Nap time. What a wonderful time, a magical time, a quiet time. Time to decompress, time to recharge, time to yourself. Then that time is no more. Suddenly a small little person decides that nap time is bullshit. This miniature human being discovers that rather than drifting off into a soothing slumber it would be better use of time to run screaming through the house, or ask for a snack, or stick stickers all over the dog, or rub a glue stick through their hair and a million and one other torture chamber scenarios for mommy.

Brax stopped napping at 22 months-old. By 24 months-old also known as the terrible twos, I was pregnant with twins. Those twins were born and they must have been given the wrong information because they didn’t know what a nap schedule was or that they were supposed to be on one together.

Basically I haven’t seen a nap time since February of 2012. I remember having conversations with other mommies that would gasp at hearing that my toddler didn’t nap or listening to moms talk about how their child had napped for 3 hours that day while another would respond “Well mine did 4 hours AND didn’t even wakeup until 9 am!” What was wrong with my kid? What was wrong with me? Was I doing something that these other moms weren’t? For a short while I blamed my busy bee personality, always on the go, maybe my little man had inherited that. But that didn’t make sense since I saw plenty of kiddos his age passed out in strollers in public as their mommies strolled along without a care in the world. It may have had to do with the eye surgery he had went through at 21 months which from he awoke early from to a room full of nurses rather than his mommy and daddy. I tried everything … quiet time, laying down with him, reading books out loud about napping, putting child safety locks on his door so he couldn’t come out of his room during designated nap time. He fought it all and won every single time. These battles proved to be more wearing than anything so I finally stopped resisting and started embracing. If you can’t beat em’, join em’.

It turned out nothing was wrong with my eldest little off spring. Rather than spending precious time driving him around until he fell asleep or fighting with him to have “quiet time,” we ended up experiencing more together. Maybe he knew what was coming, maybe he knew he would have to share his mommy with not only one but two babies and he wanted to get all the one on one time in possible. We rolled with the change, moving bed time up to 6pm, exploring more parks, taking more walks, reading more books and checking more Pinterest projects off. Now as I think back to those “nap times” I’m glad I had those times. Now I think about what a stupid problem it was to have … more time with my one and only child. I would take that over the problem I have now of finding quality alone time with him at all.

I am now one of those blessed moms that seemed so foreign to me. My twins both nap 2.5 to 3.5 hours a day and still reside in their cribs. I’m sure sooner or later (please God let it be the latter) I will be ripping my hair out when my twosome gruesome drop their naps, but for now I embrace the semi-quietness in the house. My eldest is still wide awake during these times and sometimes I feel as if I will combust if I hear “Mommy” one more time, but I know it’s only a phase just like all the seasons of motherhood have been. Before I know it he’ll be in Kindergarten. Before I know it the babies will be preschoolers. Before I know it I will be all alone with my own thoughts and own needs.

****For all those mommies who are entering that season of motherhood where naps are no more here’s a link from Toddler Approved that offers some sanity saving activities for your little non-napping spawns. And please, for the sake of all worn out, un-bathed mommies out there share your own sanity saving activities and findings!