The Nap Dilemma

Lunch, stories, rest. That's how we roll around here. Rest = ~1.5 hours of quiet time, which can be spent reading books or just cuddling with cherished stuffed animals. Sometimes FFM stays up the whole time looking at books, which is fine with me. Most of the time, up until about a month or so ago, about 20 minutes into "rest" sleep would happen, which was a good deal for all of us.

Now, however, he does fine until for about 1-1.25 hours. Then he gets NAUGHTY. I thought about just cutting out rest or making it shorter, and did a few times, but the afternoon craters. He falls asleep before I can even get dinner on the table. What to do? For consequences I took things away (sob, sniff, even the books!), but the thing that finally penetrated was adding 5 minutes to his rest every time he misbehaved.

The kicker, anytime we get to the end of rest and I have to add 5 minutes, he falls asleep during those 5 minutes. So he battles away, being naughty, and then, FINALLY, after I put on my mean mommy face and tell him I'm adding 5 minutes to his rest time, he falls asleep during those 5 min. When I'm ready to move on with our day. Humph.

So now he's conked out, and will sleep for 1.5 hours. Of course! I remind myself I'm thankful he's getting good sleep, whenever it is.