Napping Problems

by Phil

It's actually quiet right now and I will be honest with you: I'm so worn out that I just want to curl up in the corner and sleep for a year. Since I have a 13 month old son, you know that's not going to happen.

When it comes to kids, all parents, at some point, say something like, "Every time you get a handle on the situation, everything changes." This week is one of those "everything changes" weeks.

Just when it was all going so well! We were like a clockwork machine of happy living. Little tiny elves sang songs about the beauty of our lives. In short, it was glorious.

In my last post, I wrote about how well he's been sleeping. I talked about how he magically points to his crib, we lay him down, and off he goes to have adventures with Little Nemo.

Well, he has decided that he doesn't want to nap. The world is too interesting and he might miss something. You know, Dad might get some work done or the floor might get swept. It's just too riveting! So even though he can barely keep his eyes open and every little thing sets him off like it's the end of the world, he refuses to give in.

The past 5 days or so, I have been treating naptime the same as I always have. I will bounce him for a few minutes to get him drowsy and then lay him down. Within 5 minutes he's babbling loudly and generally talking. His clear aim is for me to come rescue him. (I imagine he's yelling, "I'm missing precious minutes of hindering your productivity!")

Since we use the Ferber Method of sleep training, he's on his own unless he gets upset enough to cry. After 5 minutes of crying, I go in, calm him down and put him back in the crib. If he cries again, he gets 10 minutes before I will go in. The intervals increase accordingly. Up to now, it has worked like gangbusters!

The problem I'm currently having is that he will babble and protest for up to an hour with no crying! He's clearly annoyed but also (mostly) calm. Many times, after an hour the hunger starts taking over because a sufficient amount of time has passed since his bit of grub. Since I won't let him go over an hour at any single nap attempt anyway, I rescue him and give him lunch/snack/whatever. After a break of 30 to 45 minutes, we try again. He's then so tired that he's out like a light.

He's still at the point where he needs two naps a day. When we push the first nap into later morning/early afternoon, it throws the entire rest of the day off because there's not enough space left for a second nap. He gets angry and exhausted by bedtime.

It is possible that he is transitioning from needing two naps to just one. But we're in this ugly gray period where he still needs both to properly function. When there isn't a second nap in a day, things can get tantrumy (I know that's not a word) fast. My laid back kid no longer exists because his schedule is so far off! He's been replaced by some sort of angry, drama-filled alien monster child. Perhaps he's trying out for some sort of Real Toddlers of Richmond reality show. Where are the cameras?

Going in and out of the room for the times that he does cry, worrying about whether I'm doing this properly or not, and generally dealing with this angry toddler is wearing me out!

Luckily, bedtime at night hasn't been a problem. He babbles for a few minutes and just goes to sleep. I don't know what it is about sleeping in the middle of the day but he isn't having any of it.

For now, we're staying firm with the program and giving him as solid a schedule as possible. Hopefully we'll be through this phase soon. I mean, when it comes to babies everything changes, right? So this will have to change too! For the sake of my frayed nerves, I hope it's sooner rather than later. I want my happy-go-lucky child back.

Of course, I am open to any and all advice. How do we adapt to this new situation without destroying all of the sleep training that we've already done? I'm sure I could rock him to sleep every time but I don't want him to completely lose the ability to self-soothe. Grrrrrrrrr.....