I think I could write an entire novel solely based upon the sleep patterns and cycles of Colin. I am sitting here laughing at the crazy road that sleep has been for our little family. I was prompted to write because we have had yet another change in the past couple of weeks.
Colin's nap has been up in the air for months and I would say that he averages around 4 naps a week. He long ago began refusing his bed for naps and I forged ahead with my first trick...watching tv in my bed. Colin and I would snuggle up around nap time to "watch shows" and he would fall asleep while there. That has been our only ticket to naps for several months, so I have held on for all it is worth. On the days that we are not successful, Colin always tries to fall asleep on the couch at around 5pm, which is the worst thing that can happen in toddler land. That basically means you are looking at an 11pm bedtime, but still a 7:15am wake-up call. Regardless of the time Colin goes to bed, he wakes up at 7:15am. ALWAYS. Anyway, slowly but surely, he is rejecting getting in my bed for the TV watching trick. It started out working everyday, then it narrowed to almost everyday and now it is trickling down to not working at all. Which brings me to the latest change...naps on the couch. Now that he does not retreat to my room, he stays in the living room around nap time and I watch him slowly winding down. He will start out sitting on the couch and as he gets sleepy, he will get a blanket and cover up with it. If you ask him if he wants to take a nap, he will protest to high heaven....all the while getting quieter and quieter on the couch. The next thing you know, he is sound asleep. This has been going on more and more often and now he has done it the last three days in a row. It looks like naps have taken on yet another reinvention. It makes me laugh because if you could be a fly on the wall during naps, you would have a blast laughing at me. When Colin took normal naps in his crib/bed, I would hole up in my room. Then he moved to my room and I started to hide out in the living room or office. Now I find myself sitting back here in the office being as quiet as humanly possible, since the precious nap is taking place in the middle of the open house. Sleep is so elusive with Colin and he wakes up so easily that my house must be the picture of silence. Therefore, I have always gotten next to nothing accomplished during naps (oh how I would LOVE to be able to cook dinner!) and now with him in the living room...well, next to nothing is now absolutely nothing. Oh, well. :-) A nap IS a nap, and I am not complaining. But it really is funny to look back on the progression!
In other completely unimportant news, I found the PERFECT sheet set for Colin today! We actually never bought sheets for his big boy bed and have been using old queen sized sheets. I did not want to buy just any old sheets...I needed something awesome to match his cabin/lodge themed room. You would be surprised how hard that is to find! I am so glad that I held out because I finally stumbled on some today! AT TARGET! They are covered in bear paws, tents, camp fires, grizzly bears, cabins and compasses! I am probably a little too excited about this, but it's the little things! ;-)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
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2 comments:
Chalna, have you read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book? It has honestly been my saving grace, and they have a large portion dedicated to toddlers. It is not only about babies. I hope it helps you because that is so hard!!!
Oh girl...I too, could write a novel on sleep patterns regarding Schafer. The nap is basically a non-entity at our house...and we're down to sleep at night only. Honestly, he usually sleeps pretty fabulously once you GET HIM to sleep (which is really the only thing that saves my sanity - if he woke up multiple times after going to sleep I probably would be committed somewhere.) So...that is the hard part for us...bedtime sometimes sounds like mass murder around here and I am quite certain we have done everything humanly possible to cure his sleep ills. I think sometimes it just has to be chalked up to the child, ya know? And ya just have to do whatever the heck works...(i.e. naps on the couch ;-)!)
On that note, I pray fervently every night that Anderson will sleep like a dream because I certainly feel like I deserve it! I'll certainly pray the same for you when it comes that time. Ha!
AND, I think it's so ironic that you found the perfect sheet set at Target because I JUST today found the perfect quilt for Schafer's bed at Target too! I was fretting because I've made a last minute decision to have the boys share a room and convert the other room into a playroom. I resisted for awhile, but now that we're moving ahead with this plan I can see it's going to work out MUCH better than converting a whole bedroom to a nursery that will rarely get used for the next several months. Anyway, I already had a bit of a them in mind for Andy's stuff so I was elated to find the quilt for S at Target that I think will go great! Funny the things that excite us these days, no?
And Good Lord - I should have sent this in an e-mail or something. I get the award for oversharing in the comments section for sure!
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