Nap resistance

Apparently this is genetic - and inherited from the mother. My mom has told me on numerous occasions that Kendall and I did not nap growing up. In some ways then, I am getting what I deserve with my children. We'll go case by case:

Keeley - REFUSED to nap for the first 2 months of her life. She would then nap for 45 minutes at a time sporadically and unpredictably for the next 10 months. Shortly after that, her naps developed to be about an hour and she would take one in the morning and one in the afternoon. However, this was still fairly unpredictable. On the days that she did not nap, she was exceptionally grumpy. Shortly after Kayden was born, she started being a great napper. She would go down at 9 and 1 and nap for 1 hour each time. Other kids nap longer, but at least she was predictable. Then, we started to drop the morning nap. Everyone I talked to said to do so gradually. This didn't work with Keeley. It doesn't matter what time you put her down, she will now only take 1 nap a day and it is only 50-60 minutes long. Other kids take 2 and 3 hours naps. Not my firstborn.

Kayden - Napped in the moby wrap for the first few weeks. We then tranistioned her to her crib swaddled. Her naps were short, but she would sleep with realtively little fuss. Then, at 8 weeks, I started putting her down unswaddled. I watched for sleepy signs, did the same routine, and put her down. She would fuss a little but usually would go to sleep pretty easily - and nap for a whopping 40 minutes at a time. This weekend, she decided she didn't want to nap. Nothing changed in our procedure, she just decided she was over it. Today she napped for a TOTAL of 1 hour and 10 minutes - and that was split over 4 naps. In fact, at one point, Keeley and I were both napping and Kelly took her in the living room and she passed out on the floor.

Now, I know many of you will have suggestions for me. Let me just tell you that she knows how to sleep on her own - we have always put her down awake. In fact, we put her to bed this evening and I listened to her happily talk to herself for 15 minutes before finally deciding to go to sleep. I'm also okay listening to her cry. Nap time is the only time she cries (unless big sister has dropped something on her or spilled something on her...) so I can handle it if she cries then. She just doesn't go to sleep. Apparently, both our kiddos are just too interested in their worlds to take naps.