A meaningful naptime has returned to the Randall Household. Let me explain…

At some point during Paige and Aiden’s first year, we got to the point where They would nap at 8am and 12pm, and Quinn was napping at 12pm as well. The twins’ nap at 12 was of decent length, but never longer than 1.5 hours. Within that 1.5 hours I would scramble to eat lunch, clean the house, and sit for a second, before I had to nursing babies waking up.

A few months ago, Paige and Aiden decided they were old enough to drop a nap, and become a one nap a day team. This nap would be between 2-3 hours long. Usually 2.5. This nap, however, did not magically occur at noon, which would have been a convenient time for me, but they would take it at 9……..meaning they would be up just in time for Quinn to go down for his nap. I no longer had any time where everyone was asleep, and the twins would surely melt down in the late afternoon after having been up for so long.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve conditioned the twins toward a 12:00 nap and it has finally worked- AMEN, PRAISE GOD! (some of you might think I’m kidding about this praise, but I mean it as sure as I’m sitting here.) This week has been consistent, lunch around 11:00, everyone in bed at noon. Quinn usually sleeps till about 3 (bless his heart). And Paige and Aiden have been getting longer and longer, and they’re hovering around 2.5 hours at this point- which is dandy for me.

What does this mean for me? It means I get to CATCH UP ON 18 MONTHS OF SLEEP! Yea, that’s right, I’ll say it, here’s a HUGE FRIGGEN BENEFIT of being a stay at home mom. I can take a damn nap and feel good about it 🙂 So the past few days I’ve gotten them all down, eaten some lunch, cleaned up a bit, and lay my little head down on a pillow. One day it was about 20 minutes and I felt fine. One day it was over an hour and a half.

Today was sweet. I thought I only had about a half hour till they woke up, so I laid down. Quinn woke up 45 min later. I brought him in to my bed with me (which we never do because he doesn’t sit still) and he watched Dora while I dozed a little longer. I wasn’t sound asleep, but it gave us some cuddle time we never get anymore.

So, I won’t maintain my personal nap schedule, but I feel relieved during the day knowing it’s available. And, it makes those days where I wake up at 4:50 to go to the gym less dreadful, knowing I will likely be able to take a quick snooze later if I need to 🙂

xo
andrea