Friday, September 23, 2011

Naptime News

My sweet Monkey has always had a hard time relaxing, going to sleep is tough for him.  I've had all kinds of theories about "why".  The basic truth, however is that he just doesn't sleep well.

A while back I was puzzling over ideas for helping him at nap time.  Honestly, it's a lot easier for him to fall asleep mid-day than it is at night, but one thing at a time, right?  Most days I would sit or lay with him on his bed until he fell asleep.  Sometimes it would take an hour, sometimes much longer.

Recently we started napping together in my bed (I've got 2 young children and I'm pregnant - plenty of reason to be tired).  It was nice, but it's hard to get anything else done when you're napping with a 3 year old!

This week we finally got my recliner moved to our living room (this is a hugely important thing to me, as I sleep much better there when I'm pregnant).  Moving the recliner spawned a change in sleep time thinking.

So here it is, if I sit in the recliner, or at the table, and have Monkey lay on the loveseat (where we can still see each other) - maybe he'll sleep and I can do some other work.

Day 1 - Monkey was VERY resistant.  He did NOT want to sleep on the "couch".  He eventually fell asleep - on my bed - after wearing himself out throwing a fit about the loveseat.

Day 2 - Monkey did NOT want to take a nap.  Grandma was coming over and he was excited about that.  He argued, and then laid down with only a little prompting and put himself to sleep.

Day 3 (today) - Monkey went upstairs and got his pillow and leopard and snake and blankets.... with only a little prompting.  When he returned to the loveseat, he covered himself up and laid still.  He's not QUITE asleep yet, but he's being very still and trying to fall asleep.

This might be a good change!  In fact, it might help me a ton when baby arrives!

Now, bed time is a whole different story.. we'll get there... eventually.

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