Catnapper
As I write this, I am peering over the top of my laptop at Miss P. She is in the midst of a nap, one that is about 19 minutes shy of the 2 hour mark.
A TWO HOUR NAP.
Of course, her eyelids are beginning to crack a bit, and she is starting to move around, so this could be the beginning of the end of this nap but again I say – TWO HOURS! Or almost, anyway. Time will tell.
That may not seem like a big deal to you, but to me, a two hour nap is unheard of.
You see, I have a catnapper.
Since she exited the newborn stage a little while back, Miss P would take these maddeningly short naps during the day. Occasionally they would only be 10 minutes or so at a time, and they were never predictable. It wasn’t until a trip to visit family at Thanksgiving that she developed a napping pattern: she needed to go down for a nap every 2 hours and those naps would last approximately 26 to 30 minutes. No more, no less.
So the good news was, we had a schedule/pattern. Even better news was I could actually PUT HER DOWN during these naps. On the couch, on the bed, on the floor, wherever. I was finally free to do things while she napped.
Do you know how much you can get done in 30 minutes? Not a whole lot, but with enough prep work it can add up. Throw in a load of laundry, make a bed, stuff some cloth diapers, go to the bathroom, anything is possible! I once even took a shower!
2 kittens taking a nap (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lately she has been stretching the time between naps from 2 hours to 3 hours, sometimes even 4 hours. I will try to get her down, but no dice. I thought stretching time between naps meant the naps would consolidate and get longer, but I was wrong.
She will occasionally nap for an hour (maybe once every 2 weeks), but rarely do her naps exceed 30 minutes. I was discussing this with my sister in law and she was shocked. Her son (my nephew) took these wonderful 3 hour naps every few hours. Lucky her.
So today after waking up too early (6 am, her dad brought her to me while I was still sleeping) and having a nap at 8 (for 30 minutes) I changed her diaper and brought her upstairs to the guest room to nurse (it’s warmer up here). I brought my half-dead cell phone and my almost-dead Kindle since I didn’t want to leave her up here by herself for the nap.
And she slept, and she slept, and she slept.
I’ve raced downstairs a couple of times, once to turn down the heat and once to get my laptop. I figured grabbing the laptop (shortly before starting this post) would be the magical thing that would wake her. Apparently she just really needed the sleep. I know she did because she was getting purple bags under her eyes.
Nine minutes until the 2 hour mark. About 2 minutes ago she opened her eyes, let out a little cry and then went back to sleep. I’d better wrap this up. Happy Wednesday!
