Nap time!

Well, Micah is still screaming bloody murder when it's time for him to go down for a nap. When Jill was babysitting she said she kept feeling like the cops were going to show up and I laughed because I always feel like child protective services will come by to check up on why my child is screaming so much and so often.

I don't know what caused it. He's just suddenly become aware of when he's being "put" to sleep. He gets his pacifier and we rock him standing or in the chair, just like normal, but now he knows what that means. And he ain't havin' it! No bedtime for Micah, thank you very much! After a few days of fighting, Terry and I have gotten sneaky. I realized one day that if I lie him in bed with me and read to him out loud (one of my books with lots of words, not his books) he'll eventually just pass out listening. I've done that twice and Terry's done it once. The bright side of that method is getting some good reading in!

Then we also try just letting him play to the point of exhaustion. For a while he was able to fall asleep on his own in his crib, but now that's passed. But, when he's sleepy and getting cranky, I'll still take him to his bed, tuck him in, give him his paci, and rub his head. I think being in his bed calms him down and he's able to go to sleep easier in our arms after some down-time in his bed.

But, after a weekend of tricking him into sleep, I bit the bullet today and got back down to business! I'm a big fan of not giving in. To me giving in just means putting off the battle for another day. And it'll be harder the longer we wait. Case in point- I know a woman whose 2 yr old wakes every night at 3 a.m. and refuses to go back to sleep until she's sleeping in between her mom and dad. It's a habit that annoys the parents and they admit it all started when they were too tired during the night when she was a baby to rock her and put her back down in her own bed. And now, she's in her big girl bed and can decide on her own when it's time to walk down the hall and get in bed with her mom.

So, I've learned from others and we've tried to stay firm when it comes to decisions we've made. I know there will be many times when we just give in, but we really do try hard to keep the future in mind, not just our sanity during any given moment. We do things like going about our business as usual during Micah's nap time. We purposefully avoid being extra quiet so that he doesn't become accustomed to sleeping in only extreme quiet. We want him to be flexible and be able to sleep places like restaurants and church where it's noisy.

So, even though I enjoyed our weekend of easy napping, I know it's important for Micah to be able to nap without spending an extra 45 minutes lulling him into unsuspecting sleep or causing World War III. So, that means we have to suffer a few more screaming nap times to get him back to accepting sleep. (He's so stubborn!!)

Needless to say, it was a rough, although short, battle. I hunkered down into the rocking chair and sang him the first song I ever sang him to get him to sleep when he was a newborn. It's a genius little ditty I wrote myself...Oh baby boy, Mama's baby boy, Little baby boy, Oh-oh-oh baby boy. (Repeat) He began screaming the second I started rocking him, and...he...kept...screaming. It only lasted about 5 minutes, but it did a decade's worth of damage on our hearts! At one point his crying was hoarse and I had a vision of taking him to the doctor and her looking in his mouth and exclaiming, "My, his throat is red!" And me, sulkily looking at the floor, saying, "Yes, he doesn't like bedtime." Sigh. Hopefully we'll figure out a way to bring on sleep that all parties are happy with or Micah will begin to accept that naps are inevitable.

But on the bright side (there's always a silver lining with Micah!) he's been sleeping through the night until 5:30 or 6 a.m.!!! Hooray! Once he's kept that up for a while, we'll move him into his crib in his room for the nights. Gulp! Another heart-wrenching moment!!