Anybody who knows us well knows that I have a 3.5-year-old who still doesn't sleep through the night consistently. Anybody who knows me knows that I am tired, and so is my husband! We have tried all possible remedies that fall within our values (i.e. we're not going to ignore her and make her cry herself to sleep, so don't even suggest it). Some of the things we tried when she was littler just seemed to exacerbate the problem and increase her anxiety at night.
Now, anxiety seems a funny word when describing Sariah. She's the least-anxious child I've ever met, I think. But I've always felt that she sucks up all the emotional nurturing she needs at night so she can be the happy, outgoing, friendly child she is during the day. She is also a very, very light sleeper.
So for the past few months, she's been fighting nap time. Many days I even had to take her for a ride in the car to get her to go to sleep. Some days she naps, some days it takes her forever to fall asleep, and some days she just won't go to sleep at all. I've known for awhile that she is coming to the end of her napping years. It's bittersweet, because naptime is my favorite time of the day! (I'm sure all mothers of young children would agree with me.) Dallin took naps till he was four years old, and I've prided myself on the fact that at 3.5, Sariah still naps.
But sometimes she's had trouble falling asleep at night. Sometimes it's taken an hour or more. So now we're thinking maybe we need to just not do nap time at all. This week I've tried to keep her up most days, and behold, she's slept through the night four of the last five nights. This is huge! I know deep down that this might be our key, that one final thing that will get her sleeping at night.
But I love nap time! I love it so much! And now I have to miss out on my "me time". I know, I'm spoiled. I've almost always had only one child at a time in this phase, so nap time really could be "my time". I try to have my computer time with Sariah awake, but she complains. (Heaven forbid she should complain.) She doesn't like Mommy to have quiet time. She does things like paint with red paint all over the bookshelf and take all the computer keys off the old computer (Thanks, cousin A, for the idea. Sariah thanks you too.). And sometime she's grumpy.
Today she was grumpy. I decided to rock her for awhile. I still want her to have a quiet rest time, just not go to sleep. But I cannot leave her in her room unless she's asleep. Trust me, leaving Sariah anywhere by herself for any length of time is a very dangerous idea! So I rocked her, and we sang songs. And she fell asleep. I have laid her on the couch, hoping that maybe she won't sleep so long there as she would in her bed, and that she'll still sleep tonight.
Ah, dilemmas! What would you do?
Now, anxiety seems a funny word when describing Sariah. She's the least-anxious child I've ever met, I think. But I've always felt that she sucks up all the emotional nurturing she needs at night so she can be the happy, outgoing, friendly child she is during the day. She is also a very, very light sleeper.
So for the past few months, she's been fighting nap time. Many days I even had to take her for a ride in the car to get her to go to sleep. Some days she naps, some days it takes her forever to fall asleep, and some days she just won't go to sleep at all. I've known for awhile that she is coming to the end of her napping years. It's bittersweet, because naptime is my favorite time of the day! (I'm sure all mothers of young children would agree with me.) Dallin took naps till he was four years old, and I've prided myself on the fact that at 3.5, Sariah still naps.
But sometimes she's had trouble falling asleep at night. Sometimes it's taken an hour or more. So now we're thinking maybe we need to just not do nap time at all. This week I've tried to keep her up most days, and behold, she's slept through the night four of the last five nights. This is huge! I know deep down that this might be our key, that one final thing that will get her sleeping at night.
But I love nap time! I love it so much! And now I have to miss out on my "me time". I know, I'm spoiled. I've almost always had only one child at a time in this phase, so nap time really could be "my time". I try to have my computer time with Sariah awake, but she complains. (Heaven forbid she should complain.) She doesn't like Mommy to have quiet time. She does things like paint with red paint all over the bookshelf and take all the computer keys off the old computer (Thanks, cousin A, for the idea. Sariah thanks you too.). And sometime she's grumpy.
Today she was grumpy. I decided to rock her for awhile. I still want her to have a quiet rest time, just not go to sleep. But I cannot leave her in her room unless she's asleep. Trust me, leaving Sariah anywhere by herself for any length of time is a very dangerous idea! So I rocked her, and we sang songs. And she fell asleep. I have laid her on the couch, hoping that maybe she won't sleep so long there as she would in her bed, and that she'll still sleep tonight.
Ah, dilemmas! What would you do?
Comments
When the boys were in preschool, they took naps there everyday, and one of the benefits of switching to homeschool was that we stopped the naps and bedtimes became easy again.
I understand the loss of free time, but it sounds like it might be better for everyone to try only sleeping at night.
My goal last week was to try nap-free for a week. We did pretty good, but one day she actually asked to lay down, and then yesterday she was just so grumpy that I gave in. I just need more willpower, I guess!