Some of the experiments you try as a parent work, and some of them do not. Today's "nap experiment" was an epic failure. Let me explain...
S&Z take one nap each day. They eat an early lunch and then play for awhile longer before becoming crank-meisters and going down for their nap around 12:30. On average they sleep for 2 hours - sometimes a little more (Silas' preference), sometimes a little less (Zoe's preference). Yesterday they took a 3 hour nap because they've had pretty bad colds this week. That should have been a sign that experimenting with the schedule today in order to accommodate a daytrip to Ipswich was a bad idea.
One of my best friends, Timery, moved to Ipswich this fall. Now that we live only 75 minutes apart, we try to see each other 1x/month. We take turns with who visits who, and usually it works out pretty well. Now that we're down to one long nap per day, however, making this type of daytrip is a little more complicated. I decided to try a nap experiment which involved the following: leave Roslindale around 10am, eat lunch and hang out with Timery, Steve & JB for for a few hours, and then head home mid-afternoon. The assumption underlying this plan was that S&Z would sleep in the car both ways, which would equal out to be their usual nap / 2.
The best laid plans.
It took them awhile to fall asleep on the way up, so they only got about ~30 total minutes mid-morning. Mix that with a couple of head colds and by early afternoon they (Zoe in particular) were disasters. As usual, I kept chatting and wanted to hang out longer, so I pushed them all the way to almost 2:30. By the time we loaded them in the car they were whining and crying and beyond exhausted. They both fell asleep pretty quickly on the drive home, but Zoe woke up after only 40 minutes or so. Also, sleeping in the car isn't the same as a nice, quiet crib nap. We got home at 3:30 and cranky, tired, whiny and clingy were the name of the game all the way until dinnertime. They could've gone to sleep at 5pm! Only by canceling a skype date with Eliza and holing us up in a contained space (the nursery) with lots of books, pj's and pillows, we made it until 6:40pm.
Lesson learned. I got beat today. When the children outnumber the caretakers and there is only one precious sleep per day, DON'T MESS WITH IT.
S&Z take one nap each day. They eat an early lunch and then play for awhile longer before becoming crank-meisters and going down for their nap around 12:30. On average they sleep for 2 hours - sometimes a little more (Silas' preference), sometimes a little less (Zoe's preference). Yesterday they took a 3 hour nap because they've had pretty bad colds this week. That should have been a sign that experimenting with the schedule today in order to accommodate a daytrip to Ipswich was a bad idea.
One of my best friends, Timery, moved to Ipswich this fall. Now that we live only 75 minutes apart, we try to see each other 1x/month. We take turns with who visits who, and usually it works out pretty well. Now that we're down to one long nap per day, however, making this type of daytrip is a little more complicated. I decided to try a nap experiment which involved the following: leave Roslindale around 10am, eat lunch and hang out with Timery, Steve & JB for for a few hours, and then head home mid-afternoon. The assumption underlying this plan was that S&Z would sleep in the car both ways, which would equal out to be their usual nap / 2.
The best laid plans.
It took them awhile to fall asleep on the way up, so they only got about ~30 total minutes mid-morning. Mix that with a couple of head colds and by early afternoon they (Zoe in particular) were disasters. As usual, I kept chatting and wanted to hang out longer, so I pushed them all the way to almost 2:30. By the time we loaded them in the car they were whining and crying and beyond exhausted. They both fell asleep pretty quickly on the drive home, but Zoe woke up after only 40 minutes or so. Also, sleeping in the car isn't the same as a nice, quiet crib nap. We got home at 3:30 and cranky, tired, whiny and clingy were the name of the game all the way until dinnertime. They could've gone to sleep at 5pm! Only by canceling a skype date with Eliza and holing us up in a contained space (the nursery) with lots of books, pj's and pillows, we made it until 6:40pm.
Lesson learned. I got beat today. When the children outnumber the caretakers and there is only one precious sleep per day, DON'T MESS WITH IT.
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