I should start this post by saying I know I’ve been lucky! Little Bean is three years old and has still been having an afternoon nap of roughly 2 hours, but for perhaps the last two months, it has started to affect her ability to get off to sleep at night. In the past, she has always been really good at going to sleep, no shouting, no getting out of bed, just straight off to sleep. Lately, when she goes to bed, she stays awake for up to two hours. She will try shouting that she needs to go to the toilet, she needs a drink, she’s too hot, she’s too cold, she needs her music on again, she needs a new CD . . . . I think you get it! If we go out for the day or have friends to visit, she doesn’t go to sleep in the afternoon, and then at bedtime, she goes to sleep without a peep.
I’ve been really keen for her to keep having her naps because that is the time that Beanie Boy sleeps too, and so it gives me a good couple of hours to do some work, but I think I need to face up to the fact that its time to say goodbye to nap time.
Today we sat down and had a chat about nap times and made a deal that as she is now a ‘big girl’ we can try her not having naps anymore, but instead she has to have quiet time where she just watches a DVD or plays quietly in her playroom so that Mummy can still do some work whilst Beanie Boy sleeps. I have been in to check on her a couple of times and each time been greeted with the same image . . . .
. . . .fingers crossed for a stress-free bedtime tonight, then?