One of my absolute favorite parts of the day is our Morning Nap Time.
I’m not an early riser by nature and love a slow moving morning so baby wake up calls before the sun really seems to take it out of me. That glorious morning nap was my time to get it together – and clearly by get it together, I mean watch yesterday’s Dr. Phil on the DVR, scroll through social media, drink coffee and then run around like a crazed woman attempting to brush my teeth and throw dishes into the dishwasher at the first sounds of stirring from the nursery.
When it became clear that my babe was going to drop his morning nap at 13 months old, I took it hard. Real Hard. Like, full blown, this can’t be happening yet, deep breathing through the tears, hard.
Sadly, despite my attempts to convince him otherwise, the baby did indeed say sayonara to the morning nap and I approached the change with the grace and dignity of a mature, experienced mother.
Nope.
Behold, The 5 Stages of Dropping the Morning Nap (for mom)
1. The Inquisition
At the first hint that our morning nap may not be on our daily agenda any more, I did what I do best and sent a mass text to every baby mama I know, begging them to tell me that I had months (if not years) left on the whole two naps a day game plan. I was met with something less than encouragement as mama after tired mama came back with “well, we dropped ours somewhere around 13 months….maybe 14…you might have a month or so left.” A month!? No. No, this can’t be true.
Next stop for reassurance: the internet.
Bad move.
And finally, as a last resort, I pulled out some long, tedious nightmare of a baby book that I stashed away in the back of a closet. Ok, fine, every baby is different, I get that, but don’t they take two naps a day until, like, Kindergarten? Apparently not.
2. Fight or Flight
I didn’t care what the books (and my friends, and the internet) said, I wasn’t taking this no nap thing laying down (ha, bad pun), so off we went on the world’s longest drive around town. Surely an hour or two up and down the highway will convince him that a morning snooze is the way to go.
Yeah, not so much.
When that was a flop, I went back to basics and nearly rocked the rockers off of our chair, dug out all of the “good” pacis and cranked the white noise to jet engine levels.
Nothing.
3. Denial.
Let it be known that I don’t give up easily.
I continued on with our morning nap attempts for a week.
Down he went at his normal time, all tucked in and wide awake.
I was sure it was all just a fluke. I was so confident we would work all this out that I planned meetings and deadlines around our normal nap time. Yep, this thing would just work itself out and he would doze off any minute…..
4. Question It All
If we really were dropping the nap, how would I cope with this?
When would I shower? When would I get dressed? Send emails? Write witty blog posts? Search Pinterest for the best ever recipe for something I will never make? Watch Say Yes to the Dress re-runs? I just couldn’t imagine making it all work. Life as we knew it was over. I clearly excel at handling change.
5. Let It Go
I had to let it go.
Give up the ghost.
He wasn’t budging and the morning nap was over. I would love to say that he takes a crazy long afternoon nap, but he sleeps for essentially the same amount of time as he did while double napping so I really am mourning a serious loss here. We fill our days but it will never be the same.
If you see me around town and I’m not showered and have black circles under my eyes, pour a little of your Starbucks out for the morning naps that are no longer ours.
RIP Pinterest recipes that could have been.
I'm hoping Noah will START napping! Little guy is 4.5 months and takes a couple of cat naps during the day….no more than 30 min but usually around 15-20 min. Try getting anything done during that time! I try not to complain though, he is a rockstar sleeper at night!
So my once a day 17 month old napper goes to MDO from 930-130 and he naps from 145-4ish. I work from home so this is AMAZING. Take advantage of the longer afternoon nap!
I too was heartbroken after my LO stopped his morning nap. Slowly but surely though, that afternoon/after lunch nap did go from 1 hour to 2, sometimes even 3! It might take him time to adjust to the one nap, but he might eventually start to sleep longer for it. I now prefer that long afternoon nap. I feel like I can get more done! Good luck!
oh man vi usually takes 2-3 naps and i get ALL my work done during that time! she took forever to go down for her second nap… and i just saw her kicking around in her crib. so guess it's going to be a not-so productive day afterall. xo jillian – cornflake dreams
Before you know it this will become your routine and then you'll dread losing the nap all together!
As a fellow Not-Morning-Person, I'm so sorry for your loss. I know what a mess I am when mornings start super early and abruptly – I like slow moving and easy going too! I know when I become a mama that is going to be a huge wake up call for me! How early can "quite time" start happening? lol I remember my mom sending my sister and I to our rooms (separately) every day for an hour or two of "quite time" 🙂