It's no secret on
our family blog that the trio has not been napping well. In fact, I'd done nothing productive during the daylight hours for the past, oh two weeks, I'd say because of the fact that I was exhausted. It's not that they weren't sleeping at night, it's just the incredible energy zapping affect that their constant whining, crying, and tearing the house down like little cyclones between the hours of their supposed "rest time" and bed time was having on me.
We used to have a great schedule. The girls would all four go to bed between 7 and 8 pm and sleep until around 7:30am. Just before Christmas everyone got sick, and good sleeping was a thing of the past! Then after they recovered we still had the crazy holiday hours to contend with, and then weeks after said holidays we had still not quite gotten our groove back.
My typical MO for fixing things where the girls are concerned is to read everything I can get my hands on and then to meld all the information into a plan that I think will work for us. After simply reading
Elizabeth Pantley's newest book, the no-cry nap solution, I had enough ideas and resolve to put down the books and get to work, already.
Hers is not a book full of puffed up "you have to do this or else...", but instead a gentle, real-life mother of 4, who knows from reality that what works for one kid or family may or may not work for another. I really appreciate the fact that she encourages people to choose some of the suggestions to begin working with, stick to them for a while, and then evaluate if it is working FOR YOUR FAMILY. If not, try something else. It's that simple.
In a sleep deprived parental state, it is often easy to overlook basic things that might be keeping kids from sleeping, so to have this book as a resource has been very handy. Since Ella was an infant I've been reading everything I could about children and sleep. A great deal of this info has not exactly been intuitive for me.... many of the principles I've had to see happening to believe. For example, when my girls go to be later than they should, they almost always wake up even earlier than normal. Does this make sense to me? No. Is that how it always happens here? Yes. And then there's the overtired= can't get themselves to sleep because they are too tired scenario. I would never have believed either of these had I not lived them first hand. Re-reading some of the basics about children and their sleep requirements was all the encouragement I needed to forge ahead and fix my current problem: Three two year olds in the house and not one of them was napping.
I was able to use the chapter on Nap Resisters- children who need a nap but won't take one, and discover why they girls weren't napping , make a plan with the suggestions provided, and then follow through until they are now all three napping again! Nothing short of a miracle if you ask me. I hesitate to even type it for fear of jinxing myself, but today was day 3 of a good 2 hour afternoon nap for Maggie, Kate, and Sarah.
If, like me, you are struggling with one (or three) two year olds who are prematurely trying to give up naps, or even if you just have children and want easy to read, good information about their general sleep requirements, I highly recommend Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry books. You can buy them online at amazon and Barnes and Noble.
...... and because I got so many comments and emails from commiserating moms of multiples when I began mentioning our nap woes, I asked for an extra copy of this book to give away to one of you lucky readers. Just leave me a comment on this post telling me a little bit about your successes or failures with getting your kiddos to sleep if you want to enter. I'll let random.org choose from among the entries at around 10pm on Wednesday the 21st. Be sure to leave a valid email address in case random.org selects you. The winner will receive an autographed copy of the No-Cry Nap Solution directly from Elizabeth Pantley.
Sweet dreams,
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