When does a person's view of napping change? At what age does napping go from being something you fight tooth and nail to something you long for? I can personally attest to the fact that 3 year olds are not fond of this practice. We start preparing for the battle about half an hour ahead of time... psyching ourselves up for the inevitable struggle. Part of the problem is that I still end up laying down with Noah in order to get him to sleep. Horrible, I know. But when I was pregnant with Anna, I certainly didn't mind "having" to do that - I welcomed the excuse! And some days, to be honest, I enjoy being forced to stop everything and lie still for the 15-20 minutes it takes to get him to sleep. The problem comes on days when it takes more like 45 minutes to an hour. When he fights me every step of the way. Usually not fight as in a physical sense, but with every manipulative emotional ploy available in his three year old arsenal.
This is compounded more by the fact that I fall asleep extremely quickly. Greg says that by the time my head has hit the pillow, I'm gone. I get that from my mom - she can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, too. I also attribute it to a clear conscience, but Greg disagrees with that, too. So I'm falling asleep and Noah's waking me up to ask for his juice. I fall asleep again, only to be awakened because he needs to get up to go to the bathroom. I'm asleep again and he's poking me asking questions about the ceiling fan... this could go on for hours in his little world. But in Mommy's world, I get more and more ornery with each bout of interrupted dozing. Not a good thing. Eventually, he does fall asleep and I have to fight the urge to shake him and wake him up. Sometimes my Mommy instincts are way off!
Sunday afternoons in my opinion are just made for napping. Especially cold and snowy Sundays like today. Anna Grace usually is wiped out after church (aren't we all?) so she goes to bed immediately. The rest of us are fairly quick to follow, usually after wolfing down lunch and with mild complaining from Noah. But I think even he realizes that Sunday naps are different. Special, somehow. To me, it's part of "keeping the Sabbath". Relaxing and recharging your batteries for the week to come. We've already had an awesome time of worship plus fellowship with our church family. Plus a great sermon from Pastor Michael (who dyed his hair red for Valentine's Day - made it rather hard to take him seriously!). So with the afternoon stretching before us and with Monday morning just around the corner, what better time to grab a few extra Z's?
I'm sure there are those of you reading this who are anti-naps. You have my sympathy. These days, I grab the peace and quiet when I can. I used to try to clean house or do laundry or something constructive during the kid's nap times but then realized that I was biting their heads off all the time. Now that I embrace the art of napping, I find that I'm a little less of a witch with them. At least most of the time... it's something I'm working on (and that God's working on in me), but I certainly have a ways to go with it.
So having said all that... time to go snooze! May your Sunday afternoon be filled with peaceful thoughts - whether awake or dreaming - and may your day of rest recharge you and energize you for all that the week holds.
No comments:
Post a Comment