lack of sleep?

Yes, I am severely short on sleep, and I don't see that improving anytime soon.  But, I'm not going to talk about me.  This poor guy started fighting his naps, and even though that has gotten a lot better (we aren't giving up his nap, yet!), he still gets up WAY too early.  This has caused him to fall asleep at 10:00 or 12:00 while watching a show, fall asleep while shopping at Meijer, and even today he fell asleep on the way home from picking up Andrew at preschool.  He was up before 6 this morning.  It's 2 pm and he hasn't had lunch yet.  I don't know what to do with him.  We have gone back to the 7 o'clock (or close to it) bedtime after experimenting with an 8 o'clock bedtime after Daylight Savings (Austin continued to wake up just as early even when we put him down later), bu the early bedtime still isn't enough.  He needs a solid 12 hours of sleep at night and a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon.  How do I make him sleep??  Or better yet, how do I keep him from waking up so early insisting on staying up? 

 

It's Over

I keep trying to tell myself it isn't true. It isn't time yet. He can't be ready. I have been telling myself this all summer.

He may go 9 days without a nap, nap a day or two, and then start the cycle over again, but when he does nap I always think that he still needs a nap. He always stays in his room. Okay, he's locked into his room, but he even stays on his bed. He may sing the ABC's or count to 20 over and over again in the most obnoxious high-pitched voice he has, but it gives me a break.

Yesterday I took Andrew upstairs for his nap at 1:00. He had preschool in the morning, so his 12:30 nap was pushed back a little. I put him in his room, gave him a sip of water, sang Hush Little Baby to him, gave him his 2 trucks (small Matchbox style), gave him a kiss on the forehead, told him, "I love you. Sleep tight", left his room, and proceeded with Austin to his room to continue trying to put him down for his nap. When it quickly became obvious Austin wasn't going down easily, I started feeding him - again. After Andrew was in his room for about 10 minutes, I heard him jiggling the doorknob. A few seconds later he walked out of his room! Andrew had conquered the "childproof" door knob lock (ours our very similar to this link). I was done. So. Done. I'm not fighting Andrew anymore. Naptime is OVER. In a way, it's a bit of a relief. Now I can hopefully concentrate on getting Austin to take a good nap without the squealing from the next room.
Maybe Andrew and I can now bond during that time.

naps

This was a brief conversation I had with Andrew yesterday during lunch...


Andrew: Is Austin sleeping?

Me: No, not yet, but he's tired.

Andrew: I'm tired, too.

Me: You're tired, too? Are you going to nap today?

Andrew: Nope!


...and he didn't for the 6th time in the past 7 days. Scratch that. It has now been the 7th time in the past 8 days. Andrew has very willingly gone up to his room around 12:30/12:45 and also very willingly decided he didn't want or need a nap. However, he has been crashing at bedtime, which is 7:00. We have had many days over the summer where he would nap well and then be up talking or making request after request until 8:30/9:00, which can get old really quick. It's a dilemma. Well, sort of...Andrew will ultimately decide whether he takes a nap or not. The dilemma has been whether or not to give him a later bedtime in hopes that he would hang onto his nap a little longer. I have to say, it's really nice having the early bedtime. I need it. We need it, and I'm 99.5% sure Andrew needs it. A couple of times this week he has fallen asleep quickly at 7 and slept until 8. That's 13 hours! The problem is that it caught up with him today at about 11:15, 2:30 and 4:00 with some less than stellar behavior. He was such a mess he ended up taking a nap around 4:15! Loren woke him up an hour later, so he wouldn't sleep through dinner - or until bedtime.

My feeling is that he is giving up his nap. I also think there will be a bit of a transition period until he can fully handle not napping. We shall see. Maybe the tide will turn?

naptime success!

Yesterday I took Andrew up for his nap like I normally do at 12:30. Austin was asleep in my arms, so I thought I would humor myself and lay him down in his crib. This was at 12:35. Normally when I put him down he either wakes up right away or may sleep for 30 minutes. After what was about 45 minutes I heard him begin to stir through the monitor so I hurried up to his room and put his pacifier in his mouth. He went back to sleep. After about 20 minutes, he woke up again. I hurried upstairs again, but when the pacifier didn't work right away I picked him up, sang to him a bit, gave him the pacifier and he went back to sleep...for another hour!! Andrew woke up at 2:39 and like a good little brother Austin woke up at 2:40. With the exception of running up to Austin's room a couple of times, I had 2 full hours to myself yesterday!

As I'm writing this post, I have had a good 45 minutes with both boys sleeping at the same time. I could definitely get used to this. It's probably a good idea if I don't get too used to it...yet. Austin could very well be toying with my emotions or going through a growth spurt, but I'll take what I can get.