Living Nap to Nap

If you've ever lived paycheck to paycheck you know how stifling that can feel. The paychecks are often spent before they come in and then another week or two weeks or 15 days go by in anticipation of that next check. It is an awful and uneasy feeling - what if something goes wrong and the check is late or the wrong amount or *gulp* doesn't come at all?

Well, many a stay at home mom/dad/whomever primary caregiver know a similar feeling: Living Nap to Nap. And let me tell you, it is no way to live! The kids become greater and greater obstacles to what you really need to be getting done thus planting the seeds of irritation and annoyance, maybe even worst of all, resentment towards your child. No indeed, not a way to live.

In the beginning of Baby's life, say the first six months or so, Baby is so easy to care for and be with. Like a large hand bag you can carry from room to room, in the brief time spans of wakefulness, Baby is often a pleasant observer of your daily routine, whatever it may be. Then Baby becomes mobile, but is still pretty easy to manage. And it is so thrilling when Baby first becomes interactive. A few months later Baby becomes more demanding. The pack-n-play isn't enough anymore and the swing is so dull. Baby wants to explore and needs full supervision. That's when it is easy to slip into the Living Nap to Nap scenario because, really, the only time to get anything done is when Baby is sleeping. But its all good, its even smooth sailing! Baby takes two naps a day, like clock work. OK, it is not as much time as you really wish you could have but it is dependable and manageable. For, oh, maybe another 6 months if you're lucky. Then, Baby, who is now not only walking, but running and climbing on everything dangerous she can find, starts skipping naps, refusing to take them altogether or else going down for shorter periods of time each day. That's when you start freaking out because suddenly the paychecks aren't reliable, they're short or deposited into the wrong account or they just don't come in at all. And your time has already been spent! You have things planned for that naptime, important things to get done, like washing your hair or paying the bills.

Living paycheck to paycheck is a drag but you can get out of that cycle. You can increase income, lower expenses, get creative with your neighbors cast off roosters . . . you can change that scenario. And so can you change the nap to nap cycle. Not by forcing Baby down but by just changing your perspective and there are a number of ways to change it. Here are two specific ideas: 1. Stop getting things done, things will wait. 2. Start letting Baby be more independent while awake and try to get things done with her in the room but playing quietly on her own (LOL).

Personally I am not woman enough for the latter option. Baby can only give me about 4 minute intervals to do anything non-Baby related. Provided I can get my work done in 4 minute intervals, I'm golden. But the reality of it is I just don't try to do anything at all while Baby is awake. Then whenever I happen to get something accomplished its a real boon to my ego. I feel like a super mom who is on top of the world. Like if I get the toilet cleaned (Let me just interject and say that I am not a stickler on cleanliness and used to be fine by cleaning the toilet 3-4 times a month but now I have, in addition to Baby, a 3 year old son who insists on peeing standing up so that toilet needs cleaning every day but if I get to it every third day I am doing good, even though our bathroom smells like the 4/5/6 stop at 42nd street in mid July, but that's a tale for another tell and anyone who isn't a crazy cleaning lady with a little boy knows the story already.) I'm totally psyched. As I mentioned in my aside there, I do have a 3 year old and so I know that a nap-less future is coming but I am not too scared because as she grows older she will become more independent as well and the Living Nap to Nap time will be a distant, bittersweet memory.

And until then I continue through our days trying to keep the house in order without Living Nap to Nap as best as I can. But I must say, Baby is sleeping now and so I think I'll go clean the toilet.