The end of the daytime nap

I am writing this post a lot earlier than I would like. Mia is 21 months old, and she has decided to drop her nap. She will now only sleep if pushed to sleep in her buggy or in the car. On Harry's pre-school days she may fall asleep in the pushchair on the way back and I can transfer her into bed. When Harry is around, there is no chance.

I feel somewhat cheated - Harry continued to nap for a good couple of hours until he was 2 1/2. He rather inconveniently dropped his nap around the time that Mia was born, but even then he was still tired in the afternoon. Him being that bit older, I could lie him down on the sofa in front of the television after lunch and he would often doze off, or at the very least lie there quietly. I suppose it's swings and roundabouts though, he started his day at 5am for a very long time indeed, whereas Mia generaly manages at least an hour longer than that.

With hindsight putting Mia into a big bed hasn't helped. Since being in a bed it had been a nightmare to get her to sleep at bedtime, she jumped up and ran out the door or just sat on the other side wailing. Nap time was even worse, it was taking up to an hour to get her down. Then she would sleep, and bedtime became even more difficult. Finally I decided that enough was enough and didn't even try for a nap. She was exhausted at bedtime, but she went straight to sleep, almost before I'd even left the room, and slept until a reasonable hour in the morning! (Still up throughout the night of course, but that goes without saying in our household).

So this seems to be it. My cunning plan of moving Harry into pre-school sessions in the afternoon so that I could enjoy a couple of hours childfree time has backfired. Mia doesn't even appear to miss the nap, it's only the last hour or so before bedtime that she appears tired. It's another milestone, and those long afternoons are becoming even longer!