My daughter is 3 years old now. That means that, for the most part, for 3 years (and a couple months) every time this child has needed to nap or sleep, I’ve been with her, rocking her, holding her hand, watching her eyelids get heavier as she drifts off to sleep. It’s a beautiful thing watching a sleepy toddler drift off into a peaceful sleep. It means she’s relaxed, calm, comfortable, and—well, I’ll be honest, it means I will have at least a few moments of time when I can just sit in peace. Just a few moments before either she wakes up from an afternoon nap or before I have to hit the hay myself. During that time, I don’t have to answer “But.. Why!? Why is there a moon? Why is it night? Why does the pool close when it’s dark? Why can’t we just go swimming anyway? Why? Why? WHY?” A few moments of not pretending to eat plastic food or reading the same story I’ve read aloud 14 times already today. A few moments to do things I like to do, things I once took for granted like showering, eating lunch, answering emails, or spending some much needed time on my yoga mat.
I love my girl more than anything in the entire world, but being a parent is draining in every way. So I won’t apologize for looking forward to nap and bedtime so much that any resistance to sleep sends me dangerously close to a nervous breakdown. This is especially true if the resistance comes at a high stress time already (and, of course, that’s exactly when these things always seem to happen.)
Every yoga mama knows that yoga can really help to calm a restless mind and body, so I don’t know why it took me so long to start integrating yoga into my little one’s bedtime and nap time routines. It doesn’t always work, but it has helped make bedtime a much more pleasant process for both of us.
Here’s what has made a big difference for us. Let me know what works for you!
Add a calming kids yoga book to your nighttime routine. There’s no reasoning with a toddler. So when my sweet one says “Can’t I just skip my nap today?” I’ve given up on explaining all the reasons why rest is important. Instead I’ve started reaching for my newest sleepy time tool, a new book by Miriam Gates, Good Night Yoga: A Pose-by-Pose Bedtime Story. This book has beautiful illustrations of children practicing yoga poses. My daughter absolutely loves making the shapes along with them while I read, which I think is key because it lets her work off any excess energy she has before she settles in to rest. We both laugh every time she falls out of Tree Pose (“This is a hard one!,” she says with a laugh.)
Guide her into a restorative pose. My little one loves putting her Legs up the Wall (or in this case, up the side of her toddler bed) before she transitions into actually laying down in it.
Lead her in a guided visualization. The best part about Good Night Yoga is the visualization at the end of the book, which takes her on an adventure floating through the sky. I use my soothing “yoga teacher voice,” add a few more descriptions to make it longer (she always suggests additional details, too), and if it doesn’t put her to sleep by the time we’re done, I definitely notice a calmer, more relaxed kid who is much closer to drifting off to sleep than before we started.
Encourage slow, deep breaths. I often use the Even Wave of Breath technique described by Yoga International writer Mira Binzen here (there are some other good tips there, too!). I don’t have any origami boats (and I have no interest in adding origami to my to-do list), so I just ask my wee one to imagine her belly is a body of water and there’s a tiny sailboat resting on her belly button. I explain that every breath she takes makes a wave, so it’s important to make the breaths slow and steady—that way the tiny people in the tiny boat won’t get wet or thrown overboard.
When all else fails, try compassion. Some nights my daughter just can’t go to sleep. Other nights, she drifts off, only to sit up and whine the second I tip toe to the door to try to leave the room. Those night when I can’t get away sometimes make me want to scream out in exasperation. Of course, that doesn’t help anything. So I try to take a few deep breaths myself, remember what it was like to be an energetic kid in a world full of wonder and excitement, and love her even more. That makes me a calmer, happier mom.
See also …
The Reality of Morning Exercise with a Toddler
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