Napping

I couldn't tell you what was normal in the first few weeks/months of Jonah's life as far as naps go. I'm not sure there is such a thing as "normal" at that point. He slept a lot, he was awake sometimes. But eventually he started sleeping more at night and having distinct naps during the day, instead of simply falling in and out of sleep all day. For a long time, Jonah's typical nap was 45 minutes long. This wasn't very long, but it was enough time to be slightly productive, or take a quick nap of my own. The problem was getting him to sleep. He would fight it and we would often spend half an hour trying to get him to sleep. For a 45 minute nap. (We also had to fight him before "big sleep.") We would read and sing and rock until he finally fell asleep and then we'd put him in the crib asleep (and sometimes feed him to sleep). It was frustrating to work for 30 minutes only to have him sleep for 45 minutes. At some point his naps changed. To 30 minutes. We were then typically spending 30 minutes to put him down for a 30 minute nap. Not fun. For a long time he would take four 30 minute naps throughout the day. A lot can happen on a sitcom during 30 minutes, but not so much in the life of a new mom. I would finally get him to sleep and then have time to go to the bathroom, eat something, check my email, and start/switch a load of laundry. If I really needed it, I would lay down for a few minutes.

I remember thinking that something needed to change, and that maybe he was old enough to take two naps a day, and they could be longer. Jonah was nice enough to change it up and just take two naps, however he stuck to his 30 minutes (he would occasionally go 45 minutes). Very rarely (like once or twice a month) he would surprise me and take a longer nap (1-2 hours). These were nice, however they would have been more helpful if I had known ahead of time how long he would be sleeping. So on a normal day, he would wake up between 7:00 and 8:00 AM, be awake for around 3 hours, take a 30 minute nap, be awake 3 more hours, take another 30 minute nap, and then be awake 4-5 hours before going to bed around 8:00 PM. I started figuring out how to get more stuff down while he was awake, instead of trying to do it all in those short naps.

A couple of months ago, during his two 30 minute nap phase, we changed how we put him to sleep. We would read and sing to him and then put him down in the bed sleepy, but still awake, to let him fall asleep on his own. This is how the books say to do it, and indeed, it is much better! We spend a little bit of time reading and singing, and then Jonah does the rest of the work. He sleeps with his Taggies book, and sometimes he'll lay there awake for 5-10 minutes fondling it quietly (which is really cute, by the way). After this change, the 30 minute naps weren't quite as frustrating, because I didn't always have to fight with him to go to sleep. But 30 minutes is still not that much time.

All of that brings us to now. Jonah still takes two naps a day (although he has occasionally skipped his morning nap). He is, however, finally taking some longer naps. His morning nap is sometimes still 30 minutes, but more often it is 45 minutes to an hour. His afternoon naps are usually at least an hour and sometimes longer. I hesitate to say that his longer afternoon nap is "normal," because I don't want to jinx it, but in the past week or two, he has taken more long afternoon naps than short ones. The longest he typically naps is 1 hour and 40 minutes. It must have to do with his sleep cycle, because when he does sleep longer than 1 hour, it is almost always 1 hour and 40 minutes.

I know that eventually (and maybe sooner than later) he will drop his morning nap altogether and just take an afternoon nap. I'm kind of looking forward to this, because it will be easier to go out in the mornings and run errands if I don't have to work around his morning nap. My hope is that with the elimination of that nap, his afternoon nap gets longer (a mom can dream, right?). Before Jonah was born, there were days when I didn't have to go to work and I would be home by myself all day. I definitely took those free hours for granted. I can probably be more productive during one of Jonah's long naps than I was on those entire days by myself.