Naps. Where do I begin. Naps are glorious. Naps can also be detrimental to your psyche... especially when it comes to putting your own child or kids down for one.
You read the books.
You listen to your doctor.
You listen to your friends.
You listen to your mother.
There are things that they prepare you for and others that we must all experience for ourselves.
I think we might all agree that kids function better on a schedule or a rhythm or whatever you want to call it. Up until a certain age, part of most kid's schedule consists of naps, and eventually, a nap, and ultimately, no nap.
How our children go down for naps {breastfeeding to sleep, crying it out, driving around, etc.}, where they take their naps {crib, your bed, on the middle of the living room floor where they collapsed}, and nap duration {The Bear frequently treated me with 3 hour naps from age 0-3 while The Bird's maximum nap time has always been 2 hours.} vary so wildly.
Yet I think we all have encountered the wrath of Naps. So, I give you:
5 Things You Can Count on During Naptime
1. The exact moment you FINALLY get said baby to sleep inevitably it is the exact moment your neighbor starts mowing their lawn, taking out their garbage cans or using this log splitter {yes, this happened}.
2. You put your baby to sleep, you sneak out of the room, and you begin madly attempting to complete every task you've been half-assing all day. The moment you're done and you lay your head on a pillow to rest... they wake up.
3. You put your baby to sleep, you sneak out of the room and you step somewhere new on the floor that makes an excruciatingly loud creak and the baby wakes up. And you thought you knew every squeak and creak in that floor!
4. You put your baby to sleep and the neighborhood dogs go berserk over the mailman, utility worker, church group outreach, { enter your own } milling the the neighborhood.
5. You put your baby to sleep. Then, you start your routine to put your big kid to sleep {milk, book, etc.} and then have to return them to their bed 1000 times. Finally, they are both asleep. You either lay down to catch up on some lost but not forgotten zzz's or sneak around the house doing chores. Just when you're entering your REM cycle or have gotten knee deep in laundry... the baby wakes up. Which, in turn, wakes up your big kid.
Does this sound familiar? Regardless of our parenting styles I think we have all been there. For all of you with only one child and one on the way... just wait!
