Oh the joy that lives in my heart!

Adriano (almost 14 months) has decided he wants to go from two naps a day to one. This means he can now go to sleep at the same time as his older brother, Luca (2 years)! Let me tell you what this means to me, as I wipe happy tears away.

I’d like to start by sharing what my day looked like as Captain Mommy of the Sleep Police. (By the way, Luca gave me the title Captain Mommy. He uses it when I’m stern with him.  “OK, Captain Mommy!” he says. It’s both funny and antagonizing.) Anyway, back to our day. Adriano would wake up from his morning nap the exact minute that Luca went down for his nap. Then when Luca woke up, Adri went down for his second nap. Sounds ok, right? Only one baby to keep track of. Wrong. Very wrong.

This meant I was keeping one from waking the other the entire day. Between Luca’s terrible two tantrums and Adri’s delight in watching me freak out as he stands outside sleeping Luca’s door screaming, I was exhausted. (Adri and I even ended up spending Luca’s naps in my room with the door shut — two and a half hours, mind you — because he wouldn’t stop trying to wake him!)

Not only was I tired of going around with my finger in front of my lips, saying “Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!” all day, it also meant that we were housebound most days. This nap process took from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and left time for little else. After all this carefully guarded napping, by the time we got ready to go somewhere we had less than two hours until Adri’s bedtime! And that’s not even counting squeezing dinner in. And who had the energy after all that anyway?

So these boys taking naps at the same time is a big deal for me. I told my husband I’m more excited about this than I would be for a new car — or in our case minivan. Not only will we be able to make a daily outing, I get a whole hour and a half to myself in the middle of the day! I still can’t wrap my mind around it.

With my newfound freedom, I could:

• watch something on TV that isn’t animated
• eat cookies without sneaking them
• do a devotional
• go to the bathroom by myself
• catch up on some work during the day instead of staying up late
• yoga (probably won’t, but I could)
• blog about how happy I am my kids are napping at the same time

Raising these two boys out of baby and toddlerhood is the most challenging/frustrating/not-quite-all-that-rewarding-yet things I have ever done. And as I lay my sleep captain’s badge down, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell other mothers who had their babies close together that inch by inch it’s getting a little easier. Take victory in the small steps!