Sleepless in South London

3 amazing things happened this week:

1. Zachy dropped his morning nap

2. My new system for getting us all ready in the morning actually works AND saves us time!

3. My Greek God(zilla) husband and I celebrated 5 years since our first date and 1 year since our fab wedding

Adios morning nap, Hola morning walks in the park

I don’t like to brag (much) but my 19.5 month old baby boy has always been an excellent sleeper.  He has been sleeping through the night since he was 7-weeks old and takes regular naps throughout the day.  Even in the womb, he slept 15 days past his due date and even then, was in no particular hurry to get his push on and come out into the world (36 hours… I’m just saying).

Zachy dropped his late afternoon siesta some months ago but has showed no signs of giving up his beloved morning nap, which if left undisturbed, could easily last for 2 hours.  This has worked out very well so far for my shower/breakfast/sky planner catch-up routine and hubby’s sleep-in/swim/sauna routine.

Then two weeks ago, Zachy was merrily pottering away in his new sizzlin’ kitchen, not showing any signs of tiredness (unlike his father, who was still snoozing away upstairs) when I asked him if he wanted to go up for his nap, which is usually his cue to grab Bear and wait at the bottom of the stairs for me to carry them both up to bed, but this time he just shook his head and said “nah”.  I asked him again and again in 10min intervals, to which he finally responded with a “NO NO NO” and then with one final dramatic slam of his hand on the sofa, that was it, the end of the morning nap, just like that.

Oh.

Our first weekend sans nap started with an early morning stroll to the children’s playground.  It was a brilliant way to start the day.  Before, Zachy wouldn’t stir until 10/10.30am, so by the time we’d got him up and dressed and out the door, we really only had an hour before we needed to get him back home for lunch (Never let lunch be late. Ever.) so it was really quite liberating to have all this time back.  We even all managed to have coffee together in the park cafe.  Crazy.  It also meant he was nice ‘n’ knackered for his lunchtime nap – a whopping 2.5 hours!

Old morning routine

6am – Zachy wakes up.  Mummy gets up, takes Zachy downstairs.  Have milk and cuddle on the sofa until Daddy comes down at 6.45am to take over while I try and get ready for work in 10mins* before Daddy leaves for work.

New morning routine

6am – Zachy wakes up.  Mummy gets up, takes Zachy downstairs.  Have milk and cuddle on the sofa for 10mins before returning upstairs to let Zachy jump on Daddy’s head while Mummy has a shower.  Then let Zachy follow Daddy from room to room while I dry hair/get dressed/apply make-up etc.  At 7am, Daddy leaves for work and Mummy & Zachy go downstairs for a leisurely breakfast together and more cuddles on the sofa.  Genius.

* Hubby honestly thinks this is long enough.  When I once asked if he might possibly be able to get up a teeny bit earlier to allow me 20 mins to get ready for work, he genuinely didn’t understand why I would need “so” long.  I had to explain to him, patiently, that working for a PR Agency, as I do, there was a certain expectation that I would not turn up for work looking like an extra from an Eastenders market scene.

Anniversary week

Five years ago today, I met my lovely husband-to-be and one year ago this Saturday, we were married.

Happy days.

2 Comments

  1. Sarah Derrig
    April 14, 2011 / 6:27 AM

    Happy Anniversary!!!!!! While I loved Sadie cutting out her day time naps as it gave us more time to roam the shops and go to the park some days I do miss the afternoon nap which used to be the time I’d catch up on Oprah – I haven’t seen an episode of Oprah since Sadie stopped napping…probably a good thing really!

  2. Helen Nowicka
    April 14, 2011 / 6:26 PM

    Happy anniversary! Love the blog.

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