Sleeeeeepytime

Lauren has decided that she doesn't want to nap. She clearly needs a nap, but she doesn't want to take one. I know that she needs one because if I put her in the car any time after about 11:30 in the morning she conks right out. Some days she climbs up next to me on the couch and tries to snooze around 5pm, but that's no good because then she doesn't fall asleep until way too late at night.

When the doctor asked about naps last week I told her what was going on, and she suggested making a sticker chart for Lauren to encourage her to take naps. If she goes for a nap and at least stays in her bed until I come get her, then she gets a sticker. Every so-many stickers earns some kind of reward. I thought that was a good idea.

So, today I told her she needed to take a nap. She protested. I explained that if she went to take a nap, when she woke up I'd have a surprise for her. She did get into her bed and stay there, although for the first twenty minutes or so she said "I need mom" about 70,000 times. But! She did stay put! And she did fall asleep!

While she was out, I made her sticker board. I wrote "Lauren's Rewards" across the top in bubble letters and colored them in, and then I made a column that says "Nap Time". To the right of where it says "Nap Time" I taped a piece of paper with 5 squares on it, numbered 1,2,3,4,5. (Jeff observed me making this the whole time, and kept trying to grab the markers while I was working on it.)

As it was getting close to the time for her to be waking up, I went into her room and hung the poster on her wall. She woke up as I was putting the last piece of tape on it.

She hopped out of bed and came over to me, and the poster. She looked at it, a little bleary from her nap, and said, "That says Lauren." I said yes, it does, and told her that it says "Lauren's Rewards" and that a reward is something that you get for doing good things. She nodded.

Then she walked up to get a closer look at the poster. She looked at it for a moment, and then turned to me and said, "Did you put this up here, mom?" I said, "Yes, I did." She nodded, and said, "That was very nice, mom."

I explained that she'd get a sticker every time she listened to me and cooperated by taking a nap, and staying in her bed. I told her that when she gets 5 stickers, she can take the coupon and use it to go to the store (Target) and pick out one animal for her barn. She nodded.

I think she understands the concept. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

There's room below "Nap Time" for other sticker-worthy things. I'm thinking that "Bed Time" and "Brushing Teeth" might go on there, as well as a "Special" category for miscellaneous rewardable things.