Napping

Happy Monday! It's cold this week... perhaps it will finally be winter??? Not that I am hoping for the blizzards we've had in the past few years, but a few inches every now and then would make it feel a little more like winter!

I wrote on Friday about our battle with getting Gabriella to sleep through the night once again. Knock on wood, the techniques offered in The Happiest Toddler on the Block really worked for us. We haven't had any screaming and it's been about a week with simply putting her down instead of rocking her all the way to sleep. The next decision we're facing is whether or not she's ready to go down to one nap a day. Right now, Gabriella wakes up around 6:30, goes down for a nap around 8:30, is up by 9:30. Her afternoon nap is around 1 and the length varies from 1-2 hours (average around 90 minutes). She is then up until bedtime which has been around 6:45-7.

This works fine for us and she is happy and not cranky. I do wonder though if she would get a better rest if she slept for a longer amount of time in the afternoon. Part of me doesn't want to rock the boat because her schedule now works, but I am not sure just how effective of a nap she's getting each time. When I read about ways to know your baby is ready for one nap tips, on paper she is ready. She doesn't have a horrible day if she happens to miss her morning nap or if it is a short one, and when I put her down, she does often play in there for a half hour or so before nodding off for a short time. This morning we decided to try and follow her cues to see if she would even want a morning nap. We were playing and she kept climbing into my lap, pushing her face into my shoulder, and rubbing her nose (all of which are her typical nap-ready signs). I put her in her crib to rest and she's been playing in there for almost a half hour, not upset, but certainly not showing any signs of going to sleep. I think I'll let her play there for a little bit longer and then go get her out. We'll see if this plan of "quiet time" and just an afternoon nap makes the afternoon nap a little longer!

This weekend Gabriella started to get a little brave and attempted some little steps! She was sitting on a little stool and would stand up, take on little step, and then a giant leap into our arms. It was so cute and she was so pleased with herself!

xo,
Mary