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Monday, January 18, 2010

The 100 Minute War

Yes, after the high I had of Ace sleeping through the night the very next day the attempt to get him down to sleep took 100 minutes. I've waited to post this until I've mostly forgotten about it - but I just feel it's important to document that highs and the lows.

Ace is a truly bright child. Before he's even 18 months old he can identify colors, count to 2, can follow multiple step instructions, and is even showing signs of identifying written words. Every parent thinks their child is bright, highly advanced, and is the smartest kid - I am proud that I feel the same. ;-) He truly is a smart child and I just wonder how much smarter would he be if he slept more?! Perhaps him sleeping more could render way more problems for me because he's too smart for his own good. Is there such a thing? I am thankfully (?) in the dark as to the answer - as he just doesn't need (?) or want to sleep more.

I don't begrudge him by any means - but I certainly am jealous when parents talk about the plight of their children only sleeping for a 6 hour stint instead of their regular 10 or 12. I find it hard to pity their plight, but I recognize for them it is a plight so I don't try to scoff at it - I just clench my jaw and scream in my head 'If you only knew!'

So our efforts continue - he is on a pretty regular schedule for naps and getting down to sleep. However, heaven only knows if going down for the nap will take 15 minutes, 45, or 100 minutes to get to. We have started to leave him alone in the room to get himself to sleep at night time. For naps, I tend to leave him alone for nearing close to an hour of 'quiet laying in bed' time and then go in for the last 15 minutes and he renders unconscious pretty quickly - that doesn't always work into the schedule though for us needing to go anywhere in the afternoon or evenings. It's hard to know what is right, what is best for our child, what will work for our child. We continue to pray, read, and continue to put him to sleep - and know that obviously he is doing ok.

Time to go. It's nap time! ;-)

1 comment:

Heather said...

Oh I feel your pain on the napping. Today M wouldn't nap all afternoon and was sooo overtired by bedtime, it was a mess.

I hope he starts sleeping more for you.

I was visiting with some family friends this weekend and they said their daughter, my good friend, would only sleep 3 hours in a 24 hour period a lot of the time. YIKES!