Adventures in "rest time"

Ever since she was about 15 months old, Hope has taken a good long nap in the afternoon. And still, if tucked in at naptime, she'll sleep for close to 2 hours. It's been soooo lovely.

But. Big but. Lately, she stays awake at night until 9:45 (or later)! Uh ... not ok.

So begins our quest to drop the nap, and aim for a reasonable bedtime.

We've built up "rest time" by telling Hope about how she can play quietly, not sleep, just be calm and restful for an hour. The goal is for her to spend an hour in her room, quietly, so that Grant can sleep and I can get a little bit of time to myself (you know, for meal planning, laundry, and whatever else passes for "eating bon-bons all day").

Sunday was Day 1. Sunday was a failure.

Hope fell asleep in the car around 2:30, but only for 10 minutes or so. We didn't think that was such a big deal. Later in the afternoon, she cuddled up with Daddy to watch a movie, and fell promptly to sleep again. He carried her upstairs to lay her in bed, but rather than giving in completely to a nap (as it was close to 5pm) he put her in my cuddle instead. This time she was out for 30/40 minutes.



So I guess it's no huge surprise that when we tucked her in at 7:30, she did not go to sleep, as desired. Instead, she was up until about 9. Sigh.

Day 2 was slightly better. I spent the morning telling Hope how we'd do rest time in her bedroom, and that she needed to stay there for an hour. We talked about the various quiet toys and books she could play with. And I told her that some of her friends have timers so they know when rest time is over, but if she prefered, I'd come in and get her when rest time was over. She opted for setting a timer. So, with low expectations for success, I left her in her room with a timer, drink, snack, and potty.

Surprisingly, she played quietly and happily for close to 30 minutes. Then, apparently, she peed on her potty. She came out of her room to throw her paper in the big potty (I guess she's used to me saying not to throw paper in the little potty). But then she went back to her room and shut the door! Then it got awfully quiet ...

Sure enough, 30 minutes later I heard her alarm beeping away. I went in to find her all tucked into her bed, sound asleep. Even though the goal was ~not~ sleeping, I was pretty proud of her. And I figured, eh, 30 minutes. She'll probably still go to sleep easily tonight.

Wrong. Up until 9:30. REALLY!?!

Day 3. I was scared she'd fall asleep again, because she fought sleeping in the car on the way home. But she managed to stay awake for all of rest time. She did not manage to stay in her bedroom though. She came out 3 or 4 times, and one of those times she went into Grant's room and woke him up. That is a BIG no-no. But, she went back to her room to play and when the hour was up she said she wasn't finished yet. Hey, that's got to be a good sign, right?

Since she didn't sleep a wink, we aimed for an early bedtime. In the bath at 6:45, in her room for books at 7, and I left at 7:20. And then. Oh, then. She went right to sleep! Hallelujah!!!!

Today is Day 4, and rest time is almost over. We spent some time today rehearsing the rule about staying in her room (and certainly staying OUT of Grant's room). So far, so good ...