Sweet Saturday Slumber
Kenny is taking a nap. Imagine a big smile on my face and a big sigh of relief. We couldn’t get him down this morning, but after some hard playtime and a big lunch, he’s in happy baby dream land.
I have to confess that this week, I have really let the whole nap / no nap issue get to me. Up until now, I have managed to remain very mellow about it ~ Kenny is truly the happiest baby I know, and his lack of napping really didn’t do any harm, other than giving me a long day with no breaks. But this week, after reading a few different books on babies and sleep, I somehow came to the conclusion that if I couldn’t get my little boy to nap, I was failing as a parent. One of the books even went so far to say that a baby who doesn’t nap is a product of incompetant parenting. Another source traced learning disabilities and ADHD to parents who didn’t enforce nap and bedtimes.
So I started fearing that my lack of resolve was somehow setting Kenny up for all kinds of trama and woe later in life.
You know what? I need to have a little bonfire in my yard with a few of those books.
For starters, Kenny is a really great nighttime sleeper. He always has been. Yes, after our trip to England, his bedtime got to be an issue, but we fixed that in one night, and he’s back to sleeping very well, and through the night every day this week!
And as far as the napping thing goes, he’s never napped, and he’s never seemed to have any ill-effects because of it. Yes, he gets tired during the day, and this week was particularly cranky, but he’s smart, social and physically well past the definitive milestones for his age. The only real problem he had this week that had anything to do with napping, was that his Mommy was so stressed out over it, he was seeing my angst and fighting sleep all the more.
Consider the nap war over.
I will still try diligently everyday to get him to take a morning and an afternoon nap. I will still let him cry for a while if I need to. I will still make sure that we are home, calm and in a soothing pattern to facilitate those naptimes. But you know what, if he doesn’t nap, I’m going to forget about it, enjoy my sweetest littlest guy, and try again next time.
I feel better already.