Special Play Time & One Nap Results

We've continued our pursuit of the peaceful, special "alone" play time with Baby Z. It has gotten much, much better. Baby Z knows what it is, knows it will end and even doesn't mind it. I praise him vigorously for doing well in it and tell his Dada all about it when he gets home. When I say "special play time," Baby Z points to his play yard fence. :) Eventually we'll move on to him playing in his room, but I'm going to keep with the fence a little while longer.

Besides the fact that Baby Z is liking the play time more, it is nothing less than miraculous for me. Just having 30 minutes to focus on something and having the break from the constant interaction is so helpful. It really has been tough for me going to one nap a day and adjusting to how much more time there is to keep Baby Z busy and still get my own chores done. Special play time couldn't have come at a better time.

As for the one nap a day, it has been an adjustment. I feel like there are gigantic spans of time to fill and find myself thinking, "It's not lunchtime yet?" Like any transition, it takes time to get used to it and adapt. I need to research more things to do with Baby Z because the park is getting a little old. It is nice, though, to have plenty of time in the morning to get grocery shopping or errands done.

Baby Z seems to be doing okay with it, although he's still not sleeping as long as I would like. When he gets two hours or so, he does well through to bedtime. However, mostly he's been doing an hour and a half (what he did before twice a day), and by the late afternoon, he starts to get crabby and difficult. It's been hard for me to give up my nap time (which I usually grabbed during his afternoon nap), and I find myself REALLY tired by 8pm or so. I still take a nap when I'm exhausted even if things get left undone. And, honestly, I should not be complaining. What adult still gets a nap every day?

So that's the update. It's good for me to focus on the positives of Baby Z growing up and the success we've had with the special play time. Lately we've been dealing with temper tantrums, so I'll save that for another day and just end on this positive note: