An Unexpected Nap
It happened again. On the way to town, where we had an exciting evening of errand running, prescription picking up and coffee consuming, our daughter nodded off in her car seat. Since she had indulged in her daily after lunch nap already, we figured she would be good to go until we got home, barring any unforeseen diaper changes and feedings.
But about halfway to our first stop, my husband and I noticed that it seemed awfully quiet in the backseat. No longer did we hear the gibberish and squeals that our daughter usually makes when she is back there playing with her toys; no, suddenly we could hear the radio clearly ? and nothing else. I turned my head and looked. Sure enough, her eyes had that glazed over look that only comes before the sleepiness sets in. It wouldn?t be long before her eyelids would begin to get heavy and her head would fall to one side of the headrest. Within a minute, she?d be out.
I turned to my husband. What should we do? If she sleeps now, we?ll never get her to bed.
But if she is tired but doesn?t sleep now, we?ll never get anything done. Had we been home, we simply would have woken her up and tried to get her going again with some music or a favorite toy ? anything to get her back into active play mode so that she would stay awake for the next few hours. But in the car, our hands were tied ? and she was quickly falling into a deeper sleep.
Let?s just let her sleep until our first stop, we decided. So we did, and my husband reached in and gingerly lifted her from her car seat, not waking her up. He carried her into the first store, and noise of being in public gradually woke her up. She smiled up at us, wiggled her way down, and surprised us with a good mood for the rest of the trip. She even went to bed that night on schedule, as usual.
If only we could all be so refreshed after a ten minute nap!
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