The nap

I did something today that rarely happens in my house. I "slept when the baby (toddler) slept."

People tell you to do that all the time as a first-time/young/regular mom, but it never works out. There are too many other things you want to take advantage of while your precious ones are out like lights.

There's the classic shower, for instance, alone and drawn out for as long as your hot water lasts. If you're lucky, you can even shave your legs for the first time in weeks/months. While we're talking about the bathroom, let's not forget the potty. Although it's a little sunseemly to say it out loud, there isn't a woman alive who doesn't yearn for a chance to sit on the family throne in peace (without having to explain what she is doing and why we put the paper down the bowl).

Then there's housework that always beckons. It's far easier to fold laundry without little hands strewing it everywhere, and the number of toys donning floors is always something hard to overlook when you get a free moment.

For me, it's usually work—yes, employment—that keeps me from napping. I'm at home on Tuesdays and Fridays with Noah, but I have to find time to get in 11 hours of work on those two days. So the moment I close his nursery door, my fingers are moving like lightning over my laptop keys until he wakes up.

A new distraction in my life is blogging. If Noah's sleeping, I don't have to worry about him running his always-sticky fingers on my keys/lid while I try to expound about some great development in our lives. Plus I always feel guilty if I'm on the computer while he's up unless he's eating a meal... pretty hard to squeeze in your "deep thoughts" in the time it takes for Noah to scarf down his mac-n-cheese.

But today, today I knew from the moment I woke up that I would sleep when Noah napped. I was exhausted from a week of not sleeping well (for whatever reason), and I needed desperately to catch up on my beauty rest.

I literally counted down all day in my mind... just four more hours until naptime; sleep's coming in three hours; two hours, I can feel it!; one more and I'm in the clear.

And at 12:45, the magic hour arrived. We had finished eating lunch and Noah was acting naughty (usually a clear sign that he's tired), so off to bed we went. He didn't even protest today, which I was grateful for since I was sleeping with the monitor on (in case he got up before me, I wanted to hear him).

Two-and-a-half hours later, I awoke refreshed, warm and a little groggy, but so, so happy to have finally taken a nap.

I've missed them, you see. They are the one point of motherhood I've had a hard time adjusting to. As an early 20-something, I was a regular Sunday-afternoon napper following a long weekend of letting off some steam. On cold, winter days, I used to take naps when I returned home from work (at the terribly early hour of 4:15) until David got home for us to make dinner together (note: there are so many things in that sentence that make me laugh now!). And always, when I'm starting to feel a tickle in my throat or a sniffle in my nose, a good three-hour nap usually knocks out the symptoms, or pushes back the onset of that cold for another week.

When you have children, a nap becomes a precious commodity. The older they get, the more precious they become. That's why today I feel like I've scored a victory—I napped! I feel great! So great that now I'm blogging while Noah finishes his daily mid-afternoon slumber. Ahh... it's the little things in life I love. This is definitely one of them.