Whenever we need a sleep breakthrough, we’re going to head for Cedar Campus.
In June, as “you may recall”:/news/2007/champion-traveler/, during Lucy’s first trip to InterVarsity’s “Cedar Campus”:http://cedarcampus.org/, she started going down to sleep at night without a fuss for the first time in her life. And it has stuck ever since.
Now on “this trip”:/news/2007/road-trip-update back to Cedar Campus, Lucy has completed her hoped-for transition to one daily nap, going down peacefully right after lunch and sleeping longer. Hooray! (Papa, who’s on baby duty this week, gets a nap at the same time!) We’re so grateful, since this transition had been a little rocky. We hope _this_ breakthrough sticks once we get home, too.
But as you can see from the photo, sleep overcomes Lucy here at Cedar not just during the regularly scheduled slots. We were out for a late-morning hike up the North Shore Trail along Prentiss Bay, with Lucy attentively enjoying all the sights, sounds, and smells of the north woods from her backpack perch. But soon she became suspiciously quiet, and then Papa felt a solid “thunk” right between his shoulder-blades. She slumbered soundly for the next several miles of gently rolling terrain, out like a light.
p{color:gray}. Bonus photo: When she’s awake, she really does love riding in our backpack carrier.
Oh, that’s great! It’s so nice to have the whole morning for activity, and the afternoon for napping. :)
The one nap transition has been a little long here but I think Naomi is almost there. I chalk it up to lots of change for our little toddler.
And there is nothing like he fresh air to induce sleep. Have a safe trip home.
I’m trying not to be jealous of your nap bliss. Today Josi took 90 minutes to fall asleep. Most of that time was spend crawling around, offering her paci to various stuffed animals, and removing her crib sheet. Grrr. Ok, she’s been asleep now for about an hour, so at least today she’s TAKING a nap.:)
Anyway, I’m glad your family enjoys Cedar Campus so much!
I hope the longer nap sticks! I’ve been reluctant to transition Abby to one nap, mainly because I think I get more things done with two. :) Yesterday she rolled around a bit in the morning instead of napping, so we went grocery shopping and had lunch, than back for another try. She slept 3 hours! She’s definitely right about there whether I like it or not! :)
I always thought that the air up there, and probably the extra outdoor activity, made the kids sleep well. All day in sun and breezes and sand. Of course, some toddler or another was always falling asleep during scheduled dining-hall lunch-time or dinner-time, so we spent most of the trips eating peanut butter and jelly in the cabin. Until they got older, which does happen. And life gets easier. Except for the worrying.
We have found that a lot of sleep issues come about when we aren’t giving enough active play time with Madelyn. Like when I am working, although she is playing and talking to me, I am not giving her enough active mom play time. So If I have her at least one hour in the morning and one in the evening she sleeps great for nap and bed. But this might just be a Madelyn thing. We also discover that ending nursing helped with both, she knew she could get the boob for nap and bed and would trying to capitalize on more “boob opertunities”. So now that those days are over, tired is tired and out she goes.
But kids are so different, so who knows?
Mo is definitely not ready for the one nap transition. On days where he just gets that one nap in… I’m ready to pull my hair out! I’m glad Lucy is doing so well with it. I’m sure Mo’s days are coming soon, but for now I like the crankster to take two naps, as does big sis. She’s the one who gets picked on when he gets cranky.
Now where did all that blond hair come from??? It’s amazing how fast her pics have gone from dark hair to blond. Gorgeous