No Nap!

I must admit to being a little worried.  Naomi ages out of the Early Intervention program when she turns three at the end of October and moves into the  public school system.  She will be joining an IU8 preschool class that runs from 12:30 to 3pm, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Fortuitously, or maybe not, Naomi naps from about 1 to 4pm most days!  Hm.  Naomi's naps are very important to me.  First of all, I like her to be very well rested.  She functions much better and is much easier to manage.  Secondly, and maybe just as importantly, they give me a nice, big, two to three hour break in the middle of the day.  I really, really, really need this break!  Naomi is 100% dependent for all of her care and activities...from drinking to playing to, ah, waste management, she needs not even just assistance, but full attendance, for everything.  It is, to say the least, exhausting and, yes, wearying, too.  So I am concerned about how her school schedule is going to impact her sleep and, with that, my ability to cope.  We have been visiting her classroom every Friday afternoon for the past few weeks.  Naomi has a hard time adjusting to new people and places, so I am trying to ease her through this transition.  The first two visits I took her at 3pm, waking her early from her nap to go to school.  But as I am trying to shift her naps later, I decided to take her at 1pm today.  I can't take her any earlier because there is a Head Start class in her room in the morning.  Well, she fell asleep at school, and stayed asleep when I put her in the car, for the whole ride home, and then did not even stir when I put her into her bed to finish her nap.  Or so I thought.  Naomi usually wakes up when you get her out of the car and then won't nap anymore, but seeing as how she stayed asleep, I thought, okay, GREAT, this is going to work.  Not so much.  After five minutes I heard a loud thump.  Then another 30 seconds of silence, and then thunderous kicking.  Loud delighted squealing.  Extensive laughing.  So I gave it an hour.  And for an hour, Naomi carried on in her bed, most clearly not sleeping.  Then she seemed to be settling down.  And then she called for me.  Thinking maybe she needed a fresh diaper, I went to check on her.  Diaper is fine.  I tell her she needs to nap.  I wait another half hour, during which there were long-ish stretches of silence during which I would think, finally, back to sleep...only to be followed by laughing, squealing or kicking.  So I decided to get her up.  Clearly, the idea that she would fall back asleep was completely preposterous.  When I got her, her eyes were very tired, but she was showing no interest in sleeping.  So I decided to put her in her stander to watch shows while wearing her eye patch, which was met with a big, sad face and loud, offended crying. Because while she was showing no interest in sleeping, she was also very tired, and thus, very cranky.  So I decided to have her do this instead:

Yes, that is a big, spoiled Little Bear wearing her patch and watching shows while reclining royally on the couch, draped luxuriously under a soft, pink, blanket.  What else are you supposed to do with an extremely tired, extremely emotionally precarious, but extremely cute, girl?