So, as with each stage of toddlerhood, we are finding ourselves in a transition season once again. Ever since Emmett was a baby he's been a great sleeper. (12 hours with one feeding by 3 months, 12 hours with no feedings by 7 months, 12 hours plus 2-3 hour nap the last year or so.) However, in the last few weeks he has been difficult at nighttime. Once he learned how to climb out of his crib, it's hard to keep him in it. We'd put him down, easily I might add, and within 10 minutes he's be bounding up the stairs to see what we were up to. At first I thought it was because summer was over, and we had started putting him to bed just a little earlier. But, it's been continuing. The night starts out with him in a good mood, just wanting to be involved in the upstairs doings, and ends with tears and a fight. Not the way I want to end my day or his! So I thought maybe it was time to give up the afternoon nap. It certainly makes nighttime wonderful, he goes down by 8:15 and we don't hear from him until 7:30 at the earliest. The afternoon and early evening are a different story. If we drive anywhere after 12:30 (his normal nap-time) he falls asleep in the car. Sound asleep. If we don't go anywhere, he's usually fine until about 4:30 and then he starts melting. Tears, horrid tantrums, throwing himself on the floor. Serious drama. Sometimes I send him downstairs to lay on mommy and daddy's bed to watch a movie while I fix dinner. Twice I have come down to get him and found something like this:
5:15 in the evening, bright light on, movie still going and one sound asleep buddy boy. And if you have ever had to wake up a sleeping child that you know is exhausted, you know what came next. And yet, even with the too-short, too-late nap, another bedtime came easily and ended in tears. I really hope that we can find some sort of balance around here...and soon!
We do have another transition coming soon, so stay tuned. (We have an idea that we're hoping will work, but I don't want to jinx it, so I'm not going to talk about it.)
