Nap time
I think I'm a good parent. I feed my child good food. I make sure that he is dressed appropriately. I watch over him and do my best to keep him from dangerous situations and rescue him from the ones that I missed. I play with him and console him. I talk to him and sing to him. I'm doing all of the things that I ought to be doing to be a good parent. And then nap time comes.
I don't know why it is, but in his 11 months of life, I've never quite managed to find a way to get him to go to sleep. Each time I manage it, I feel like Tom Hanks in Castaway ("I have made fire!"). But then the next time the sparks won't catch and I'll end up with a fuss baby. Rocking, bouncing, patting, holding, laying - each works once or twice and then not again. About the only thing that I'm certain will put him to sleep is a ride in the car. But I have to be pretty desperate to pile him in the car for a ride around the neighborhood until he drifts off. Sometimes just to spite me, Fate makes the transfer from car to crib fail and I'm left with a fussy baby who thinks that he's already taken a nap. Since we made the commitment to the family bed, we've avoided using cry it out strategies. But there are times when we have a fussy baby and sleep-deprived parents that the temptation is there. So far avoided but there all the same.
The part that makes us really frustrated is that the day care people never seem to have any trouble getting him to go down for a nap. Some day I may have to stake out his day care room to learn their secrets. In the mean time I'll just have to try and figure it out on my own. But if you see me driving around your neighborhood near nap time, you know that Oliver's outsmarted me again.
I don't know why it is, but in his 11 months of life, I've never quite managed to find a way to get him to go to sleep. Each time I manage it, I feel like Tom Hanks in Castaway ("I have made fire!"). But then the next time the sparks won't catch and I'll end up with a fuss baby. Rocking, bouncing, patting, holding, laying - each works once or twice and then not again. About the only thing that I'm certain will put him to sleep is a ride in the car. But I have to be pretty desperate to pile him in the car for a ride around the neighborhood until he drifts off. Sometimes just to spite me, Fate makes the transfer from car to crib fail and I'm left with a fussy baby who thinks that he's already taken a nap. Since we made the commitment to the family bed, we've avoided using cry it out strategies. But there are times when we have a fussy baby and sleep-deprived parents that the temptation is there. So far avoided but there all the same.
The part that makes us really frustrated is that the day care people never seem to have any trouble getting him to go down for a nap. Some day I may have to stake out his day care room to learn their secrets. In the mean time I'll just have to try and figure it out on my own. But if you see me driving around your neighborhood near nap time, you know that Oliver's outsmarted me again.
posted by mypetrock at 2:09 PM
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