Our nap routine isn’t working. Like seriously causes me more stress. Isn’t nap time supposed to be my break??
I start with Nadia, my youngest, who will be two in about a week. I usually hand Nora, my 3 ½ year-old, the iPad to keep her busy in the living room… Nadia still gets a bottle of milk, actually toddler formula meant for kids ages 1-3. I warm that, collect her 3 million binkies and blanket and head for her room. Quick diaper change before we read anywhere from 0-3 books depending on how tired and cranky she is. Then I turn out the light and we rock. Sometimes she wants more milk, sometimes she just wants to alternate her binkies in and out of her mouth, other times she will babble or sing. Sometimes she falls right to sleep in a few minutes and then I transition her to her crib. Most likely though we rock for 15 mins or so, she is still rather awake, but I lay her in bed and she will usually happily lay there until she falls asleep on her own. By this point we’re maybe 30 minutes into our nap time routine.
Back out to the living room to somehow steal the iPad back from Nora, who is usually pissed as still mid-show. I tell her to run in and go potty, as we’re in underwear most of the day, including naps. She will fight going potty sometimes, so I drag her in while she’s whining and resisting most days. If you’ve ever been to our home, the bathroom is in the hall between the two girl’s bedrooms, thus at this point, if Nadia was sleeping, she’s probably awake, standing and screaming for me in her crib. Awesome. Cue stress.
We’ve been liberal about what Nora has before naps and bed, as we’re still in the mode of, whatever we can get her to eat or drink the better, as she’s still so small. Today she wanted Captain Crunch cereal and apple juice. We snuggle in her rocking hair, her hugging her binkie (which needs to be ditched ASAP), blanket, and pink bunny. She starts crunching on her baggy of cereal while I read the two library books I let her pick from the pile in her room. Two pages in she spills some of her apple juice, mostly on me. Cue angry text to Eric we need new nap time routine and no more liquid in the bedrooms! He doesn’t respond. He’s on-call, but could just be ignoring me.
I change Nora’s PJs and she asks me for new underwear as well. A smear of poop. Great. Pooping in the potty is another post I need to write. Another day though. So she’s in clean clothing, I take the apple juice out to the kitchen, we settle in to finish reading, she’s whining quite loudly for her juice. Nadia must be able to hear, as she is still crying from when Nora woke her while peeing. We finish the second book, Nora whines for milk, we walk out into kitchen to drink, back to her room, I cover her up, she asks me to rub her back, I try to leave her room three times and am successful on the fourth.
60 minutes for nap time! That is so much time, and that’s not even the bedtime routine, which is similar but with teeth brushing, sometimes more books, etc. Too much time! What does everyone else do? We try to be really consistent. This all takes awhile, but should I not complain since once they are in bed, they stay in bed, usually all night?
