Getting Real with Kira Hazledine
Nap time is the best time in my house. As a work-at-home mom, it’s when I get my best work done. I may or may not have also slid in a few naps in my first trimester when I couldn’t keep up with my rambunctious toddler or any of my other responsibilities. There just aren’t enough words for how much I appreciate nap time.
However, shit’s about to get real.
A newborn is about to throw a corkscrew into our routine and I honestly don’t know if I’ll get lucky enough to have two children napping at the same time. By the time one grows into a regular nap schedule, the other will be growing out of naps entirely. My quiet, calm hours of child-free work will probably become nonexistent.
We will have to figure something else out, and I know we will. I’m certainly not the first work-at-home mom to juggle children who aren’t sleeping at convenient times. My toddler will get old enough to manage herself for small windows of time, and hopefully those will coincide with when the baby is sleeping. If the baby sleeps. What if my baby doesn’t sleep?! Does this mean I should start working when the baby works?
I try not to think about that, though. The panic will set in too quickly, and I don’t have time for that. For now, I will cling desperately to nap time. My toddler is still very reliant on her naps, even at 2.5 years old. I don’t see her letting go of those quickly, and I sincerely hope she doesn’t, for my own sanity. I also expect the newborn to sleep a lot, but what do I know? Kids have a way of messing up the best laid plans.
And it’s ok to love nap time, regardless of what category of motherhood you fall into. Whether you spend those precious hours cleaning, working, or simply scrolling through Facebook, you deserve that quiet moment. Nap time serves a purpose to mothers everywhere, and we deserve five seconds to breathe.
I’ll have to play it day by day. Some days will be easier than others, and other days I will be passing both children off to dad when he gets home from work, so I can have two freaking minutes to get something done. It will become a disorganized juggling act, but I assume new routines will sort themselves eventually. They have to. My toddler plays independently because I tell her she doesn’t have a choice. Mommy has shit to do.
It doesn’t come easy. The work-at-home life comes with a ton of challenges, but I wouldn’t trade the upcoming circus act for anything. I’d rather be here managing my circus and my monkeys than leaving my babies at home. I know not everyone has the option to work at home, but I’m thankful that I do. I’ll cling to that thought as tightly as I’m clutching to nap time, and we will see how things go.
