Naptime

Well we have just a few weeks until the kids go back to school and I think I can confidently say that I am counting down the days. I've said before that this summer has been really great and not too crazy but all in all, my kids do well with the structure. Nathan especially needs to be on a schedule and needs a break from the computer, DS, and tv. I am concerned about the first few months and how he's going to cope with all the sitting still and focusing on work, although Kindergarten is usually a fairly kind introduction to academics. I am anticipating a few calls from his teacher and wouldn't be surprised if it is suggested that he needs to be medicated, even though I know better.

Leia will probably have a rough transition back as she is also a social animal and not especially interested in A grades or beautiful handwriting.

But we're getting to that point where I am losing my patience a lot quicker and my enthusiasm for the summer schedule is becoming somewhat diminished. Yesterday I took the kids swimming. The amount of vigilance I need to have even though I had the help of a friend is HUGE. Last week Spencer swam out of his depth despite me having both eyes firmly on him and had to be rescued by a lifeguard (there's a story I'll save for later) so this time I obviously didn't want it to happen again. Oliver is not exactly thrilled with this new pastime of being held in less than warm water while seemingly hundreds of crazy people scream and splash around him. He needs the most of my attention but Nathan has no fear and could easily get into trouble. When we got home I had the worst headache and felt like I had been run over by a freight train.

I find myself longing to fold laundry in a quiet house and to go grocery shopping with one child only.

And to the annoyance of the day. Naptime is once again at the top of my "to do" list. All of my children have been wonderful at going to bed and sleeping through the night at an early age. So long as there is a bedtime routine and they go to bed at the same time each night we are well away. But then naptime has ALWAYS been a different story. You'd think it would be no big stretch to go to sleep in the same place you sleep every night when you are ready for a nap. But apparently not.

Oliver starts getting fussy and tired at about 10am each morning. It's obvious to me that he's ready. Between 3 and 5 months he has been able to go to sleep after I've gone in and put his pacifier in a few times but lately nothing is soothing him. It's been very similar with all the children. They get to about 6 months or so and then think they are going to be missing something or they don't want to see Mommy leave the room and then nothing is going to do except being removed from the crib.

This is the point at which I start the cry it out method. As far as I can tell nothing else gets me to where both the baby and I need to be. He needs his nap and that's all there is to it. Yesterday he got ten minutes here and there in between activities and by 4pm he was the grumpiest I've ever seen him. And this is where the root of the problem lies with Oliver. The summer has definitely delayed a solid routine for him except at bedtime.

This morning however I decided I just did not want to go anywhere or do anything. The perfect time to attempt the first cry it out naptime. Sure enough at about 9.30am Oliver started to fuss. I picked him up, cuddled him a bit, let him know we were headed to his room for a nap. I layed him down with his pacifier and cuddle cloth and quietly left the room. As he began to fuss, I went in and put the pacifier in his mouth. I had decided to do that three times before he was on his own.

Once those three times were up he began to scream, and scream, and scream. Now although this method had brought me results quickly I still hate the actual experience of it. but this time it took on a whole new life of its own. My other children were immensely bothered by it. For about 15 minutes I went back and forth with the kids like this.

Spencer: I'm just going to go and comfort the baby.
Me: No you're not.
Spencer: I could just go and stick the paccie in his mouth.
Me: No you couldn't.
Spencer: But he's really crying
Me: He's fine.
Spencer: But he sounds like he's hurt
Me: He is not hurt, I promise.
Spencer: But if I just put the paccie in he would stop crying.
Me: No, he wouldn't.
Spencer: But I could just check on him.
Me: Spencer I did this with you. He needs to learn that naptime is for sleeping.
Spencer: But maybe he's already taken a nap.
Me: No, he hasn't.
Leia: I really think you should just go and check on him because there could be a man in his bedroom trying to steal him.
Me: No one is trying to steal him

Just at the moment I felt I was going to have to scream myself, Leia went downstairs without me knowing and held a cardboard tube up to the vent in the boys' bedroom that connects to the vent in Oliver's room and proceeded to try and calm him down. Of course it had the opposite effect. It didn't take me long to realize why the screaming had officially become shrieking and Leia was officially in big trouble. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

All I can comfort myself with at this point is that Oliver is finally going to be left alone for more than 5 minutes at a time and I will be able to establish a routine with him starting August 3.

He finally fell asleep after about 30 minutes of crying and slept for about 30 minutes. I'm hoping that in a few days he'll be falling asleep in about 5 minutes and sleeping for about an hour.

Thankfully he greeted me with this face (below) when I went to get him after the nap so I don't think he's holding it against me.