It's Saturday night. It's all quiet from Dorothy's room, so I'm assuming/hoping she's asleep. Elizabeth's flight is due to arrive around 11:15pm, meaning she won't be home until well after midnight. Thankfully, both Dorothy and I have survived Elizabeth's absence, although my sanity took a hit.
Elizabeth had to work late Wednesday night preparing for her trip, so I've now done bathtime four nights in a row by myself. Thursday was mostly OK. I got up around 6:30, took a quick shower then got Dorothy. I was going to fix her some eggs, then decided we'd go out for breakfast. So we went to IHOP, where Dorothy wolfed down 3/4 of the kids' meal cheese omelette and a pancake. We then went grocery shopping. We played for a while, had lunch, and then I tried to put her down for a nap. An hour-long fight ensued, wherein I tried different places (her mat, her crib, our bed) and methods (leaving her alone, rubbing her back), and she mostly screamed and squirmed. She finally fell asleep mid-scream in our bed, and thankfully slept for almost 90 minutes. The rest of the afternoon, we went to the park and whatnot. Evening was fine.
Friday morning, Dorothy let me sleep in. She made some loud noises around 4:45am and 6am, but quickly quieted down. I woke up and stayed up around 7:30, and went to check on her - she was sitting in her crib quietly. I cleaned her up, gave her breakfast, and took her off to daycare. In the evening, I picked her up and again had a mostly fine evening (dinner, bathtime, etc.). There was some occasional crankiness, but I attributed it to teething (she has some canines coming in). When I laid her down to bed, she didn't complain, but it was clear she wasn't quite ready for sleep - she lay in her crib and twiddled her lip with her finger making "bub bub bub" noises.
Today she got up around 6:30am, which wasn't too bad. We played and did stuff for a while, but she was getting more cranky. She usually naps for 10 minutes on the way to daycare, but obviously doesn't get the car ride when we're staying at home. Eventually, I gave in and took her for a ride in the car around 10:30. She wound up sleeping for a half hour, which I suspected might cause trouble later (because it was longer than normal, and later than normal). It did. Her normal naptime is from around noon until 1:30 or 2pm. By 2:30 today, she still expressed no interest in wanting a nap, but she was showing signs of needing one (i.e., she was getting more cranky). I tried laying her on her mat - no luck. I tried putting her in her crib, to no avail. I even left her there for 20 minutes, hoping that if she didn't see me, she'd give up and go to sleep. Nope. She just screamed at me for those 20 minutes. So eventually I took her out in the car again. This time she slept for 50 minutes, so her total was still a bit low for the day. We went to the park where she got to walk around and watch some big dogs and some guys trying to fly a kite. Bathtime was fine, as was bedtime. She even was happy about brushing her teeth. But she started putting up a fight when I put her in the crib, even though she hasn't done that at bedtime in a long time. So I had to feel guilty while listening to her cry "daddee dahdee dahdee." Luckly things got quite within 5 or 10 minutes.
The frustrating thing about her refusal to nap both Thursday and Saturday is that she supposedly goes down for a nap very easily at daycare. They say she practically puts herself to bed. Perhaps she gets more tired out with the other kids, and maybe not having parents around helps. But it's still frustrating.
OK, I'll stop my whining now. I'm so looking forward to seeing Elizabeth get home.
Posted by Tom Nugent at July 9, 2005 08:31 PM