I’m sure there are millions of Moms, like me, that would agree that the nap your child takes in the car can ruin your entire day.
I am a schedule abiding Mom. We do meal time, and nap time like clock work around here. It makes my life predictable, and it works like a charm on my kids. The only exception is when we are traveling, or have company that we don’t follow things so closely. But, your life can begin to feel a little constricted when you have an infant that takes 2, sometimes 3 naps a day. How do you schedule your life around those naps?
Sometimes it means getting up and getting going at 8 am. I wish stores opened at 8 am so I could do my errands and returns, or whatever it is I need to do for the day because the morning nap is tricky. So, occasionally, I will think, “It will be OK, he can skip his morning nap” and we will try to go on with our lives actually participating in society rather than getting stuck at home just waiting for the next nap time to come around. So, we do whatever it is that seemed so important, and we are inching closer to lunch time/afternoon nap time, racing home before disaster strikes and bam! My toddler tells me that the baby is asleep in the backseat.
Oh, how I hate to hear those words.
This happened to me yesterday. Now that I have 3 kids, I’ve learned there is not much you can do once they fall asleep, and when they are rear facing, sometimes you miss the signs and can’t prevent it. You just have to accept it. I sometimes enlist my older two to help out and sing, or smile, or make goofy faces at the baby to keep him awake, but the truth is, when a baby is tired, he’s going to sleep.
But, why is it that a 10 minute nap in the car makes them think that they’ve had their nap for the day?
When this happens to me, rather than sticking to the strict schedule, I usually come home (where the baby inevitably wakes up) and let him crawl around for another half hour. Usually, that is enough for him to realize that he is still tired and that ten minute nap in the car was not enough. If I do that, I can usually get him to sleep again. But, boy do I hate that dreaded car nap. How about you?