We’re in a weird transition phase going from two naps to one, and while we had a pretty good schedule going for a while, that has gone completely out the window. And after speaking with a sleep therapist, three weeks before bringing a new baby home is not the best time to working on completely changing up her schedule. I’ve decided to just be very mindful or her cues every day, and let her take the lead on when she needs a nap. While we have been trending towards just the one nap on more days than not, I know that some days I need more rest than others, so why wouldn’t she be the same?

Today was a one medium length car nap day. For Eloise, car naps seem to equal deeper sleep, so an hour and a half car nap can be more restful than a two hour contact nap. After the nap we came home for some play time with dad, lunch, and then it was back to regularly scheduled programming of chasing her dog Beans around the living room and reorganizing her play kitchen.

One of her new favorite games is crawling across the couch onto the opposite arm rest from where I’m sitting, and I grab her by the legs and pull her back to me. She’ll crawl half way, look back with the most mischievous grin to make sure I’m watching and coming for her, and then crawl faster the rest of the way. When I grab her legs she full body laughs and screams with joy as she gets herself ready to do it all over again.

The only problem is at 36 weeks pregnant sometimes the twisting and pulling motion is a little harder.

Today was one of those difficult days.

When after only playing the couch game three times, I decided it was time to move back to the floor to play with one of the other 652 toys she has there. The screaming that followed was absolutely epic.

Judge me if you will, but if she wants to do something and it’s not hurting anyone, I’ll often give in, at least for a short while. But today it would have hurt my back too much to keep twisting and pulling her, so the game came to a quick end.

She screamed and she yelled and she bit me a few times, so I decided it was time to attempt a nap. I set up our pillows, grabbed the blanket, turned out the lights, and we got into position. I wasn’t super confident that she’d actually sleep, but after about 20 minutes of screaming and crying she looked me in the eyes, tears still streaming down her cheeks, and grabbed my nose and giggled. I blew air in her face, making her giggle even more, and like magic she was happy again!

We both could have easily fallen into an angry, over tired pattern of yelling, crying, and general discomfort, but those few minutes of just holding each other changed the trajectory of our day. Sometimes all you need is a few minutes of getting rid of all the external stimulations, and being in close contact with someone you love to reset your system.