No More Afternoon Siesta, Already… Really?

In Spain, everyone shuts down after lunch.  Businesses close, restaurants stop serving and in the summers many companies even have what they call “summer hours” where employees come to work early (around 7 or 7:30am) and then end for the day at 1pm, have a long wine-filled lunch and then rest for a while after, siesta.  So why is my soon to be 28 month old toddler on the verge of giving up afternoon naps forever?  I guess the fact I don’t feed her any wine at lunch could contribute to the issue, but still… I need that nap time to work and on the days I don’t have any work, I need that nap time to decompress, to have my own little couple of hours to myself.  No more afternoon nap is detrimental to my work schedule and my sanity, but then again what am I to do?  On the days she does nap, it takes hours to get her to go to sleep at night with battles sometimes lasting until past 11pm!  If she skips naps, sometimes the late afternoons are filled with tears and tantrums and I’m not just talking about Alexa’s tears and tantrums.  Good news is when afternoon naps are skipped, night time is a breeze.  She is out within 10 minutes after closing our last bedtime story freeing up more time for me to get work done or to connect with my hubby.  We are in a transitional phase, again.  Let’s face it, it really doesn’t matter if I am not ready for Alexa to give up her afternoon nap, she IS ready to give it up so I need to quickly learn to adapt.