I try to get one good nap every day. I used to be bad at napping, but after our youngest daughter was born, I began to nap when she napped. This habit continued and it has become a daily ritual that I look forward to. Usually, we head down to the guest room, but on our nap playlist, and we are both asleep within a few minutes. We have a good routine down. I usually drift off for 20 minutes or so. The Littlest Miss is usually out for at least an hour.
We nap in the guest room, which is down stairs, and since she doesn’t like being down there alone, I usually setup a FaceTime video between my office and a laptop that I leave in the guest room. That way, when the Littlest Miss awakens, she sees me and can let me know she is done napping.
These brief naps are surprisingly refreshing. I miss those days when we don’t have our naps together. Yesterday was one such day. These happen, although not often. She is a real grouch in the evenings if she doesn’t get her nap so we encourage it.
The routine we have worked out is pretty simple. We she gets home from pre-school, the Littlest Miss has her lunch. She can then have a little play time, after which she and I head downstairs, put on our playlist, and drift off. It is rare when we are both not asleep within minutes. We measure this in “songs.” Usually, we are both asleep before the second song in our 35 minute playlist is over. I usually wake up toward the end of the playlist.
On Thursday, the Littlest Miss finished pre-K. She is now a rising kindergartner, and as such, she will be in school for full days come next school year. That means no more naps at home–at least during the week. And since this is about the same age our two older kids stopped napping, I suspect we are coming to the end of our napping time soon. We’ve got the summer left, and that’s it.
For me, it is bittersweet. I try to savor every nap I get to take with the Littest Miss knowing there aren’t that many more ahead of us. For her part, the Littlest Miss has been napping for shorter intervals, and is more resistant than she used to be to head down for a nap. I am growing into them, while she is growing out of them.
It is a lazy Saturday morning, cool, wet, and dreary, a day right out of The Cat in the Hat. Already, I am looking forward to a good nap, just about an hour away as I write this. I try not to think about it too much, but I know there aren’t too many of these left. The summer will fly by, as it always does, fall will be upon us. The good naps will dwindle to the just the weekends, but I suspect even that won’t last long.
I’ll take what I can get. There’s nothing quite like a good nap.
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