This poor boy of mine still has issues with sleep sometime. Like last night. Ugh!
He has never been a good 'napper" and when people ask if get things done while he naps, I just laugh at him! This little boy does not nap! Ok, well, 15-20 minutes in the morning (if lucky) and maybe another 15-20 minutes in the early evening. Oh, and that is on me or in the front carrier. He will fall asleep while nursing and once we are done, I can lay him on my lap, but once I move even an inch, he will wake up. Sometimes he is just so tired that I can put him in the front carrier and he MAY sleep up to 45 minutes or so. There has been some days when he literally sleeps for no more than 15 minutes.
For the last two days, I could tell he was getting tired and restless about 5-6 pm. When he acts like this, we will nurse and he will take a short nap. Instead of nursing though the last couple of days, he has signed "eat," so I have put him in his chair and gave him some food. (Maybe we are starting to wean?) But the problem is that since he didn't nurse, he also didn't nap! What happens when we don't have a nap? We get overtired and we are up at night!
Last night he skipped his early evening nap because he wanted to "eat" and by 7:45, he was nursing and falling asleep in my lap. He usually goes to bed around 9-9:30, so this was kind of early. By about 9 pm, he was still sound asleep, so I laid him in bed. I was hoping he would sleep all night and I would just see him earlier in the morning. I was WRONG! I went to bed and laid there because I couldn't sleep for the longest time.
Around midnight, I heard him start to cry. I have been letting him cry lately for at least a little bit to see if he can put himself back to sleep. I let him cry for about 30-45 minutes last night and he wasn't going back to sleep at all! I finally went in there and picked him up. I fed him and I thought he was asleep on my lap. Then all of the sudden, he popped up and started talking and pointing to toys! It is around 1:15 am!!
I know from past experiences with him that it is much easier to let him wake up, play a little bit, and then he usually goes back to sleep. It may take a couple of hours, but it is the best way to do it.
About 1 am, I let him off my lap to go play. I grabbed one of his thicker blankets and made myself a pillow on the floor. (I have done this soooo many times with this kid!) He played for about 45 minutes and then started signing "milk " again. I told him that he already had his milk and asked him if he wanted a "drink." He smiled, so we both made the trek to the kitchen and I got him some water. I checked my email and Facebook for awhile and he hung out on my lap. I could tell he was getting tired.
About 2:15, we headed back to his room to rock awhile. He finally fell asleep and after holding him only about 5 minutes, I tried to lay him down. That didn't work! He woke right back up! I sat down again and this time, I held him longer to get into a deeper sleep. Around 2:45, I was able to lay him down in bed and he stayed asleep!!!
I finally went back to bed and got some sleep for the first time in the night.
Today he actually slept about an hour in the front carrier while I was shopping. I am sure he will sleep all night tonight!
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