Breaking up is hard to do...

Especially if it's your toddler's afternoon nap. Insert loud exasperated sigh here.

Miss E has been a stellar sleeper in general, and really an easy baby altogether.  For ages she took a 1-2 hour nap in the morning and a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. Around 15 months she dropped that morning nap, and typically slept at least 2 hours in the afternoon. It's dwindled a bit recently, but still gave me at least an hour and a half in the afternoon to do some housework and catch up on me time.

In December, Miss E started fighting bed. HARD. It was awful. Sometimes she would wake up screaming every hour, and that was after two hours of going down. My newborn and my toddler had switched places, sleep-wise.

I believe several things contributed to our sleep downslide. For one, Mr. C and Miss E now share a bedroom.  They co-exist pretty well, and it's clear that Mr. C will be the kid that falls asleep anywhere, any time. You would, too if the first 4 months of your life you spent falling asleep to the screaming shrills of a two year old sibling. Just saying.

Then I think potty training became a factor. She's a thinker, and I think she may have inherited my awesome trait of over thinking everything. I know how fortunate we are to have the whole potty training thing go smoothly, but it was impacting her sleep. As a dear friend said, "Mrs. Kuda, you've got to take the burden off of her!" And she was right. I told Miss E not to worry if there was an accident, that we would have a "just in case diaper" on. And it worked! Problem solved. Side note: we've since ditched the night time diaper. It served a purpose for a few weeks. We've moved on.

Until about a month ago. One day, she just decided she wasn't going to nap. What the what? What about MY ALONE TIME. When do I get to regain my sanity to get through the rest of the day? So I relate this to a good friend of mine, and she looked at me and said, "Sounds like it's over. You need to be ok with that."

Don't you just love having girlfriends that can bring you back to reality in a loving way? I honestly have no idea what I'd do without them.

So? No nap. Sigh.

So many things have happened as far as Miss E growing up this past few months. Heck, even in the past few weeks she's grown tremendously. She's a little girl now, not a baby. She can go potty by herself, and now no napping? She speaks to me in full sentences, and is starting to really shine as her own independent human. She even named her new baby doll without any influence on my part. Her name is Clara, and I have no idea where she got that name. Sigh.

So today I told her that we were going to try something new. "Miss E, we are going to have quiet time. It's ok that you don't sleep, but mommy needs quiet time just like you do. I'm going to work, and when it's time, you and mommy can play together again."

And she read. For thirty minutes, she read. And when she told me she was finished, I asked her to put her books back in the book basket, and she didn't feel like it so she read some more.

I wish you could be here next to me, so you
could hear her whispering to Clara.
So sweet.

It didn't go perfectly. But she's so big. And I think it's time. I also think it's important that she see me do other things that don't relate to her. So right now, while I do this, she's doing this:

She has work to do, too.

 And this:

Clara's hungry, mommy. You go work. I'll feed the baby.

And for a few minutes (just a few), this:

Just a little rest...

I'm not sure what I was so afraid of. I'm sure we'll have our ups and downs as far as "quiet time" goes, but it's time I let Miss E grow up, even if it's just a little bit, and move on.

Until next time,

Mrs. Kuda


Thanks to Carrie for cluing me in that it may be time to set different rules in our house in the afternoon. You're awesome!