Naptime woes

I have written about this numerous times on Facebook but don't know that I have recorded my nap time woes on the blog. We are really struggling with naps and have been for a few months. Really it has been a challenge since Caroline was born in that I don't want either child to wake up the other yet I want them to sleep at the same time. That means that often one will be fussing either because they don't want to go to sleep or because they have awakened and want me to let them out.

We have never been strictly scheduled at our house meaning naps happen at flexible times. That is good and bad. Katherine was pretty regularly taking a 2 hour nap and it started any time from 2-4 but it seems to be getting later. That in turn is creating a later bed time. Being 3.5 years old she is trying to give up her nap but she really still needs it. We are in that phase where no nap creates an evening disaster but going down for a nap often is a challenge because she really is not tired yet. If I let her skip her nap we have a hard time getting her to bed earlier than usual so that solution is not working well.

So right now we are in the phase where Katherine still has nap time about 6 days of the week. There always seems to be one day where it really does work better to skip it for one reason or another. During that nap time she will sometimes sleep and sometimes have "quiet time". I never know what kind of day it will be when I read her books and put her down. Usually she starts off fine and about 10 minutes later it starts. I hear her voice calling over the monitor. It is supposed to be quiet time but it is not really that quiet and I have to go in there numerous times. Sometimes it wakes up Caroline and that is really frustrating.

Today it got to the point where it truly was comical. I was in the office with the video monitor on but the sound off. I could tell Katherine was awake and talking so I turned on the volume. She talked for at least 20 minutes.I was laughing at all she was saying as she looked straight into the camera.

"Mommy do you hear me or are you pretending not to hear me? I need you to hear me. Will you answer me? I love you mommy. Did you hear me? I love you. Are you there? I don't hear a word. Are you answering me or not? Which one? No or yes? Maybe yes or maybe no. Do you hear me? Please. Pleeeease!"

After she had been in her room long enough (though no sleeping took place) I let Caroline to in her room to play. A few minutes later I hear, "Mooooom, baby Caroline is taking off her pants! Caroline, you need to leave your pants on. I can see your bottom. Baby Caroline is taking off her pants and I'm not. I am just playing."

Oh what an adventure.

Sleep training

Caroline has fallen into a few really bad sleep habits and we are in need of some sleep training. I HATE THIS! I typically am not one that likes to let my kids cry it out. Add to that the fact that Caroline is probably our last kid and she just loves to snuggle and you get a spoiled baby who stopped sleeping through the night. Really, I think she wakes up and just wants to snuggle. I go in and pop in the paci, rub her back, etc and she screams. The moment I pick her up she is calm and happy. In fact, she is usually bright eyed and ready to play. She has no desire to nurse so it is not that she is hungry. Sam or I will rock her to sleep (remember, we love the snuggles) and as soon as we set her in the crib, she starts to scream again. We hate to make her cry it out because we are softies, we hate crying and most importantly, we don't want to wake up Katherine.

So, what has our solution been? We have been bringing her to our bed to snuggle and sleep. I am neither here nor there are far as co-sleeping. I never set out to do it but I am not opposed to it either on occasion. I find that most people who co-sleep do so for the purpose of nursing and like I said, Caroline does not really nurse when she is sleeping with us, she is just snuggling.

But, we have decided that this must come to an end. We only have a queen size bed and by the time you slap on our bed rail it is probably more like a double. Caroline is getting bigger and well, it is just crowded. So last night Nana and Pops had Katherine for a sleep over so we could let Caroline cry without waking Katherine up. It was not a fun night. She slept until about 2:30 and then woke up and would not go back to sleep. We would watch her on the baby monitor and only go in after she had stood up and was stuck (new skill she learned last night). She woke up 3-4 times and cried for at least 30-60 minutes each time. Finally at 6:45 I did let her sleep with us. Both kids usually end up in our bed for early morning snuggles. This time Caroline slept until 9:45. So did I. That part was wonderful.

So, tonight is night 2 of trying to get her to put her self back to sleep in her own crib. Katherine is sleeping a mere 10 feet away so who knows how that will work out. Pray for us.

aaah sleep

Yesterday Katherine took a nap from 3:30-7:15. Today she from 2:30-6:00. That is a 3 hour 45 minute nap and a 3 hour 30 minute nap. That of course pushes her bedtime back a little but she is still waking up at 7 am. So I am curious if anyone else has experienced spells of really long naps. Could it be tied into a developmental phase? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the peace and quiet but it is a little odd.

Out for the count

Today Katherine spent the day with Nana so I could do some Christmas shopping. She was supposed to take her nap there but told Nana she was not tired. Plus, she said she was wearing her "morning clothes" and not her jammies. So, I went to pick her up and take her home for a nap. It was one of those days where I really was not sure if I should just skip the nap or make her take a late one. I decided a late nap was better than a cranky toddler all evening. So, she went down at 5 pm. It is almost midnight right now and she is still asleep. She woke up once and I went in and she wanted to go back to sleep. This is not like my daughter. I am scared of what time she will wake up in the morning so I am headed to bed myself.

Morning update: Katherine was awake from 4:30-5:30, snuggled with me in her bed and then we slept until 7:30. That is a total of 13.5 hours of sleep!

Caroline news

She slept 12.5 hours last night. We got home from the fair and she fell asleep in the office at 6pm. At midnight I transferred her to her bed and she did not wake up until 6:30 am. Unfortunately she was loud enough to wake up Katherine so we were all up early.

Today she slept through church so I was able to enjoy the service in the sanctuary rather in the nursing mother's room for the first time. Part of the trick was that she has finally decided to like a pacifier. She still has trouble keeping it in on her own but she is doing better.

This girl can sleep

And I am so thankful. It seems that Caroline is a much better sleeper than Katherine. There are some days that it seems she is only awake long enough to nurse and go back to sleep. On Thursday night she went down in the office at about 10. I moved her to her crib at midnight. She woke up at 5, nursed and went back to sleep until 8:15. She was awake for about an hour and then I put her in her carseat to nap since we were leaving for the arboretum. She woke up at about 10:15 and was a little grumpy because we were trying to take pictures and she was sleepy. She fell asleep in the sling at noon. I transferred her to the carseat/stroller at 12:30 and she did not wake up until 4:30. In that time I even went to a pottery place so we could get her footprints on a plate. She did not wake up when we did that.At 4:30 she nursed and fell back asleep again. This time she slept on the boppy on her pack and play. I just set her there and she stayed. I then loaded her up at 5:30 so I could take Katherine to Nana's house. She woke up for about 20 minutes during dinner and then we packed her up again so Sam and I could go see a movie. She nursed and fell asleep for the entire movie and then still slept all night, only waking up once. This is pretty typical for this week. I think she must be growing.

7+ hours

Caroline fell asleep at about 3 today while I was at the computer. At about 3:30 I put her down on our bed and I stayed in the bedroom working. It is currently 10pm and she is still asleep in the same place. Because I put her on her tummy, one of us has been in the bedroom or checking in frequently all night. She sleeps better on her tummy but current recommendations are "back to sleep, tummy to play" due to SIDS. I know that we were all raised on our tummies and are just fine. So is an almost 3 week old supposed to sleep for 7 hour stretches? I am not complaining though I sure with it was from midnight - 7 am rather than 3-10 pm. Who knows what the rest of the night will be like.