Blessed

Colin has been having a rough week with naps probably due to teething. He has not been taking a nap at all for days and with each day he has been more exhausted. This has resulted in poor sleeping at night and early wake-ups. Today he finally took a decent nap, so I am really hoping he sleeps better tonight! Colin's nap is also my only time to shower, get dressed, brush my teeth, return emails, breathe...you know, the basics. :-) It is very nice to have clean hair.

Despite his lack of naps and extremely swollen gums, he has been as happy as ever. Colin is a smiley faced little man who brings me limitless amounts of joy. He runs around this house laughing and smiling all day long. Shannon told me today about someone who might lose his newborn son and it has reminded me very intensely how lucky that I am to have such a precious healthy light in my life. God has blessed me so much and I am thankful for sweet Colin every single day!

I am "SO OLD".

We have had two days of rain here and two days of trying to find fun things to do that don't involve a park. Yesterday Colin slept in until 7:30am (which might as well be noon to us) and therefore took only one nap. I took him to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and to play in their playroom. He is obviously still too small to actually climb in those, but he loves to watch other kiddos. We sat facing the kids and Colin and I shared a lunch. Afterwards we went into the playroom, which is closed off from the dining room. I was the only mom inside and a little boy immediately walked up to me. The following conversation ensued:

Boy: Hi. I'm 5.

Me: Wow! What a big boy!

Boy: My little brother is 3.

Little Brother: I am THREE!! THREE! THREE! THREE!

Me: You are both big boys!

Boy: My mom and dad are getting married. Again. (rolls eyes)

Me: well. that is nice. (shifts in seat)

Boy: You look a lot younger than my mom.

Me: OH. MY. ER.

Boy: How old are you?

Me: I am 31.

Boy: (immediately becomes pale and his jaw slacks to the floor) 31?!?!?! That is SOOO OLD.

Me: I know. It really is.

Boy: Yeah. REALLY.

I laughed almost the whole way home. I especially loved finding out his parents were getting married. Again. ;-)

I HEART NAPS

Naps are my nemesis. Colin has been belligerently tired for days now. He has been crying, fussy, and generally extremely unhappy. This is not like Colin in the least and I have been so worried about him. It seemed that every day without two naps, things just got worse. Yesterday was a particularly rough day with Colin and I both so physically exhausted that the memory of the day is hazy. Today, I woke up on a mission. I decided that Colin was taking a morning nap and I was going to do everything that I could to make it happen. He woke up for the day at 6:20am and I put him down for his nap at 9:00. He protested loudly. I went back in a couple of times to replace his pacifier that he had thrown angrily across the room. After 30 minutes, I took his clean blankets out of the dryer and took them into his crib. It was so funny...he cried for another 30 seconds, realized that I had given him deliciously toasty warm clean blankies, and fell promptly to sleep. He slept for two solid hours. He woke up in a wonderful mood! We had lunch together and got our Monday grocery shopping all done with no problems. Colin was adorable and happy for the whole trip, even back to showing his dimples to anyone who would look at him. We got home and after putting all the groceries away, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try for his regular afternoon nap too. He went right down. I was really blown away. He then slept for almost two more hours. The poor little man was beyond exhausted. After waking up, he was a joy all evening. He let me cook dinner, played with his Daddy and Enzo, and laughed all night long. He ate a nice big dinner, did not cry at all, and then went right to bed at 7:30 0n the dot. So what does this mean? I DON'T KNOW! I am so confused. I just don't know where we are heading with this. I will be putting Colin down again tomorrow for the morning nap on time and play the day by ear. He was obviously in desperate need for sleep. I get the feeling that he is probably going to go back to the old schedule until he is well rested again and then go back to fighting two naps. I guess this will work itself out, but I sure do hope it does not take too long. It is hard to plan our days when I don't know what naps are going to be like, not to mention that when Colin does not nap properly, he is in such a fussy mood that I can't really run errands like I normally would. Not to mention that the poor baby is wearing himself out. I guess time will tell.

Naps Continued...

I need to send out a great big thank you for all the comments about the naps. I find it incredibly helpful!!!! After hearing from you all, I see that Colin is right on track with the timing of losing the second nap. I have been really nervous to start the schedule change officially, but I see that it is time and I need to go ahead and follow his cues. Yesterday was the same pattern...he showed signs of being tired, but when put in his crib for the first nap, he refused to sleep. After an hour of playing in the crib, I took him back out. He was awake for maybe two hours and then finally passed out for an afternoon nap that was one hour long. Once again he had a fussy night and went to bed shortly after 7pm. Today I waited until about 10:15 to put him down. (the normal morning nap starts at 9:00). I rushed to take a shower thinking that he would probably not go down, but after 30 minutes of crib play, he did finally go to sleep. He slept until 11:45. I doubt that he will take a second nap, which will mean a fussy evening. Tomorrow I think I will attempt to push the nap until after 11:00am. If he could get two hours, I know he will be less upset in the late afternoon. I am going to try an hour of quiet crib time this afternoon and hope he will relax for a bit at least. Do you all have crib toys? Colin sleeps with two small stuffed animals. Maybe I should add a couple of toys in there to encourage quiet play. What do ya'll think?

