Naps.
I love them. I try to at least lay down for a little while every day. (No, this does not include the 2 hours I spend on the couch in the morning some days.)
Naps.
Blake hates them. He pulls out all the stops when it comes to nap time. "Mommy rock?", "Change diaper?" "Eww yucky!" (This one is to get me to come into his room to see what is yucky. Usually there's nothing yucky.) Blake used to be so good at just laying down and taking a nap. He would drift happily off to dreamland and would be out for a good 2 hours. Our recent visit to VA has wrecked any hope of those days returning. Now he cries for about 45 minutes until I come in and rock him to sleep. Then he sleeps for about an hour.
And it's killing me. Mean, scary, I'm-going-to-lock-myself-in-the-bathroom-and-turn-the-hair-dryer-on-to- drown-out-the-sound-of-him-screaming mommy is making a daily appearance and I hate it. I try to be upbeat about nap time. I try to just act like he's going to go down easily. But 45 minutes of screaming every day at nap time really wears on a person. And there's no way in you know what that I'm about to let my 26 month old give up the one nap he takes a day. He definitely needs a nap. This is not a case of me just needing a break and forcing him to take a nap.
I've been hesitant to seek any advice for the situation online. I feel like I was always on the computer researching how to solve some sort of issue when Blake was little or trying to find out if he was hitting his milestones. I'm kind of over that 2 years into motherhood. But today I decided to google, "2 year old refuses to nap" and even though the advice was exactly what I thought it was going to be, it was comforting. It's not out of the ordinary for toddlers to refuse to nap. And you just have to be consistent, calm, and firm. (I've been lacking the calm and exhibiting extreme firmness.)
So, it's going to end. Well, the screaming will continue, but the coddling when it comes to nap time is ending today. I have a plan. It does not involve rocking because that's one way Blake stalls. It will mostly likely involve lots of crying and screaming. But that's no different than what's been going on the past 3 weeks, so I've got to change something.
My hope is that he'll remember with this new routine that nap time is for sleeping and that if he isn't going to do that then he'll have to sit in his crib until nap time is over.
Heaven help us, because if this doesn't work, I may just have to invest in a good pair of ear plugs. Maybe my old neighbor will be able to recommend some... ;)
3 comments:
There is nothing worse than children who won't nap (or do "quiet time" quietly) when you're pregnant. I really hope for your sake that your plan works. Be firm and don't give in and hopefully he'll come around sooner rather than later. My fingers are crossed for you!
Ky changed nap time about the age from 10a.m. To about 2. Have you tried bumping it back a bit? Obviously it depends on how tired he is by nap time, but now I let kyler sleep when he wants to, because he will crash eventually. If he gets cranky I make him go straight to bed though. Good luck, let's just hope it's a phase!
This one baby in the infant room at work is almost impossible to get to sleep. Some days I just give up and let her play in her crib. She usually ends up jumping up and down and bumping her crib into the wall to get me to come over and play. Then as I approach in irritation, she crawls to the other end of the crib really fast and looks back with a playful smile. She thinks it's a game!!
Post a Comment