A couple of weeks ago I decided that the no-napping situation was unacceptable and I was going to "Implement a Routine" and I was going to "Be Strong" and "Not Give In" and "Make Him Nap" "Even if it kills me." I had read so much about babies sleeping better at night when they nap during the day and, selfishly, I thought about all the great free time I could have during these wonderful, long, luxurious naps to, I don't know, shower? Clean the bathroom? Pee alone?
*Insert Laughter Here*
Well, Jack had other ideas regarding this routine-thingy and I spent the bulk of most days wandering around the house like this:
Sure, he would go to sleep at least once, maybe twice a day, but only while in the sling. He would rarely stay asleep once I put him in the crib and even if he did, 15-20 minutes later, there he would be:
NOT SLEEPING!
Additionally, he began sleeping really poorly at night. And by poorly I mean waking up every 2-3 hours like clockwork and giving Chris and I bad flashbacks of January and we did NOT want to ever feel that way again, thank you very much. In my sleep-deprived haze, I started going over and over what I could be doing wrong, or maybe he was teething, or maybe he was regressing and would never sleep through the night again, Oh My God!
Luckily, this weekend, I finally realized that the whole no sleeping at night thing began very close to the same time I started implementing the daytime routine and decided to drop the daytime thing and just let Jack be Jack once again and let me know when he wanted to eat and sleep and poop, you know, the basic things that babies are really good at. And it has gone amazingly well. I had to break down and realize that Jack is Opposite Baby and there is nothing I can do about it. He likes and dislikes (almost exclusively) the exact opposite of what other babies like and dislike and I have to just embrace that and let Jack be Jack and we are all much happier for it. He doesn't need a lot of sleep during the day, the occasional cat nap after a meal gets him through just fine and then it's back to playing
and watching TV with Daddy
and wearing his bib like a cape.
and we are all much much happier now.
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