We are also dealing with what I suppose is separation anxiety. Colin has stopped allowing me to put him down at all anymore. I can't decide if this is from being tired or not...but I cannot let go of him without major tears. He will walk around me crying the entire time I am trying to make dinner. The entire time. Jer usually gets home when I am finishing up dinner and Colin would play with him while I got everything done. Now he won't even do that...he simply wants me and that is it. In a complete show of desperation, I opened the back door last night and left it wide open while I made mashed potatoes. Colin was pleased as punch to step up and down from the house to the patio and it gave me a brief reprieve to finish my task. There were 10 flies to kill once I got the door shut, but I swear it was worth it. :-)

Naps and Fall Fun

Things are interesting around here at the moment. Colin is on the road to losing his second nap for sure now and I feel like I am just along for the ride at the moment. We have been having all sorts of nap battles for at least the last month. Some days are great and he takes two naps like always, but then lots of days are not so good and he takes one nap and battles the other one. The last 4 days have seen Colin skipping the morning nap. Before that, it was the afternoon nap that he would skip. If Colin is going to one nap now, I need to start helping him move that nap to the middle of the day. When he wakes up from a nap at 11:00am, it is far too long a stretch to be awake until 7:00pm and he gets really upset for the last two hours of the day. We have been experiencing a lot of fussy baby evenings around here lately. I am going to keep trying to follow my instinct and put him in bed if he is showing signs of being tired. He is fighting these naps tooth and nail, but I know he still needs them if he is getting that fussy by 5pm. I think my only option at this point is to hang on for the ride and keep trying to get him sleep. I can certainly see the difference switching up his schedule is making. He has woken up twice this week in the middle of the night, which he has not done since May. Colin is textbook....when sleep schedules get messed with, he starts night waking.

Yesterday Colin and I went on another picnic in the park and it was actually chilly in the shade!! I had us sitting at our usual table under the trees and ended up having to move into direct sunlight because it was too cool for Colin in his shorts!! How great is that?!?! Last night I made dinner with all the windows in the kitchen and living room open and Colin played on the patio with Jer with I cooked. It was so wonderful. Last night we even slept without the air on! I found a local farm that is tucked away behind our neighborhood (I can't believe this place exists and I just now found out!) and I plan to take Colin over to check it out today or tomorrow. This weekend we are taking him to the Pumpkin Patch (if the rain holds off), so we have a lot of fun outdoor activities to do in the next few days. I love fall!!!

The Lord of Sleep

It should be noted that it is 4:47 and Colin is still asleep. His afternoon nap is running nice and late because he fought it for an hour. It actually came down to me rocking him for 15 minutes just to calm him down because he was screaming bloody murder. This is the second day in a row that his afternoon nap has been a mess and this has caused me to start thinking about this nap business yet again. He has officially been asleep since 3:35, so I know he needed the sleep. Colin is one of those little ones who needs lots of sleep and I feel like his rest is my mission in life sometimes. Yesterday, I gave up the fight and it resulted in a cranky and overall unhappy baby. Today I stuck with it, including going back in to rock him and settle him instead of letting him just throw away the nap. In about 5 minutes I am going to be forced to open his door and start making noise so that he will get up. He should have been asleep at 2pm, but at least he got a nap in. I hope this late nap does not totally destroy bedtime. It is a slippery slope, I tell you! I am the lord of sleep. :-)

On another note, we have news to celebrate in my family! My sister Meredith got engaged over the weekend!! We all adore her fiance and are so excited. He fits in with our family like he has always been around, and that is saying a lot since we are a bunch of nuts. :-) I am thrilled to get a new brother-in-law! Congratulations, Mert and Cory!!

The Nap

Colin slept through the night again last night and let me tell you, I am one happy camper. I am slowly starting to become a normal woman again...it is amazing what a few consecutive nights of sleep will do for you. I am embarrassed to say that I went almost 10 months without more than 3 hours of sleep. So I am really glad that things are finally coming around. My new problems is naps. Everything I read says they are critical and super important. The good nap is the cornerstone of a well rested, happy, smart child. Now that Colin is getting such good sleep at night, he is really confused about nap time. I now see that he was taking such great naps during the day because he was getting horrible sleep at night! His naps this week have been all over the place...some 20 minutes long, others 2 hours. He took a two hour nap this morning and is currently crying in his crib rather than take his afternoon nap. After I finish this post, I will go to him and I guess this nap just ain't happening! We will keep at it....I know I can somehow get this all figured out. Is sleep this hard for anyone else?!

Don't get me wrong...I will take nap problems over night sleep problems any day of the week!! THANK GOODNESS!! :-)