so...it's not actually so bad.

thanks for commiserating with me and for all your helpful thoughts on my last post!

we ended up napless on thursday (after an hour and a half of trying to get him to fall asleep), and choi boy was dead asleep at 6:45pm. and stayed asleep until 7am. and it was kind of awesome sauce.

so the next day, we decided to purposely cut out cb's nap. during what would be nap time, we hung out in his room and read books and played quitely. or, rather, cb played quietly while i devoured insurgent. (SO good.) all was well, and it was actually a lot more peaceful than the usual cb-jumps-in-his-bed and i-repeatedly-yell-"go-to-sleep" action that usually took place during nap time.

things started to get a little rough between 4-6pm -- lots of whining, tired irrationality, etc. but, after dinner at 6 and a bath afterwards, we started our bedtime routine and cb was out like a light at 7:05pm, a mere 5 minutes after we put him down. and *gasp* the hubs and i had nearly 4 hours of down time together (read: i read more of insurgent, he surfed the interwebs) before we went to bed ourselves! it was so nice and really restful as opposed to the hour or so we'd get after trying to wrangle cb into his bed and convince him to stop jumping and shouting for 2 hours.

so we tried it again the next day and the day after that and today, too. today was day 5 of no naps and as hard has that late afternoon window can be, cb is sleeping SO much better at night and overall, i think our days have been more peaceful.

today we instituted "quiet time". i let cb pick several books to bring to his bed and told him he could read them or lay down, but that he had to stay quiet and in his room until i came to get him. and you know what? he did SO well. for a little over an hour, he read books quietly and played with his stuffed animals, and when i came to get him, he was as happy as a clam and so proud of himself!

of course, while it's been better than i had anticipated, it is still a little hard not having that long afternoon break (there was some mourning on my part, not gonna lie). however, having that extended time at night is *almost* just as good. and, it is nice to not be bound by nap time when we're out and about...although we will have to think about being out at night with cb, since he'll probably be mr. supercrankypants if he's not asleep by 8pm. we'll see...we're still feeling this out, but so far, it's been a lot less scary than i thought it would be.

because when it's 10:30 and your kid's been asleep for 3 and a half hours and will likely stay asleep for another 9, it really is rather awesome saucy.

or at least that's what i'm telling myself...;)