John is adept at many things, but sleep is not one of them. He's a really bad sleeper, for whatever many factors. He still requires a serious investment of time to parent him to sleep for naps and he also still wants two naps per day (probably because he doesn't get appropriate sleep at night). With a newborn arriving soon, there is no way I will be able to continue parenting him to sleep for naps this way, so we're in the midst of an experiment. I decided to just see what happens when I stop facilitating his naps. Either he can learn to fall asleep on his own by any method or he'll start sleeping much longer at night, right?
Two days ago, I stopped cold turkey. The first day was very long and bad. John went the whole day--14 hours--without napping and he was out of control with bad behavior because of his fatigue. His overnight was okay, but not fabulously improved. But today has proven interesting! He woke up at 5:30 per usual and I was exhausted. After breakfast, I was lying on the couch while he played around me. Then he approached me and asked me to sing "Five Little Ducks." He climbed onto the couch, lay down next to me, and we got through one round of "Ducks" and one-and-a-half of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" before he was dead asleep. This never happens. If he could fall asleep that easily, I could facilitate such a thing. He and I got to nap for ninety minutes, praise be to God!
Then, the most amazing thing happened: I left him in the den while I started cooking dinner. He began calling for me to help him with something and I told him I'd be right there. I had to do three little chores before I could help him. He kept calling, I kept calling back to him. Then when I stepped into the den about five minutes later, he was asleep. All by himself. Folks, he has done this only once before in his life. I know that a lot of little kids are prone to fall asleep while playing, but not my high-demands toddler. I can't tell you how giddy I felt! He slept for 45 minutes before waking up cheerfully refreshed.
The experiment continues . . .
It must be something in the air...yesterday, Theo finally napped too! And again today! The boy NEVER naps for more than a couple minutes here and there, and I've been working with him on it for months. And suddenly, he just napped. Go figure! Isn't it lovely, though? I'm scared to even hope that it will continue.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe he's not that unlike many other kids (like mine) but I reached my "I've had it" point a LOT sooner than you (like, by a few months old. Ha ha). I hope this incident is an indicator of how things will continue to be and it just goes to show that our expectations really do, in large part, drive what our kids can do and how they behave. Yay for successful experiments!!
ReplyDeleteCathleen: That's great news about Theo!
ReplyDeleteYeay! I'm so happy to hear of this small success...what a nice start. I know how tough no nap days can be and how even tougher tired toddlers end up...
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