Saturday, January 26, 2013

25 Steps to a "Double Nap"

One piece of advice that I was lovingly given, over and over again, when I was pregnant with Reagan was:

"Get the girls on the same nap schedule.  You've got to do it.  You'll regret it if you don't.  You need to gift yourself that nap".

Good advice.  Great advice.  I, like most other parents of young children, love naptime.  I know the napping days are numbered for Madison, and I'm doing my best to hang onto it as long as I can.  It's a break for her, it's a break for me, it makes for a pleasant dinnertime.

And God help me, I'm trying.  It's not just good for the girls, but that is my time to clean, cook, do laundry, organize, whatever else I've got on my plate.  Here I am, trying my hardest to get some projects done, and naptime is the time.  Forget night.  I turn into a pumpkin once the girls are in bed.  I put on my pajamas and sit in bed with my laptop, my Kindle, and my DVR (and wine. Usually wine.)  If naptime doesn't happen, I'm getting behind.  PLUS, between Reagan getting over the dreaded baby cold, and already having nighttime issues, I need to get myself to bed early.  Naptime is it.

So as a public service announcement, I figured I'd share the timeline of getting the girls to nap simultaneously.  The specifics are from today, but it's pretty typical.



1) Have an active morning. 

Today we went to Bounce U, Target, and out to lunch. Adam and I were exhausted. 

Important: Do NOT let anyone fall asleep in the car.  Even a 5 minute snooze can ruin the best intentions.  Use the children against one another if necessary...say, by asking your toddler to reach over and poke the baby.

2) Have a filling lunch.

We went to Sonic today, which is a rare treat.  Reagan tasted her first order of tots, and she loved them!

3) Take care of any and all ablutions. 

Clean diapers, potty time and crib Pull Ups.

4) Tuck the toddler into her bed.

And give her blue pacifier, Teddy, her covers, her other blanket, turn on music...

5) Rock with the baby, giving her a bottle.

Baby will play with bottle, not drinking it, but not wanting to let go, causing you to give up and put it in the crib with her.  (Calm down dental people, we only do this at naptime).

6) Tuck baby into bed.

7) Turn on monitors and listen to toddler jumping up and down in crib, and baby banging bottle into the sides of the crib.

8) Decide to check Facebook, waiting it out.  After all, no one is crying yet.

9) The sounds continue, but everyone seems happy.  Begin project.

10) Listen to toddler over the monitor saying "Uh oh...uh oh...oh, I am STINKY.  Oh yuck...there are germs in my nugh-night unnapants!  Belle is all dirty!"

11) Take toddler out of bed and into bathroom.  Take off soiled Pull Up, sit toddler on potty again, clean toddler up and thank her profusely for not trying to take care of clean up on her own, and reminding her where poop goes.

12) Put toddler back into bed, causing tears because getting out of bed made her believe that naptime was over.

13) Toddler is asleep!  Success!

14) Continue to listen to baby, who is now singing "Da da da da da da da...."

15) Baby starts, quite suddenly, to wail.

15) Peek into baby's room, where baby is standing in crib, tugging on the rails.  Full bottle is on the floor.

16) Notice a familiar smell.

17) Change diaper again.

18) Sit down with baby in glider, who now drinks bottle.

19) Put drowsy and almost entirely asleep baby back in crib.

20) Leave room.  Baby is quiet.

21) Sit down.  Baby starts rustling.

22) Start playing with computer in an effort to wait it.

23) Baby is asleep!  Success!

24) Jump up and start cleaning like an absolute madwoman, racing against the clock.

25) Toddler wakes up.  Try again tomorrow.

And there it is.  Twenty-five simple steps to assure you a solid block of day with sleeping children and a quiet house, leaving you free to keep your house clean, family fed, and everyone clad in clean clothes.

You're welcome.

By the way, on my Facebook page, I mentioned you should check out the Circle of Moms Top 25 voting for Funny Mom blogs.  There are some hysterical ladies on there and at least 15 blogs I follow.  Well someone took that as "please nominate me". So I'm on the list.  I won't be bugging you for votes because I honestly don't think I'm all that funny.  If you really want to, give me a vote so I don't get overly embarrassed.  Scroll allllllllllll the way down, I'm number 99 and that's a completely valid place for me to be on this list.  And that's all you'll hear from me on that.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

HA! This is great! Pinning it on Pinterest.

I never even got to this point because just before my baby was born, my 2.5 year old GAVE UP HER NAP.

Honestly, I don't know how I survived!

PS - just a little request - can you let people comment with name/URL?

Meredith said...

Thanks. Oooh...I shiver thinking about the no nap days.

I'll see if I can figure that out!

Anonymous said...

Oh man, I have so been there! My youngest is now 3 but we went through some rough months with double napping. Hang in there! Founf you on Honest Mom. :-)

Aprille from beautifulinhistime.com said...

Oh this is great. I only have one who is a horrible sleeper and napper and I am already dreading trying trying to get them on a schedule when I have another! This is totally an HONEST MOM post!

Anonymous said...

Definitely keeping this on my radar for if/when I have another child! Minus the bits about the baby, that's how I get my toddler to nap. And I am sooooo with you on avoiding sleep in the car on the way home. I feel like such a rotten mom, but I will roll down the window, steal his shoe, point out sheep, sing loudly & off-key...anything to keep those eyes open until we park the car. Even a minute of sleep in the car cancels out the 1-3 hours I might get if I get him in the house in time! And if he doesn't get his nap...nobody is happy. Thanks for sharing! Found you on Honest Mom. :)

Meredith said...

Glad to know I'm not the only one who does that! Some people have kids that can transfer from the car and keep sleeping but those are NOT my kids.

Meredith said...

It is a challenge! If I get just an hour of them both sleeping it feels like a win!

Meredith said...

It's tough...but I think I'll cry when they grow out of napping too!

Anonymous said...

LOL. You nailed it. On the days when my first two managed to nap together... it was miraculous. And it happened about as often as a real miracle does...

Meredith said...

The little one tried to take a long morning nap yesterday and I actually WOKE HER UP so she'd be ready for an afternoon nap at the same time as the big one. Although, to alleviate myself from blame, I actually sent Madison into her room to wake her up. Every day is a new, fun challenge to hold onto this double nap!

MomChalant said...

Amen to not allowing anyone to fall asleep in the car. All my son needs is 5-10 minutes of a power car nap and he's up for the rest of the day.

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