oh I understand

by Adele
(Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

My darling angel refused to sleep from day one. I would get a couple hours of semi-sleep if I held her (which every well meaning friend and stranger said I should not do)but if I tried to put her down on her back she lost her mind. By the time she was 2 months I couldn't handle the "you look tired" (no s##t I was tired!) and decided to let her sleep on her stomach (I survived it and she would not sleep on her back) WOW we got 3 hours of sleep!!! and that was our pattern till 14 months - 3 hours at a time and then hysterical - making herself vomit if I did not go in - crying. The idea of letting her cry it out did not work for our "princess".

We finally started getting more sleep at 15 months - those blessed months were just to break me of my habit and ability to function on little sleep, I got used to sleeping all night! Now at 22 months we are refusing a nap (unless I can conveniently be driving around 1:30 for about 20 minutes) but when we do have a nap we sleep for 2 1/2 hours. But we like to wake at 2:30 every morning and yell "mommmmmmmmmmy pooooop!" until mom comes in. Most times my precious little one wants to "ance(dance) mommy" at this time or tell me "shh Daddy nigh nigh".
As a result of my 2:30 party - if you see a red minivan driving aimlessly around your neighborhood (or parked at the grocery store with me reading/napping) this is my "solution" to the refusing the nap - Thank goodness fuel prices went down :-)