Four hour naps

Just snoozin’.

When was the last time you took a four hour nap? Probably the day after that day you did too much day drinking. Or maybe never. Because most of us call a four hour nap NIGHTTIME.

Not my son.

On multiple occasions I’ve gotten the little notes back from the daycare, letting me know that I’ve been paying them to watch my kid sleep for half the day. I mean, I’m all for allowing my boy’s natural circadian rhythms dictate his nap schedule, but four hours seems ridiculous. So I did what every new and confused first time parent does. I emailed the doctor.

She got me hooked up with some kind of child sleep specialist, which I didn’t even know was a thing. And guess what? As it turns out, four hour naps are just nighttime. I also learned some interesting stuff about baby sleep cycles. Educational moment, engage.

An infant’s sleep cycle is about three hours. The first 20 minutes or so are a light REM sleep, followed by about an hour or more of deep sleep, and then concluding with another 20 minutes of light sleep. Usually, that’s when baby realizes I’M HUNGRY and wakes up for some kind of 2 a.m. milk bender. But in some cases the desire for food is no match for the desire to snooze. And baby puts himself back to bed. So, apparently the cacophony of toy slamming and baby crying is just what E needs to be lulled back to sleep.

Now here’s the awkward part. I have to tell daycare to wake up my kid after 3 hours. I’m not what you’d call a confrontational person, and I’m dreading the conversation. I want to get my point across, but I don’t want it to seem like I’m blaming them for anything. So, I’m looking for a response that’s appropriately mama bear, without razor sharp claws. How do you folks approach this kind of thing?