The Time is Coming

If you've been with me since the beginning (or at least since the beginning of Noah's life), you probably remember that my kid doesn't need much sleep.  By the time he was about 2.5 months old he only ever took 30 minute naps.  That's it, never longer.  Four 30 minute naps a day.  It was a huge pain in the butt, because he needed those naps, but I literally didn't even have time to make myself something to eat and then actually eat it before he would wake up again.

When he reached 9 months he was down to two 30 minute naps a day.  Once he was close to a year, sometimes one of those naps would be longer, like an hour.  That was glorious to me.

Right around 12 or 13 months he had to go down to 1 nap a day because we really and truly could not fit two naps in the day anymore, considering how long he needed to be awake before he could fall asleep.  Pretty consistently since then that nap has been an hour long.  An hour long nap is still a luxury to me considering how the first year of his life went in the nap department.

Occasionally, since he turned two, Noah will nap for longer than an hour.  He's even had a couple of two hour naps. (By a couple, I really do mean "a couple."  But they're noteworthy, because I'm quite sure that ever since he left the newborn stage at about a month old, he has had less than 15 two hour naps.

I should also mention that throughout this time, night time sleep has gotten shorter and shorter.  It wasn't so bad at first, but ever since he hit 2 years old his total night time sleep is generally about 9-10 hours.  Sometimes less than 9, rarely ever making it to 10.

I pretty much can't handle people who complain about how 'little' their toddler sleeps.  If you're getting 10-11 hours at night and an hour nap during the day out of them, I wish you'd just be quiet.

To be honest, I was pretty sure Noah would be done napping by the time he was 2.  Instead, he's still napping most of the time, but the night time sleep has gotten excruciatingly short.  It's hard on me, especially, because a) I'd like to spend some alone time with my husband after Noah goes to bed, and b) I am a bad sleeper, so if I'm lying awake from 3am to 6am, I'd like to not have my kid waking up at 6:30am... after he didn't fall asleep until 10.  And yes, that is a normal occurrence around here.

You may have noticed that I said he's still napping "most of the time."  Because he doesn't require much sleep, there aren't really any bad consequences when he doesn't have a nap.  Ever since he was 9 months old he refused to sleep anywhere but in his own crib, so we've had lots of experience with skipping naps when special family get-togethers are going on and we aren't home for him to fit his nap in.  And really, he does amazingly.  In fact, his first Christmas, when he was only 9 months old, he napped a maximum of 30 minutes the whole day, and he was a fabulous baby.

The nap skipping thing has gotten easier and easier since he was about 1 1/2.  Not that we make a habit out of it, but I try not to stress if something special is planned that will prevent him from napping.  He always does well.

Now Noah is 2 years and 5 months old, and nap skipping, by his own choice, is becoming more frequent.  He has always needed long awake times, so his nap time isn't until 2pm.  However, sometimes he will still be awake in his crib at 3:30.  Sometimes it's obvious he won't be going to sleep, other times I just have to take him out of the crib so that he won't sleep.  If he falls asleep at 3:30 (after waking up for the nap at 7am) he is probably going to sleep for about an hour and a half.  If he wakes up from his nap at 4:30 or 5, he literally won't fall asleep until at least 10:30pm.  On the days he doesn't wake up until 4pm he is guaranteed to be awake until at least 10pm.  Of course, we put him to bed much earlier than that, but he just plays in his crib.

I feel like I'm losing my train of thought.  My point is that I think naps are on their way out in this house.  I really don't think we are in a nap regression (heaven knows I've experienced enough of those to recognize one when I see one!).  I just think we are going to need to phase out the nap.  Right now we have two main scenarios that happen:

1. A decent nap of an hour (sometimes more), then falling asleep very late at night (10pm at earliest) and waking up by 6:30am.

2. No nap, with an early (and easy) bedtime, and sleeping for 10-11 hours straight.


Occasionally no nap will lead to a shortened night, but only if we still put him to bed at his regular bedtime.

Anyway, I can't really decide what I prefer.  Napping, with a short night sleep, or no nap, with a long night sleep.  I really and truly do not know what I want to encourage.  Even thinking 7 weeks in the future, when I have a newborn (and will only be getting 2 hours of sleep in each 24 hour period, if I sleep anywhere as crappy as I did after I had Noah), I don't know whether I'd rather have him napping and sleeping less at night or not napping and sleeping longer at night.

No matter what I decide, I really and truly believe that toddler naps are on their way out of this house.  I think for the next little while I will continue to be attempting to have him nap, or at least have quiet time in the dark in his crib.  I am going to have to adjust my expectations, though.  Sometimes I am fine if I get him out of his crib after 45-60 minutes and he hasn't napped.  Sometimes I'm really annoyed.  I don't want to be annoyed.  I want to be able to accept it, just as I accepted long ago that I have a child who doesn't require as much sleep as most other children his age (and older).  My life got easier after I stopped obsessing about the sleep-time differences between him and other kids.