Prevarication
This week I've been letting Mabel nap, since Dash is at camp and it's the first time I've had an hour to myself since the summer break began. It's hard to resist the temptation to bring her upstairs at 12.30 and just see if she falls asleep. She's been waking early, so she does; and then I have a lovely time blogging or baking or sorting things in peace.
But of course, there's a downside. It's called bedtime. Bedtime for the past few nights has gone like this:
Step 1: Get the kids ready for bed. Teeth brushed, stories read.
Step 2: Dash lies down, possibly drawing in his notebook for a while until he falls asleep.
Step 3: Meanwhile, I take Mabel into her room and nurse her down.
Step 4: Down on that side, down on the other side, first side again... and she's hungry. Or thirsty for cold water from the fridge, Mummy. Please, Mummy.
Step 5: I bring her water and/or a frozen waffle. So much for the teeth.
Step 6: All done. I lie down with her again. "This is the last side, Mabel. No more sides after this."
Step 7: Mabel leaps up and makes a break for the door.
Step 8: Mabel gets to come downstairs and play for an extra twenty minutes, so long as she's quiet and leaves me alone to drink my belated cup of coffee.
Step 9: Mabel wants to watch something on my computer. Mabel wants to write her name on my computer. Mabel wants one of those things I'm eating with my coffee. Time for Mabel to go back upstairs.
Step 10: (Optional) Daddy is inveigled into going upstairs and telling Mabel some stories. Daddy is summarily dismissed.
Step 11: I go up one last (I swear, this is it) time.
Step 12: Some time about an hour and a half after her initial bedtime, Mabel finally nurses to sleep.
Hooray! Time to relax. Oh, wait. I had that in the afternoon. Fold some laundry, put away the dishes, and go to bed.
Labels: bedtime, extended nursing, naps, sleep, summer
posted by Maud @ 9:30 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Oh Not Maud... my son is just like that already. He's learned to say "switch sides" and it's so cute I can't resist. I know when he's asking that though that he's not falling asleep anytime soon because he's coherent enough to think about it and say it :( Also there's the nursing gymnastics/flailing/pulling triathlon that is a sure sign sleep isn't coming any time soon. On Saturday I tried for over an hour and a half to get him to nurse down for a nap. I gave up and let him come out into the living room for a few minutes. Tried again a little while later, out like a light, and of course I was too after all that!
Does Mabel do the nursing triathlon? How do you handle it? Sorry maybe you've posted about it before. Sometimes I get really frustrated and want him to just lie still and stop kicking me in the face!!!
Have you tried limiting the time you nurse when he's like that? So you say "Five minutes, and then you can play or go to sleep by yourself," and after whatever time, you detach him (easier said than done, I know) and leave him safely in bed with some soft toys or indestructible books, if he likes that sort of thing? I used to do that - especially with Dash when he was toddler-ish age.
Usually he would cry inconsolably and I'd go back in a few minutes later - but it was often the crying that he needed to be able to settle down and nurse to sleep nicely.
Sometimes the wriggles are a sign that they're just not ready for bed; but other times it's because they're overtired and they need to release the tension a bit by crying. (This is not "cry it out" - you don't let them cry themselves all the way to sleep. But if it turns out they can go to sleep themselves this way without needing to nurse again - hey, bonus!)
It might work. Or you might just need a break for yourself before you can take a deep breath and go back in for the last time. That's okay too.
Thank you so much for the reply- I really appreciate that someone else out there in the universe has a similar child/situation. I will definitely try it-the crying thing- I have noticed that. A few days ago, it was like 7:30pm and I had to go out to the bank. So I told my son, hey let's go get some ice cream, and he was cool with it until we actually got outside of our apt. Then he started SCREAMING at the top of his lungs, wouldn't budge, so I had to pick him up and carry him screaming (luckily not kicking) to the car and strap him in (still screaming). Neighbors probably thought... who knows what. Once we got going he stopped screaming completely and was just kinda staring off into space. He fell asleep before I could get to the ice cream place. It was only 8 o'clock. I know what you mean, it's like they have to release that energy. I keep thinking about the tension increaser/decreaser thing, and I can't quite figure him out. Maybe he's a little of both?
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