40 Minute Nap Problems - Vanished?

I thought I would put up a short post on our struggle with the infamous 40 minute nap, as made famous first by Cole and now by Vera.  With Cole I was able to elongate his naps through a combination of utilizing the swing (to transition him more smoothly through sleep cycles) and also just with time (ugh).  Vera was headed down the path for the past few weeks, and although her disposition is almost always sweet, it was making it very difficult for me to get anything done given that I only had 30-40 minute increments to work with.  I will say, however, that I did not have children for my own convenience, and so I was really trying to go into all of it with a positive attitude, knowing that it was merely a developmental phase.

I did notice that Vera's room was pretty bright during the day and wondered if that was contributing to the early wake-ups.  You see, back in Indy we bought Cole blackout panels for his room in the throes of his sleep regression, trying to "fix" all of the issues we were having.  I thought "what the heck" and bought Vera two grey tie-up shades for her two windows.  I have been absolutely amazed at the results.  WE HAVE OFFICIALLY KICKED THE 40 MINUTE NAP OUT OF OUR HOUSE!  Hopefully it is for good.  Vera is now taking 3 2-hour naps, on average.  Sometimes they are 1.5 hours...sometimes 3.5 hours (yeah, that was crazy), but much MUCH longer than before.

Word to the wise: if your child sleeps fairly long stretches at night but is having a hideous time with short naps, buy the dang blackout shades.  Worst case scenario is that you are out some cash...but at least you have some curtains to show for it.