an hour. Then, hopefully he will still take a good long afternoon nap. I guess we'll find out in the coming weeks.

2 comments:

Megan said...

Brae usually goes down between 12 and 1 and stays asleep till 3ish. Since she was a wee little lad (probably around 5 months) she has only taken one long middle day nap then she is more than ready to go to bed at 7:30. What time does Garrison go to bed at night?

Meggie said...

Hey! Just realized you left a comment... sorry, I'm still figuring all this out. haha. Garrison goes to bed about 7:45ish. We take him back around 7:30 but we read a couple of books, sing a couple of songs and then lay him down. So I would say it's about 7:45 or 8:00 before he falls asleep most nights. I've shortened his morning nap to 1 hour and that's made his afternoon nap lots better. He usually sleeps from 1:45/2:00 til 3:45/4:00 everyday now. Once he drops the morning nap we may move up that afternoon nap... we'll see. I hope ya'll are doing good and that Mike's Granny is doing better! I'll have to check fb. Have a good weekend!!