This Nap Brought to You By…

I’m terrible at sleeping. This is a new development in my life since becoming a mom. In college, I would consistently fall asleep within 10 minutes of closing my eyes at bedtime, and I could go right back to sleep after getting up to pee in the middle of the night (it was only once a night back then). It confounded my roommates that I could fall asleep for a quick power nap just about anywhere that I had been studying, if a sleepy spell came over me. Even then, I suppose, I wasn’t good at going to take a nap. It might take me an hour to fall asleep, and then, did I have that much time to dedicate to napping? I was “so busy” (relative to my experience of what that meant, at the time). So lay-my-head-down-where-I’m-at naps were my thing: extremely efficient. Getting up to walk to my bed would wake me up physically just enough to ruin the actual sleeping most of the time.

Now, I’ve labeled myself as a “high maintenance sleeper,” meaning I need conditions just right to fall asleep, and it still takes me a half hour or more most nights. I rarely attempt a daytime nap unless I’m sick or pregnant or have a sleeping newborn and no other kids around. Even when I’m exhausted, if it takes a while to fall asleep, I get frustrated, which triggers a stress response from my body, which means cortisol or adrenaline or who knows and then it’s just that much harder to go to sleep. See this post for more on how Justin used to bring up Dumbo to make me cry before bed so I could go right to sleep—instead of tossing and turning until I got so frustrated I cried myself to sleep anyway—during one pregnancy.

My preferred conditions are: that it’s cool enough I can have a heavy blanket (two quilts is actually my favorite arrangement) on me without getting hot; really dark, but with just enough light that I can get to the bathroom without turning lights on nor running into anything, and where sunlight won’t come wake me at sunrise; and some white noise. Too hot or too cold = falling asleep delay. Too bright = falling asleep delay and/or staying asleep issues. Too quiet (or too loud with non-“white” noises) = falling asleep delay.

One of the things I might like to be a special patroness of when I’m a saint in Heaven is “moms who can’t fall asleep.” The struggle is real.

Anyway, yesterday I actually took a nap! It was so glorious I felt an impulse to write about the circumstances.

The kids were up early enough that we were able to get ready and be out the door to go on a walk / bike ride to the park by 8:05am. We went not-quite-two-miles total. We stopped at the two construction sites within that range: a new building going up at a church at the edge of our neighborhood, and the new gym under construction at the elementary school. After watching the diggers, bulldozers, and cranes for a while, they wanted to play on the school playground. After a snack we walked the rest of the way home.

Justin had gone for a run even earlier than our walk, and we passed him on our way up the street and his way home. By the time we got home, he was upstairs in his office, working for the day. Usually he makes me coffee in the aero press (because it tastes significantly better than what comes from the keurig), but the timing didn’t work out. I didn’t have a headache, so I planned to wait for a window of opportunity when he might make me “good coffee,” rather than fixing myself keurig coffee. I know, I am spoiled in this department. Besides, I wanted to lie on the couch under the fan and cool off from our early morning, but already 80 degrees, not to mention the humidity that prevents one’s sweat from even evaporating, walk. Hot coffee had no place with me for the time being.

The kids went to the back yard to play with water guns. Sometime after 10:00 they came in, hot. I gave them snacks/early lunch and water, changed them into swim suits, slathered them with sunscreen, and loaded them into the car. It was time for the first swim lesson (and pool play time, for Cecily) since before our nearly-two-week Family Visiting Road Trip. I followed Cecily back and forth from the baby pool to the steps of the big pool, since she wants nothing to do with the life jacket we borrowed for her for the summer. We spent about an hour total in the 11:00 hour direct sun, which was plenty. We packed up, dried off, and went home.

I set the kids up with the rest of lunch / a pre-nap snack, however you want to look at it. I ran upstairs to take a quick shower while they were occupied. Once dry and dressed myself, I wiped kids’ hands, helped those that needed helping into their dry clothes, gave them an “almost time for Rest Time” warning, and whisked Cecily away for her nap. She went down easily. I read Luke his rest time book, and asked if he wanted to take a nap in his bed or my bed. He’d had a sour attitude all morning, so I thought he was probably due for a nap, which he is taking once a week on average these days. He said he wanted to have rest time in the playroom, so he could look out the window to watch Daddy mowing the yard. My willpower wasn’t riled up, so I decided not to argue.

So here we were, everyone tired out from the morning’s activities, me already unsweaty/de-sunscreened as well as uncaffeinated, and it only took 15 minutes total to get everyone into Rest Time. I am going to go put my feet up and finish the book I’m almost done with!

Well, my eyes got tired after two pages, and a pleasant sleepiness settled over my whole body. I hopped up to shut doors that were letting in sunlight and turn on the white noise fan. I sat back down to read one more page so the sleepiness would return. It did. I set the book down, pulled up my blanket, and closed my eyes.

Sweet sleep.

I woke up an hour later, to the sound of happy kid noises. I went and made myself some decaf keurig coffee, since it was afternoon now, but I needed that last little pick me up to get me out of the nap fog. One tablespoon of hot chocolate mix in the cup makes even keurig coffee delightful. And the rest of the day went rather smoothly. It was a most felicitous anomaly of afternoon “activity” for me. I had leftovers planned for dinner anyway, so I didn’t have to fret about losing any meal prep time, either. Super win.

Tell me in the comments below: Are you a napper? A high maintenance sleeper like me?