Bad Nap Day
Daisy took a total of two half-hour naps today.
I was especially disappointed because I had planned to make today an orderly, by-the-sleep-book day; the last few days I've been gallivanting all around the city with Daisy, going on walks and meeting with people, which has been fun for me but which I realized was depriving Daisy of precious nap time. So today was supposed to be different.
Her 9:00 nap lasted *exactly* half an hour. That was discouraging, but I had high hopes for her 1:00 nap. In the meantime, I was proud of myself because I took Daisy in her carrier and caught the bus, went to the bank (where I unfortunately, wincingly, slipped into my bad Royal We habit and said, "We are here to close our CD"), and arrived home just in time to get her to take her 1:00 nap. I thought she'd be exhausted because her morning nap had sucked so much, and I knew I had done everything right and had the timing down perfectly, according to the sleep book expert people.
But that nap lasted half an hour, too.
By the time I tried for a third, late-afternoon nap, she was just laughing at me. As I fed her a meal of winter squash and rice cereal, she chortled at me, alternately slapping her high chair tray raucously and biting on it. Then I took her into the bedroom for sleepy-time nursing, and although she complied by nursing a little, she continued chortling into the boob while alternating squeezing it and slapping it with her hand. Exasperated, I put her in her crib and left the room. She screamed till I couldn't take it anymore. I picked her up and sat in the glider with her, rocking and singing gently. She laughed at me, struggling to sit up while I struggled to keep her in a reclining position on my lap, kicked her legs vigorously, and slapped at the air. I returned her to her crib. She outscreamed me and I came back for her. "Fine. You win," I said grudgingly as I lifted her out of her crib. She had a big, beguiling smile on her face.
I was too fed up to play with her so I stuck her in the Exersaucer for awhile, which was hardly a punishment. Now she is sitting in her Boppy pillow, waving a straw and occasionally scraping it along the sides of the Boppy. What an exhausting child. I honestly don't know how she can get through the day on ONE HOUR of daytime sleep when the books (yeah, yeah, yeah, the books) say she should be getting something like three and a half.
One thing is for sure: I am not buying any more sleep books.
I was especially disappointed because I had planned to make today an orderly, by-the-sleep-book day; the last few days I've been gallivanting all around the city with Daisy, going on walks and meeting with people, which has been fun for me but which I realized was depriving Daisy of precious nap time. So today was supposed to be different.
Her 9:00 nap lasted *exactly* half an hour. That was discouraging, but I had high hopes for her 1:00 nap. In the meantime, I was proud of myself because I took Daisy in her carrier and caught the bus, went to the bank (where I unfortunately, wincingly, slipped into my bad Royal We habit and said, "We are here to close our CD"), and arrived home just in time to get her to take her 1:00 nap. I thought she'd be exhausted because her morning nap had sucked so much, and I knew I had done everything right and had the timing down perfectly, according to the sleep book expert people.
But that nap lasted half an hour, too.
By the time I tried for a third, late-afternoon nap, she was just laughing at me. As I fed her a meal of winter squash and rice cereal, she chortled at me, alternately slapping her high chair tray raucously and biting on it. Then I took her into the bedroom for sleepy-time nursing, and although she complied by nursing a little, she continued chortling into the boob while alternating squeezing it and slapping it with her hand. Exasperated, I put her in her crib and left the room. She screamed till I couldn't take it anymore. I picked her up and sat in the glider with her, rocking and singing gently. She laughed at me, struggling to sit up while I struggled to keep her in a reclining position on my lap, kicked her legs vigorously, and slapped at the air. I returned her to her crib. She outscreamed me and I came back for her. "Fine. You win," I said grudgingly as I lifted her out of her crib. She had a big, beguiling smile on her face.
I was too fed up to play with her so I stuck her in the Exersaucer for awhile, which was hardly a punishment. Now she is sitting in her Boppy pillow, waving a straw and occasionally scraping it along the sides of the Boppy. What an exhausting child. I honestly don't know how she can get through the day on ONE HOUR of daytime sleep when the books (yeah, yeah, yeah, the books) say she should be getting something like three and a half.
One thing is for sure: I am not buying any more sleep books.
posted by Sarah Goss at 4:53 PM
6 Comments:
Alex is 2 months younger, but he takes pretty short naps too. Last weekend, we let him cry for (gasp) 45 minutes, and at the end, all we'd gained was the knowledge that our boy has a very strong will. Then, yesterday, he took a 3-hour nap out of nowhere! What's up with THAT?
I've been conscientiously avoiding reading any sleep books. The couple of times I glanced at them, I quickly realized they'd just make me feel like a failure.
But let me know what this Weissbluth guy says. Everyone says he has the best advice!
Jennifer, I know what you mean! Sometimes Daisy naps for half an hour; other times, she has slept for almost 2 and a half hours. I can't seem to figure out how to control or predict it. And I know what you mean about the sleep books. They make it sound like, if you don't get your baby on a successful sleep program, your baby will have stress and anxiety disorders, ADHD, do terribly in school, have a low IQ...etc. I always feel wracked with anxiety after poking my nose into a sleep book. Sigh. But I haven't given up--I am giving Weissbluth a try. The last few nights have been very, very hard.
Hey, some days you yourself are more tired than others -- why should it be any different with your kid? (Not that I haven't spent days pacing the floor with a baby, desperately saying: "Look, you're TIRED. I can see you're tired. YOU know you're tired. Just go to sleep already. Did you know that sleep is the cure for Tired?")
You definitely have a point, and I would question someone who is following the nap guidelines too rigidly. But I swear to GOD that girl is tired. She definitely falls into the category of the kid who gets wired and semi-hysterical from exhaustion by the end of the day and then has a hard time winding down. Last night she was so tired that she fell asleep in the bath. It was sweetly sad. But I don't know what to do. Maybe I'll just wait till she develops language and then try to reason with her. (Don't laugh! :-)
And how does she sleep at night?
...she WAS sleeping very well at night, from about 7 till about 5 (waking up at 5, nursing, then sleeping till 6 or 7). Lately, she wakes up all over the place during the night, screaming her head off. Woe is me.
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