Naptime

So any time I start to think I've got this parenting thing down, some new challenge presents itself to prove me wrong. That's ok, I need that to happen! I need to learn my way through this. Apparently I am just not smart at all when it comes to this kid. In the beginning, I was up quite a bit with him during the night so any time he was asleep I would try to sleep as well. It slowly got into this schedule where he would go to sleep between 9pm and 11pm, wake up between 5am and 7am, then he would go right back to sleep (as would I) and we would sleep for another 1 to 3 hours. I was unable to get him to really take a nap during the day for longer than 10 minutes, and it would usually only be when I held him. I had to remedy this quickly or else we would be in a seriously bad habit and I would not get anything done during the day.



The other night I had a revelation: What if our morning "back to bed nap" was causing this problem!? EUREKA! That's got to be it! I am convinced. So, yesterday I did not put him back to bed after he woke up. He ended up falling asleep on his own so I stuck him in his crib and what happened? He actually napped in there! First time ever. I was so proud. He slept for an hour! We ended up going to my parents for lunch so I wasn't able to do the afternoon nap the same way, he just slept in the car.



This morning I did the same thing. It was a little different today though. He ended up getting up around 3 30am to nurse last night, so we were back in bed by 4 30, and he slept till nearly 8am. However, I did not put him back to bed after 8 this morning. He was happy and content in his bouncer and dozed off around 9 45. I stuck him in his crib and turned on the mobile, but he just laid there wide awake. Around 10 I swaddled him and he went right to sleep. I'm not going to make him stay in there for an hour, if he wakes up before then that's cool. My goal is really just to get him used to his crib since he sleeps in the bassinet beside our bed. Hopefully within a few weeks he will be in his crib full time. However, this transition may be harder on me than him! I am very anxious about him being in another room at the other end of the house. I'll be glued to the monitor for weeks I'm sure.



*As I was finishing this post, I heard him in his room...low and behold he was awake after only 30 minutes. He didn't cry though, just laid there laughing at his mobile! Sweet boy.

**After I came back to the computer to finish this post, he had fallen asleep again on his own! I am so proud.