Naptime woes

I have written about this numerous times on Facebook but don't know that I have recorded my nap time woes on the blog. We are really struggling with naps and have been for a few months. Really it has been a challenge since Caroline was born in that I don't want either child to wake up the other yet I want them to sleep at the same time. That means that often one will be fussing either because they don't want to go to sleep or because they have awakened and want me to let them out.

We have never been strictly scheduled at our house meaning naps happen at flexible times. That is good and bad. Katherine was pretty regularly taking a 2 hour nap and it started any time from 2-4 but it seems to be getting later. That in turn is creating a later bed time. Being 3.5 years old she is trying to give up her nap but she really still needs it. We are in that phase where no nap creates an evening disaster but going down for a nap often is a challenge because she really is not tired yet. If I let her skip her nap we have a hard time getting her to bed earlier than usual so that solution is not working well.

So right now we are in the phase where Katherine still has nap time about 6 days of the week. There always seems to be one day where it really does work better to skip it for one reason or another. During that nap time she will sometimes sleep and sometimes have "quiet time". I never know what kind of day it will be when I read her books and put her down. Usually she starts off fine and about 10 minutes later it starts. I hear her voice calling over the monitor. It is supposed to be quiet time but it is not really that quiet and I have to go in there numerous times. Sometimes it wakes up Caroline and that is really frustrating.

Today it got to the point where it truly was comical. I was in the office with the video monitor on but the sound off. I could tell Katherine was awake and talking so I turned on the volume. She talked for at least 20 minutes.I was laughing at all she was saying as she looked straight into the camera.

"Mommy do you hear me or are you pretending not to hear me? I need you to hear me. Will you answer me? I love you mommy. Did you hear me? I love you. Are you there? I don't hear a word. Are you answering me or not? Which one? No or yes? Maybe yes or maybe no. Do you hear me? Please. Pleeeease!"

After she had been in her room long enough (though no sleeping took place) I let Caroline to in her room to play. A few minutes later I hear, "Mooooom, baby Caroline is taking off her pants! Caroline, you need to leave your pants on. I can see your bottom. Baby Caroline is taking off her pants and I'm not. I am just playing."

Oh what an adventure.