Anatomy of Naptime

We have been going through some more transitions with Tommy's sleep patterns recently - partially due to teething and partially due to changes to his daily routines with his recent transition to the next classroom at daycare. Most kids start to lose the "morning" nap around the 18 month mark. Tommy is not quite 18 months old yet, but he's in the 18-24 month old room. Developmentally, he was ready to be there. Napping wise, well, I think he still misses that morning nap some days. He is adjusting, but I do think that has affected how well he does or doesn't sleep at night. I spoke to his teachers about it yesterday, as on his daily sheets, he had fallen asleep 2 times while eating lunch since moving up last Wednesday to their classroom. They agreed, that some days he definitely was more tired than others. But they also told me that one other little girl in the class who will be 2 in April still misses her morning nap as well, just like Tommy. So I know this is just something that will have to work itself out over the next few weeks/months. Thinking back to when Tommy was transitioning out of the baby room, where he was taking 3 naps a day, to the next room where it was usually 2 naps, though occasionally he would take a short "happy nap" as one of the teachers called it after he had some breakfast after dropoff, I was concerned about how that would go, and it did work itself out. A mom I met in the cry room at church told me her daughter went to one nap a day at 10 months old...10 months!

When he takes his afternoon nap at school, he will sleep for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. This never.happens.at. home. for me. Weekends are sometimes crazy for us, but I think the "peer pressure" at school is what results in that nice long nap. At home, something must be different. To simulate the school experience where they sleep on mats on the floor, I set up the mat from Tommy's pack and play for him to sleep on in the living room. I think the longest nap I've timed at home is 1.5 hours. Sometimes, however, Tommy will take that late morning nap, or as he did in the photos below, fall asleep while having his lunch (which I gave him early, between 11:15 and 11:30, to try to prevent the falling asleep while eating). Here's the play by play of Tommy's naptime this past Saturday:

Eyes closed while he is chewing...yes, I'm a little freaked about someone choking, so in between shots I'm talking loudly to Tommy so that he opens his eyes and finishes that bite completely!

Chewing and swallowing done for that bite of chicken nugget...or strawberry...not sure what it was!

He woke up before this shot and he searched out a strawberry this time, but his eyes closed again and I pried the fruit out of his hands after this picture.

Mommy moved the little guy over to his mat from the high chair. Somehow he doesn't wake up during that transition, but from car to house, fuhgedaboutit!

Slept just under an hour, woke up crying and hungry, and actually ate the cold chicken nuggets along with some strawberries. Good boy!

My mom and I took Tommy out shopping with us to an outdoor outlet mall, so he got some fresh air, which I hoped would help with some better sleep that night (it didn't...he woke up a few times). I even took him out of the stroller to let him run around and be free, get his energy out. That actually worked to get him to take a late afternoon nap from 3:30-5, later than usual, but something he definitely needed. He fell asleep in the car as soon as we left the mall, so we drove around to make sure he got some rest (it was fun - my mom and I are so nosey; we snooped and took pictures of houses that my great aunts and uncles once lived in - I even took pictures of them so the rest of the family could see the changes!). After (over)analyzing things that I could be doing differently to improve Tommy's quality of naps on the weekends, I finally realized that ultimately he's still getting about the same amount of naptime in even if it's broken up into 2 naps. And the weekends are a COMPLETELY different routine of what he does during the week, since he's not in school, with his friends or teachers. We're running errands, shopping, driving to visit family/friends, or sometimes there's a sitter over because Mommy and Daddy are working.

Nights have been a challenge because of the teething, and Tommy has been waking up anytime between 5 and 5:30am the past few weeks since he started transitioning to his new classroom. I'm convinced the changes in naptimes have had an impact on his night schedule. Usually he'll go to sleep between 8 and 8:30 (and he did so on Saturday even with the later nap), but I've been trying to gradually push the going to bed time to be more consistently closer to 8pm, which it was tonight. Every child is different - someone told me that they have to put their daughter to bed at 9 if they want her to sleep until 8 the next morning. I put Tommy in at 8 hoping he'll sleep til 6:30/7, and that isn't happening, so we will continue to tweak things with bedtime. Today (Thursday) he woke up closer to 6am AND he slept through the night without crying out and waking us (he fell asleep around 8:45, though I put him in his crib at 8:05 last night) - I was overjoyed, since I had been lacking in the sleep department myself, getting home at 12:30 after working a late game on Tuesday night, and Tommy was up at 5:15 Wednesday. Of course, here I am on the blog, up later than I should be. So on that note, I'm going to sign off and say nighty-night...don't let the bed bugs bite!