Quiet Time

Naps are always and epic battle at our house.  Q will do pretty much anything to stay awake.  I have tried everything, including foregoing naps for an entire week.  That ended in a very snippy, exhausted mother and an equally exhausted toddler so I decided that he needs naps.  He HAS to take them, for my sanity at the very least.

The other day, after a frustrating episode of nap time I came to the realization that maybe I needed to be OK with just having "Quite Time".  I realized that when I was working and not able to spend as much time with  Q as I would have liked I felt guilty if he was just sitting in his bed reading, playing and awake because I felt like any moment he was awake I should be spending time with him.  I felt like he needed to be sleeping for me to feel okay with doing whatever it was I needed or wanted to do.   

Now that I am at home I am slowly starting to feel less guilty about having him alone in his bed, reading, singing, imagining, whatever, even if it is for and hour or two.  I need that down time and it is good for him as well.  I am a better mom when I get that break.  I need to be okay with the fact that he may not sleep but that is fine.

The thing is, the past few days we have been doing quite time,  he has eventually fallen asleep most of the days.  It may take him 30-45 minutes, but instead of getting upset with him because he isn't going to sleep, I feel much more relaxed about it all.  Now if he falls asleep I look at it as a bonus.  The best part is I find myself enjoying his funny renditions of 'Old McDonald' and 'BINGO' without being annoyed that he isn't asleep.