The Dreaded Transition

Any mother will tell you that nap time is sacred time. This is mommy time. Weather we work or clean or read or snooze, this is our time. For this reason it is incredibly difficult to give up.
According to "The Sleep Book" (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child), 91% of children are still taking naps on their third birthday.  At age four, about 50% of children nap five days a week, and at age five, about 25% of children are napping four days a week. Now, I love The Sleep Book. But I think these statistics are just plain crazy. Most of the children I know are absolutely positively completely done napping by three and a half at the very latest.

Once you recover from the fact that nap time is gone, it is actually fairly easy to see the plus side of not being tied down every day at a certain time to ensure your child gets a decent nap. Certainly there is a sense of freedom in that.

However, transitioning from nap to no nap is HORRIBLE. I was fairly confident that Henry could nap until he was three. Even now, he really doesn't put up a fuss at nap time, just goes right to sleep. But recently it has been nigh near impossible to get him to go to bed at night. Granted, our children go to bed early. Ever since Jack was one and we realized that he could go to bed as early as 6:30 or 7, and still sleep until 7 AM, we were all for it. It is fabulous. Entire quiet evenings just for Jared and me to enjoy.

But now, since Jack and Henry share a room, Henry not only stays up himself, but keeps Jack up until upwards of nine o'clock. Now, maybe this is fine for Henry, who naps, but this is not fine for Jack.

So, I decided evening time was more precious than nap time and yesterday I didn't give Henry a nap. Now anyone who has ever been sleep deprived can sympathize with this kid. First of all, sleep deprivation leads to bad decision making, like immersing your hands in peanut butter.

Secondly, it makes you grouchy. Very grouchy. I wish I had a picture of him screaming at me during dinner because the "noodles not yummy" and then reinvigorated screaming when I wouldn't help him get paper out to color on while everyone else was eating dinner. I am sure he screamed and cried for five minutes. Then, I look over and poof! he was asleep. Totally out on the floor. 

Which illustrates the third principle of sleep deprivation- at some point your body will take over and rescue those around you from your completely irrational behavior. I am sure every mother on the  council in heaven opted for that feature on a child.

Poor Henry.