a mom just rambling off about naptimes

7 attempts at a morning nap and the scorecard stands at

Camryn:  6 1/2 points

Dana: 1/2 points

I’m only giving myself half of one victory because she’s not quite asleep yet.  She put up a solid battle and few protest whines that had me about thinking it was time to bag the whole thing and try again  later.  BUT I think it’s happening.  Knock on wood.

I always used to think it sounded kind of, I don’t know, rude (mean, ungrateful for their little bundle of joy?)  for parents to rejoice so much in nap time.  They’d say things along the lines of they absolutely lived for the hour when their babies were napping/missing a nap is the worst thing that can happen, and I’d think “are they really so bad that you just can’t wait to be rid of them for a while?”  or “if you hate them being awake so much, why do you keep having more of them?”

But now I understand.  It’s not that we don’t love the little gremlins, it’s just that (depending on your kid, I guess) we can’t do anything else while their awake except give them our full and undivided attention.  Imagine a job where you’re at work from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. (if you’re lucky and don’t get several middle of the night calls) without a single break or scheduled lunch or dinner hour.  And the only time you can shower, dress, eat in peace, blog, read, exercise, talk to other human beings or whatever else it is that you do in this world besides work–is nap time.  I don’t think it’s overly dramatic to say that a toddler refusing to nap is the absolute worst thing ever.

I saw an advice column recently where someone wrote a letter asking why her mom-of-one friend never had any time for her and what do stay at home moms do all day anyway?   The answer is that (between feedings and diaper changes), we spend 2 hours running 20 minute errands and the next 2 hours performing 10 minute tasks, then anywhere from 2 to 200 minutes putting the child down for a nap, spend the nap in recovery mode (if you only have 1 child or are lucky enough that your children nap at the same time), and then we repeat.  You’d think that a child old enough to play and crawl around on the floor would just happily play and crawl around on the floor while you do things, but that’s not how it works.  I’ve discovered that 90% of the time, playing and crawling around only happens if I am doing it with her, or sitting on the floor watching her.  The exact moment that I stand up to doing anything else, or pull out a book or plate of food or whatever it may be, a honing device chemical releases in her brain that tells her to destroy whatever it is mom is doing.

So yes, us moms, as much as we love our babies, we really really love it when they are sleeping.