This nap thing

Why can't I figure out this nap thing? Zachariah will be 18 months old in 5 days. I heard that around then most toddlers will go to only 1 nap a day. Zachariah has been my two-naps-a-day kid for quite some time. For the last 6 months I've been bracing myself for the inevitable change over to one nap a day. There were days when he wouldn't lay down twice, so I thought we were definitely on the road there.

Just when I thought I had him figured out, he would go back to two naps again. We don't have a real solid schedule here. Bedtime is a big schedule we do stick to. We recognize that we must in this case, but otherwise we just go with the flow for the most part and it seems to agree with us. I know that he'll get up at a general time, eat breakfast, play, need a nap, eat lunch, play, need another nap, eat a snack, come with my to tutor, play until dinner, eat, then a little more play until it's bedtime. And then it's bath time, getting dressed, snack, book, good nights, and to bed. So you can see there is a rhythm to our day. And when we need to run errands or get out of the house, they are usually scheduled around those nap times.

Last week I thought we were done with that morning nap. Well...we were. We've had some busy weekends, so by Monday morning Zachariah usually sleeps in. It's like he needs to catch up a little from all the weekend excitement. Last week he slept in later than normal. Then he didn't seem ready for a nap at the same interval that he usually would. Of course by then it was lunchtime. So we ate lunch, then played for a while before he got tired and needed a nap. Then he did a glorious thing. He took a 3+ hour nap. I didn't mind one nap a day as long as it was a long one. When he tried the one nap thing before it didn't go this well, so I was noticeably concerned. THIS I can handle. He did this almost every day last week. We did it, we transitioned into one nap with no problems. I was OK with it, he was OK with it. I think it worked, because he was sleeping in later each day. He would sleep 12-14 hours at night.

Then we get into this week. Monday morning Zachariah slept in. I thought we'd be on schedule like last week then. But no, he kept sleeping and sleeping. I was starting to get bored with myself thinking he'd never wake up. Around 11:20AM he finally started calling for me. (This is the kid who goes to bed around 7:30PM every night too, so he slept a really long time.) I was all prepared for a sick, cranky kid, but he was happy and healthy. Good, I thought. He was awake for a few hours, ate lunch, played hard like usually, and then was ready for a nap. I was expecting no nap at all that day since he slept so late. But he laid right down in the afternoon and slept for 2 1/2 hours! Wow! He was really tired after this weekend. But still he stuck with the one-nap rule.

So, we're officially on to one nap per day! Right! Right? Riiiiiiight. Nope, yesterday and today he has gotten up at his previous normal time. Then after a few hours, he's ready for a nap. He has lunch, plays for a while, then needs another nap. And he's taking 2 two-hour naps. This is back to what he was doing before.

I don't mind this, and I surprisingly didn't mind the one nap thing we did last week. I just wish he'd make up his mind what he'd like to do. This makes 3 days this week I have been unable to run errands in the morning or early afternoon, because I don't know what his nap schedule will be. I'm hoping we can figure something out soon. I don't mind going with the flow, but I do want a little consistency.