Life after naps end

Nap time was always a small bit of time in my day where I could get a lot of things done without feeling guilty about neglecting one of the girls. The things I usually did during this time were quite unglamorous - call insurance companies, follow-up on doctor visits, take care of breakfast dishes, prep for dinner, clean up the house, pay bills, check email, etc. Even though I wasn't doing anything really fun, it was a brief respite in the day and I looked forward to it for a bit of "me" time without any trace of guilt that I should be doing something else.

Today I realized that nap time - as I once knew it - is officially over and I have to admit that I am mourning it's passing a bit.

While Emma still loves her afternoon nap, they seem to be getting shorter. It's averaging about 90 minutes, which is a decent chunk of time for her to recharge from her morning childhood activities and daily therapy sessions. And while I foresee Emma napping for quite a while, I finally realized that Julia's nap will not likely come back into our routine. When she gave it up a little while ago I thought it was a phase. For a little while I was able to convince her that she should have a bit of quiet time to read or watch a bit of TV, but that seems to have gone out of fashion with her.

She is now requesting a lot more one-on-one play time with me - mostly playing house or going outside to play. And while I love playing with Julia and spending quality one-on-one time with her, this means that there is virtually no "free" time left to take care of all that other stuff without feeling guilty that I'm neglecting my children. And so I try and do a hybrid of both - do enough stuff (calls to insurance, doctors) to get by and use the remaining time while Emma is napping to give Julia some of the one-on-one time we both love.

And, so, while I am adjusting to the new afternoon routine I have to admit that I mourn the passing of the days when both girls took a nap and I had a bit of "me" time to get to all that stuff. But, hey, doing most of that stuff is a bit overrated, right?