2. Hold on to the holy nap
You may not be able to completely avoid stress, but you can give yourself a few breaks. The afternoon nap is your most important aid. Some parents give up their nap very quickly. They hope that this will make their children more tired in the evening and fall asleep faster. Some even hope that this will help their children sleep better through the night. This can work, but most of the time it doesn’t.
Children who sleep too little then have even more difficulties falling and staying asleep. Even if it contradicts our logic: A child can be too tired and therefore fall asleep more difficult. Not to mention her bad mood, which also affects mom’s stress levels.
Until children are around 5 years old, they still benefit greatly from an afternoon nap. You wake up refreshed because your body and mind have had time to regenerate and process what you have experienced before. But older children also need some recovery time. So even if you have already outgrown your afternoon nap, you will benefit from an afternoon rest period.
A fixed ritual helps children to hold onto their afternoon nap. You can put them in their little bed, dim the lights, read them a story, and let a music box play soothing background noises like raindrops or the sound of the sea. These background noises help them block out everyday noise and relax. In this way we enable you to have a relaxing and long nap – just the thing for mom and child.
A music box can be a very good helper. It plays soft noises and melodies and emits soothing light. This is how it can help your child fall asleep.