Changing routines

The time has come in our household to change a few of our routines and one that probably most mums know is coming but dread at the same time - dropping the afternoon nap for Ruby.  She still sleeps when we put her to bed after lunch but over the last couple of weeks we have noticed that she is not going to sleep in the evening until 10pm some nights and we figure that this is because she is getting too much sleep during the day.  For me it has always been a window where I can get a few of my jobs done - prepare the meal for the evening, catch up on computer work and even grab half an hour snooze on the sofa.

Sunday was the first day that Ruby did not take her afternoon nap and it opened up a whole new world for her - to help put her brother to sleep and then not to have to go to bed herself.  She understands that it is quiet time and that Rivan still needs sleep so she enjoyed playing outside on the trampoline and then coming in and playing with her babies.  If I establish from the start that I still need to get my jobs done she will understand that she has to entertain herself for a while.  Talking to other mums and ladies at the crèche all have said that once the sleep cycle is broken they would advise that she has half an hour "Ruby quiet' time which will be lying on her bed and reading a book - not sleeping.  This will come in due course.  Sunday evening when she got into bed at 8.00pm ish we did not see or hear her again until the morning……

Comments

[rae of sunshine]

Routine going well – we now have “quiet time” after lunch where she lies on the sofa and reads her books for half an hour while I prepare dinner for the evening. She then will help me with any jobs and we spend a bit of time on learning the alphabet and playing games – it means I have less time to do stuff in the day but by the end of the night she is knackered and falls to sleep very quickly. Yesterday she slept at school and as a consequence she was up till gone 9.30pm so I am going to ask school if she can stop sleeping there too.

[les cocottes]

Have you kept the new pattern? How is it working? Do their stop napping next level up at her school?