- The photo Jake was terrified to find.
Remember waaaaay back when I said Seabass stopped taking his afternoon nap? And remember how I was working so hard to get him to take it again to no avail? Well, I’ve finally given up. He is now a one-nap man.
The transition officially occured last week. Since Christmas, Seabass had been taking super-long, super-solid naps from 9-11 or even 12pm on occasion. But then, when I put him down for a nap in the afternoon, he refused. So, for the past month, our little guy has been up from about 11:30am until 6pm every day. For those of you who don’t have kids or who have forgotten the ins and outs of baby-wrangling, that translates to some very, very unhappy afternoons in our household.
Play date with another fishy.
Much as I resisted losing that precious hour to myself in the afternoon, it had become worthless to sit and listen to him play – or more often, cry – in his crib. If Seabass ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. I found that I couldn’t get any work done with him making noise in his room. It’s as if his voice is designed to paralyze me, rendering me useless for any productive task. (Can you imagine if I had a video monitor?? Game over, dude.)
The first time we tackled a napless morning, I took him out to walk the Bob Jones Bike Trail with my mom and our dogs. Being out in the fresh air, I find, extends his fuse a lot – as does having lots and lots of food on hand for him to munch. With the transition from two naps per day to one, we also dropped a couple of breastfeedings (hallelujah!) so it’s been of the utmost importance that I supply plenty of bait for Seabass at any given moment.
Play date with YET ANOTHER fishy.
It hasn’t been exactly what you’d call a seamless transition, but it certainly has been the right decision. I saw it immediately the first day. Seabass was a bit fussy around 9am when he would have typically gone down for a nap, but with ample food and distraction, he made it to 11:30am, no problem. It’s only a matter of time before I get him extended all the way to 1pm.
Cost-Benefit Analysis:
The bummer about one nap is that I don’t really have a chance to check my email or get any work done until the morning is practically over. That is a frustration for my employers, to be sure.
The benefit of having a one-nap baby is the freedom I now have to do things in the morning. No more politely declining to participate in play-dates, library readings, and music classes. We can do all of them now! Yippee!
I am Jaime, wife to Jacob. We are the smitten, stupefied, sometimes scared silly parents of a precious boy nicknamed Seabass and a darling girl nicknamed Sweet Chuck.
Higher Highs, Lower Lows 
Faye has been a one-nap baby for about that long as well. She usually goes down at 12ish and then sometimes it goes until 3 (love those days). We are down to two nursings a day and I feel quite free!
Hence your comment posting at 12:35pm!
I remember that transition. As hard as it is to lose that extra bit of time, I totally agree that having time to actually DO STUFF is priceless! Enjoy it!
I am glad it is all getting worked out. The transition times and figuring it out times can be so frustrating. He’s growing up so fast! His new backyard is going to keep him busy all morning too;)
I’m so thankful my 4 year old still naps, I don’t know what I will do when he doesn’t. Hopefully at that point he’ll be in school!
My 7 month old unfortunately has decided that she feels like cat napping in the afternoon so the afternoon naptime is not as productive as it once was.
Woo hoo! My baby finally made the blog. Man those are some cute kids! We are now discussing the one nap as well since we pushed bed time up a half hour (which does not ensure asleep a half hour earlier – not for the baby or the 7 year old). We shall see!
Sadly Liam has been a one nap baby forever it seems. And he doesn’t go to sleep till 7:30/8. I’ve had to learn to be very productive with my baby free time!