On the kitchen floor?

see end of post for a 10pm update...

So, day 4 of trying 1 nap.... oh my gosh - this is a killer. Honestly, if she'd just sleep in it would be soooo much easier. How do you get that through to an 18 month old?

So this morning she was up around 7:30 again (once again, better than 5:30) and she played in her crib till about 8. I've been pretty much ignoring her until 8ish to try to get her to realize that she might as well sleep later. Then we got up and played hard.

Perhaps this would be a good time to mention how absolutely exhausted I am. I didn't realize how much I needed Megan's 2 naps. They were little mental/physical breaks. Around noon I was getting lunch ready and Megan came in and snuck a snack and laid down on the floor with it. It was so sweet and so pitiful. She was so tired she couldn't even eat it sitting up, she laid down in the middle of the kitchen. No crying (praise the Lord) or fussing, just laying there watching me. So I tried to get her to eat lunch and she just lost it. Poor baby was so tired. I was trying to keep her up until 1:00 but that didn't happen.... she went down at 12:40... and I am soooooooo happy to say - she's still sleeping at 3:20.

I'm just hoping that she wakes up happy (she's been great all day - which is a huge praise since we did not have a good afternoon yesterday) and makes it until bedtime without any major issues. I see a lot of outside playtime in my future.

I'll post some more pictures later. I just wanted to get this down so if I ever have to go through this transition again, I'll remember how we did it this time - the good and the mistakes.

10pm update.... we made it!!!!! Day 4 of the 1 nap schedule - woohoo!!!!

Our little pumpkin slept for 3 hours. Having extended naps has never been our problem - Megan will sleep easily. She loved sleeping 2 hours at each of her 2 naps - our issue was that she started waking up so early because (my hypothesis) she was getting so much sleep during the day. I was LOVING the 3 hour nap, and so was she. She woke up so happy and giggly. That just made my heart sing.

I was able to get her to eat a little and then we got a call from the boys next door asking if Megan could come out to play (that'll be my next post - but I might crash tonight before I get it done) so we played and played. My plan was to keep her as active as possible to get her through the evening. It worked. She didn't want to come in from playing outside, but when she did she looked at me and told me (in her totally non-understandable baby language) that she was sooooo tired. How did I know that was what she was saying??? Perhaps it was her laying on the kitchen floor again and patting the floor where a pillow should be. It was so sweet (ok, and kind of pitiful). She went to bed so easily and I'm praying for a good night of sleep (she woke up crying last night and that is really unusual) and for her to sleep IN tomorrow... please baby, sleep until at least 8am!

Hopefully each day will get easier!