The Power of the nap

This rainy day makes us all sleepy! The girls are all more tired (or I feel it and so they MUST) and I am up for lots of extra snuggling in blankets! :)
There are lots of different parenting styles.... mine is based particularly on sleep. Sounds strange I know...... I have always believed that my girls were REALLY good kids. Sure, they test their boundaries and seek to learn the cause and effect relationships of things, but overall, they are quite perfect. If they are "off", having a bad day, sad, or naughty, I can almost always explain it by a lack of sleep. A bad night or 2, a vacation, a few bad nap days, being sick or teething and not sleeping well.... no matter what it is, it seems like having less sleep makes things harder to cope with (as a mommy who likes a good 8 hours, I can understand this). With Maddilyn, I REALLY priortized the "nap". We'd come home or put up a pack n play wherever we were for nap times. Michaela I got a little more lax on, mostly because she was a baby able to sleep in carseats, strollers, arms, or lots of places nosy Maddi was unable to tune out. So, I was blessed to be able to do all my fun adventures a summer brings on with Maddilyn and sweet Michaela would nap when needed and had the glorious disposition of a well rested babe! :)

That said, Liana and Sophia are JUST as perfect as my baby girls! They are predictable, they are happy, they are sweet, and their smiles melt my little heart! When they are fussy, I know it means something for them. Pain, hunger, uncomfy diaper, or if nothing else, probably tiredness! :) Our best days as a group are when everyone sleeps well. Tired kids don't do as well coping with things they can usually let roll of their backs, and it seems to escalate into a full day of trouble. I even think they get to such an "overtired" point that they can't settle into a good sleep.... my experience with my girls is that some of the worst nights are days following bad naps or I notice if my kids go to bed too late, they actually get up earlier (and are crabbier) until they catch up on that lost sleep.

Sleep is important to keep our immunities up, to help us grow, and to rest our overstimulated minds! Even though I understand the power of it, I am always trying to "master" the nap with the babies. JUST when my girls were slipping into a "good routine", something changes or throws it all off..... teething, a cold, a vacation, a day of outings, OR the infant's change! While I haven't don't much reading on the topic, from my experience with my girls and nieces and some other mommy blogs..... this is the breakdown.

Until about 3 months, the babies are entirely need driven. Heck, they are just figuring out day from night and show very little pattern yet. Only Maddilyn and Sophia were the fantastic babies giving us 7 hours at 2 weeks or 7 weeks or something unheard of!

Then from around 3 months to 6 months or so.... they seem to have the one hour awake/ one hour asleep schedule. This goes all day from wake until 10 PMish, when they are sleeping through the night with a possible feeding depending on the kid. Sophia seems to have just left this stage. Lia has just entered it! :)

Around 6 months until about 10 months. They are starting to establish the patterns I know best. For my girls this age proved to be 2 naps (each well over an hour) around 9 AM and 1 PM.... or 10 AM and 2 PM. AND occasionally a little cap nap around 5 PM on hard days. THEN they totally understand their nighttime routine (for us, it was dinner, bath, bottle, and bed with pacis and blankets), and almost are begging it around their bedtimes (for us it was 7ish for both girls this age). They love the predictability and are happy to go down! :) Sophia seems to be entering this stage, but not without some help! :) She seems to do best when she is up and stimulated and fed well.... and I try to hold her off of cat naps so that those "official" naps last longer. Although, she seems really content and not too grumpy either way! :)

10 months to 15 months? 18 months?..... the switch to one nap. This is a long process with back and forth the whole time. Some signs it is coming is that I notice that the morning nap or afternoon nap starts to get really short, and they are overall a little more grumpy throughout the day. It's like they need more sleep, but they are getting less during their 2 naps. Moms handle this in all different ways. Some let them take a REAL short morning nap and then a nice long afternoon one. Sometimes it would be a carride, or a slumber at home they awake from. Other moms let the kids be a little fussier through the morning and just skip the nap, putting their SUPER tired kiddo to bed for a nice long afternoon nap. Some days things work, others they don't. Maddi dropped her morning nap well after a year. She NEEDED it! Then she slipped into a nice after lunch nap that she still does to this day. Michaela is ALREADY showing signs of being done with that morning nap. I try to read her signs each day, but overall, she is getting shorter naps and seems a little crankier right now....... any mommy who has picked up during the witching hour has seen these true colors!

15 months until Kindergarten? College? Adulthood? I'm not sure! :) The ONE afternoon nap. Maddi is in transition to drop this. She used to go down EVERY day between 12 and 2 and gladly sleep for at least 2 hours. She used to really need this and you would know if you were late for naptime due to crankiness. Slowly she became more and more flexible on the time she could go down, and then she started being able to be nice and friendly on SOME days without one. She always goes in for the "nap" and some days she needs to sleep, but others, she just likes that quiet time..... or not so quiet and full of loud singing! :) Either way, dark, low stimulation seems to revive her!