Porter has been absolutely fighting me on naps lately...actually on sleeping in general. Up until now he has been a stellar sleeper. I got him to easily sleep 12 hours at night by the time he was 9 weeks old, and shortly after that naps fell right into place. He took two naps up until he was about 20 months then it went down to one afternoon nap that used to last for up to four hours. Then when he was getting closer to three years old it went down to three hours. There was a very short time earlier this year that he wasn't really sleeping during nap time but he would totally be fine just hanging out in his room. Then he went back to sleeping during it. This summer, especially while visiting family, we would forgo his nap in favor of doing fun summer stuff, but he still slept great at night. Whenever we were home and not doing anything he would be fine to go to his room for nap/quiet time. These past few weeks though he is doing everything he can to not be in his room. You name it, he has tried it. Even for just an hour of quiet time with books and toys and music in his room he just won't have it. Now he is even waking up two hours earlier in the morning. It is driving us crazy!! I used to look at people who had kids who would fight them on sleeping and think how glad I was that wasn't me. Now look at me - it has come back to bite me in the butt. I am at my wits end over here! (I've always wanted to say that.) No form of bribing has helped. In fact, I feel bad for everything we have taken away because of him not just staying in his room quietly at night or during nap time. And it's not like he isn't getting enough stimulation because he has started preschool this week, we have playgroup, we go to the park, go on walks, bike ride, etc. Anyway, I guess all of this not sleeping has finally caught up with him because today he full on passed out on the couch, in a random position.
He never falls asleep except for in his room or in the car on long trips, so this was definitely a first. From what I've read I'm thinking that we need to put him to bed earlier, but things keep getting in the way. We just need to not let those things get in the way and just do it. He goes to bed at like 8pm or 8:30pm, but now I'm going to try for 7pm or 7:30pm, which sucks because it puts a damper on after dinner stuff when Jeff is home, and the girls don't even go to bed until 8pm anyway. Oh well, I need to try anything because this kid just needs sleep, as you can tell from the picture.
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