Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Definitely in transition

We've been intermittently busy here, which means that there have been several days in the last week that Olivia's naps have been short, interrupted or off schedule.

Even when we are home, though, Olivia's nap schedule is unpredictable. A couple of days last week, she only took one long nap. Yesterday she took two regular naps. Today she didn't act tired until almost two hours after she usually goes down for her morning nap.

I'm pretty sure she's in transition and will be moving to the one-nap schedule soon. She's not quite ready yet, but she's getting there.

I was really dreading this transition, but I think I'm OK with it now. It may have something to do with the fact that Olivia is walking with great confidence now and is a bit easier to entertain for longer periods of time. It also helps with her nighttime schedule. Shorter naps or just one nap means a very sleepy baby by bedtime, so there is rarely any fussing or resistance when it is time to go to bed. We brush teeth, read a bedtime book, and then she goes in her crib. By the lack of shuffling and noise coming from the baby monitor, I am judging that she falls asleep pretty fast.

Oh, and the books...she is getting MUCH better at sitting still for books now. She has recently developed a preference for books among all of her toys. She will drag one book around the house for an hour, sitting to look at it and point at pictures, bringing it to me to read some, walking off again and carrying it to another location where she can sit and look at it some more. I'm so glad she's finally caught on to the fun in books.

The walking is getting a lot less wobbly. She walks so fast that she's practically running now. She rarely crawls at all now and is confident enough with the walking that I let her do it, unassisted, in public places now.

I've been spending much of my time trying, bit by bit, to clean up old files and mess in our "office". We are preparing to start a new homestudy in a few months, and I'm anticipating needing at least part of this room for a crib. If our next child is also a girl, she'll probably share a room with Olivia before she turns a year old. But I'm confident that we'll need a separate room for at least a few months. It is going to take a lot of work to get this room in shape, and I'm going to NEED the next several months to make it work.

2 comments:

HereWeGoAJen said...

I can't believe that she is getting so big!

Stephanie said...

I loved moving to just one nap (it sounds to me like she's in transition, too. That's the way Asher acted, anyway, when he was ready to drop his morning nap). Until just a month or so ago, Asher took one long nap about 11-11:30. It was perfect - I had time in the morning for us to do fun things, and time in the afternoon to run errands. I felt like we got to go do so much more (like going to the park) when I wasn't trying to fit an entire day into two hours between naps/ eating. Enjoy!