Rested, At Last

First of all, I must say a great big Thank You to my saint of a babysitter. Last week she took pity on my bloodshot eyes and dragging posture…and came up with a plan. Starting that day, instead of putting Little Guy down for a traditional nap; she instead had him lay down on his cot within view of a TV. She told him he could sleep, or he could watch the kiddie movie that she put on, but he had to at least rest until the movie was over.

She said he watched the movie quietly on his little cot, and as soon as the credits rolled, he came to her to tell her the movie was over.  Then he returned to his playmates and a regular day.

A few months ago, we had tried to forgo naps and it hadn’t worked. Little Guy became a tired little terror. This time, the results were vastly different. He wasn’t grouchy in the evenings at all, fought bedtime a lot less, and (miracle of miracles) slept till morning!

It’s now been almost a week, and the ‘no naps’ method has worked really well. Evidently all he really needs is that quiet/rest time…which we are happy to give him, believe me!

This past weekend, he and I both caught a cold. Nothing major, but not fun either. We were both exhausted and did take cat naps on Sunday. I was worried that those naps might have stalled our progress, but he clearly needed some extra sleep so we went ahead and let him. We were very happy then, when he did sleep through the night that night. Now that he’s feeling better, we’re back to the no nap routine.

Last night we both slept from 7:30pm – 5am, and we both really needed the rest. Now I think we’re almost back to normal. Luckily, Hubby never caught this round of illness.

I’m still a bit tired from this cold, but feel rested in a way I hadn’t in some time. So, thanks again to our awesome babysitter, who took pity on this tired Mommy, and to all my kind friends who have offered words of encouragement. They have meant so much.