Wednesday, May 5, 2010

New Sleeping Arrangements

Last Sunday afternoon, I thought I was going to lose it. It was 1:30pm and I was trying to come to grips with the fact that my children were skipping their nap. Again. Last week on two days none of the boys napped. On three days last week only one child napped (they rotated who would nap). Know what that means? On only two days last week did all three of the boys nap. Ugh!

If the boys would crash early at bedtime as a result of not napping I may have been able to cope a bit better. Instead they would still take 45 minutes or so to fall asleep AND they were getting up at 6:30am. AHHHHH!

Monday afternoon I tried something. My Parents As Teachers parent educator suggested a couple of months ago that I split them up for naps. I tried it once and it didn't go so well, so didn't try again. Monday I decided it was worth a try. I told the boys we'd take turns sleeping in various spots, but Chase was still sad that he had to start the rotation in his own bed.

The new routine? One child sleeps on the futon in the playroom, which I thought was just asking for trouble with all of those books and giant stuffed animals within reach, but turns out isn't as bad as I thought.
One child sleeps in my bed, which of course is the coveted spot, and another child sleeps in his own bed. You know what? It's working!

Monday I had to close Chase's bedroom door because Tyler and he were chatting back and forth across the hall. But after I did that it only took 15 minutes for them all to quiet down and then they were asleep shortly after. The nap lengths? Between 2 and a half hours and almost 3 hours! 

Yesterday I again had to close the bedroom door, this time because Jackson and Chase were chatting. It only took about 20 minutes for them to quiet down this time and I had 2 and a half hour naps again.

Sweet nap time! How I've missed you! Welcome back :)

5 comments:

Deanna said...

Two and a half hours?! That's great! I would have to crawl up in bed and take a nap right along with those precious boys!

Anonymous said...

I have always had to split my monkey's for nap time. For a while we had a pack and play in our room for nap while one slept in their crib. Now that they are in twin beds, one sleeps in his bed and one sleeps in my oldest son's room. They too sleep for 2.5-3 hours at the age of 3 1/2 :)

Jill

Laney said...

We've separated for naps from the get-go. 3 1/2 and we're still rocking our almost 3 hour naps!

Momma-of-5 said...

You're so creative, Helen! Good job. I'm starting to think about how long we'll get to keep them in their cribs!

Brenda B. said...

Way to get control and show them who's boss ;)

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by!

Related Posts with Thumbnails