One small step for mommy

I did it people, I put my foot down and re-instated the nap today. Small fry has not been napping for maybe a month now. I don't really know how it happened because she has always had a nap. I think it was when she hit a stubborn streak and it just became a battle and it was really hard to fight that battle with a little baby in tow (as she wasn't fully scheduled either) and I was exhausted and so I just said "to heck with the nap then" and really she did okay most days but the evening hours on the days that she wasn't doing okay were horrendous. I made up for the lost nap by putting her to bed earlier which was fine also because she was exhausted and I welcomed a little extra peace in the evening and occasionally we would take her for a drive in the afternoon which always put her to sleep and then she would sleep longer once in her bed but most days were just long and had some degree of crankiness. I knew she was still needing to nap but every time I mentioned the word she would just burst out crying and screaming "no nap, mama, I no like naps no more," and I wasn't prepared to face the battle again. Why? Well to be honest I think I was scared. Not scared that she could hurt me or something but scared of her explosive reaction and how horrible it made me feel. The last time it happened (when I decided to just give it up) I felt like a complete failure as a mother. As I kept putting her back in her bed, with her screaming and crying I just kept feeling like I was not capable of being a good mom because a good mom would not be in this position (so I thought at the time). I don't know who was more broken down by the episode-her or me.
Well things finally came to a halt today because I couldn't take the crankiness any longer and I decided that no matter how big the battle I wasn't going to lose my cool and she was going to have a nap. So I just kept mentioning it throughout the morning, and I tried to play her out as much as possible and when the time came I told her after her nap she could choose a show to watch and a snack to have and despite her initial resistance, fiddling around and crying, I persisted, stayed firm, read the stories and said "night night" and......she said "night night" back and stayed in her bed and fell asleep. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? And in classic "my life" luck, my little pumpkin decided that she did not want to be asleep at the same time, but I persisted with her too and enjoyed nothing but the hum of my sewing machine for almost an hour. Wow. It feels so good. Cannot believe it went so smoothly. I can only hope it goes as smooth again tomorrow.