Quiet Times

After some back and forth on the whole nap issue – including somehow getting back on track after the last time I thought my boys had given up naps for good – we have been officially done with naps for the past couple of weeks. Converting the cribs was pretty much the end since naptime turned into a battle after everyone had the freedom to roam. It was still possible, but taking an hour just to get everyone to sleep and then dealing with toddlers who were still bouncing off the walls at 11 o'clock at night was just really not working.

I decided to take my chances with late afternoon crankiness and boys falling asleep in their supper (not to mention elsewhere) instead, none of which has been the case quite fortunately and I'll credit "quiet times" completely.

Instead of a nap we do quiet time for an hour at the same time a nap would normally happen. The lights are subdued and the boys get a few board books and/or a small toy. The expectation is that they will stay in bed for an hour, but the only real rule is that it's time to read or play quietly. So far it's been going very well and that hour of them playing quietly means I still get a bit of a break mid-day.

Added bonus: everyone is asleep by 9 most nights. Without a doubt, this has been the very best part about dropping the nap – and my boys still sleep until 8 or so most mornings.

Of course, I said most mornings...

We've had a couple of early wake-ups here and there, but none quite so early thus far as a few days ago when I heard some chirping coming from the nursery at 5:45 AM.

5:45 AM meant they were missing out on more than 2 hours of sleep and I wasn't at all sure how that was going to play out. At least not until 11:30 or so that morning when it suddenly got very quiet in the boys' bedroom.

I poked my head in only to see this:

To their credit, at least they found the bed this time before they crashed.

At that point, there really wasn't much to be done other than cover them up and let them sleep it off:

Oh, and take pictures of course.

- L.

PS. I started off calling it "quiet time" but someone added an "s" on there and it's kind of stuck.