Sunday, August 03, 2008

Jangled

My head feels all jangled-ey when Israel doesn't nap normally. I have this little routine in my head. We eat lunch, tired yawning cranky baby goes down for his 3 hour nap, and wakes cheerfully. Mommy lays down for a little peace and quiet. Recently it's been going more like this - Mommy lays cranky baby down for some shut-eye, who jumps and yells and pulls the curtain blanket off his window and cranks and fusses and screeches. 45 minutes later she goes in and gets him back up. Repeat again. Jangle headedness ensues. It's entirely unrestful for a mommy. She feels very much at loose ends.

Someone suggested that he could be dropping his nap, to which I responded in sheer horror. I depend on that nap!! The child cannot be doing that. He can not go from 3+ hour naps to nada. But the future is looking a mite grim at this point, as it is 3:07 PM and he is currently up and playing happily after two botched nap attempts, and this has been the norm for the past several days.

I have talked to people whose 3 1/2 year old child still takes a 2 hour nap during the afternoon, and goes happily to sleep at 8 PM. I'm pretty sure these are the same people who had babies who slept all night from 2 weeks on. These are not mine offspring. Mine are way less restful.

I think one of my eyes is twirling around in little circles independent of the other. The left side of my head is standing upon frazzled ends. I'm developing a nervous tic in my right leg. Every now and then I emit a bark of loud, unamused laughter for no real reason at all. And I'm talking at length to all my invisible friends. They are very sympathetic.

Jangledness.

***Edit****
Israel fell asleep after 4 PM and napped for 45 minutes or so.

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14 comments:

MICHELLE CULLUM said...

maybe you are referring to me whose 3 1/4 year old still takes 2 hour naps and goes to bed at 8 p.m. Isaac does nap...sometimes the 2 hours but more recently its been closer to an hour or hour and a half. The older he's gotten the harder it is for him to quiet his body long enough to feel the tiredness within him...so my solution has been to lay in bed with him. I sleep from 15-30 minutes and then wake up and do my own thing. But thanks to my mother in law's advice I give myself 1 hour every day (7 days a week) to myself no matter what with all 3 kids in their rooms doing their own thing (reading, playing, napping, etc). with boys sharing a room, you might need separate areas instead of sharing a room for that time so that you can be sure they are all still alive at the end of the hour (at least in my house).

Anonymous said...

Curt's mom claims he would come home from kindergarten and take a nap!! Too bad none of his children took after him in that respect! However, there is hope...MY baby just got up from a 2 hour nap!! Too bad she's 20 and it doesn't benefit me a whole lot at this point:((
Missed you in SS!
(kinda funny we only live a mile or two apart and "comunicate" mostly by computer!)
Hope you have a week with lots of rest time!~Elvida

Carrie said...

Hey Michelle. Actually it wasn't you, but I am thoroughly jealous to hear of Issac's nap. The one hour thing is a good idea. I haven't felt like I have needed to employ something like that yet, because Gabe will usually give me some space in the afternoon if I tell him to, and Israel has been such a good napper. I have thought that with the third one I might have to do that though.

Elvida - Glad to hear that Kim is such a good napper. :) :) At least somebody around here can get some sleep. LOL.

Cottonista said...

Maybe he's getting teeth....??

You need to stop your ears and sing silly songs at the top of your voice at the suggestion he's dropping his nap. Yipes!!

Owen (3 1/2) and Helen (21 months) still nap, and go to bed at 8:00. BUT they used to wake up at 6 am too, until I limited their naps to 2 hours. Now it's 7 to 7:30 am.

Carrie said...

Joyce - I thought for sure he was getting teeth - but I couldn't see any. He has been snotty, feverish, and cranky. So...I dunno. Hopefully this is just a phase....

Anonymous said...

I don't have any great advice for you obviously, but I just said to Sam, "I am not getting bit with the baby bug yet." Sam sarcastically said, "Get rid of it by going to Carrie's blog." (Meaning we love your blog) However, after reading this post I realize I DO NOT HAVE THE BUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yet.

We miss you and hope we can come visit before to much time passes.

Anonymous said...

Ouch. Brian is 18 mo and just starting to drop his morning nap. If he was dropping his afternoon nap also. . . .I think I would have to cry (esp with #3 on the way). Jan

Anonymous said...

Okay, was it ME? :) Eliza still naps and goes to bed at 8:00 also, but she's gone through phases when it looked like she was over napping. My advice is just to stick it out and keep putting him down- it's a phase! Does Gabe nap? Even Claire still needs at least a rest time when she comes home from school. I let her read books, but if she really needs a nap, she sacks right out. School wears her out too and she's really grumpy in the evening without a rest time. Anyway, good luck, hope it's a short lived phase! (but I doubt he'll go back to 3 hours!:)).

Carrie said...

Amber - LOL. I was messaging a friend from a long time ago on Facebook yesterday who said that they hadn't had kids yet - kids seemed like a lot of work. And I said that she is right, they sure are, and you don't really even know how much until you are around them a lot. BUT - when they are your very own personal mini-me's - they are a whole lot more rewarding. :) I keep telling Tim how happy I am at this point in our life. Napless children and all. :)

But I don't blame you for waiting another month or two. (Heh heh heh.) :) Or at least a week or something. Maybe you can celebrate your first anniversary with a cute little red-faced wailer. :)

We would love to have you guys come. Gabe would be so excited he wouldn't know what to do. :)

Janice - WHAT????!!!!! Brian was still taking TWO naps????? Now this is exactly what I am talking about. Sigh. Israel dropped that one a LONG time ago. But I think that probably Joyce is right and it's some invisible teeth or something. I hope. He has had a fever and has been snotty...although his fever is gone, but his squirrelly-ness is not...

Carrie said...

Candice - LOL again. No, it wasn't you either. It was someone here in DE that I had talked to at a little "mom's party". No, Gabe doesn't nap. If he does, he simply cannot fall asleep at night until very late. I think he has my sleeping genes. I think it probably is a phase indeed. Just a particularly maddening, craze-inducing one. There's just something about how you PLAN on having some quiet, relaxed time...and then spend the entirety of it listening to the baby screech. Entirely unrelaxing. Thwarted plans stink.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Candice...stick it out. Kalvary is 4 and I make her lay down for about 2 hours every day even if she doesn't sleep.

StuckeyBlog said...

Carrie - your boys are definitely related to Tyler! He was always hard to get to sleep. He did go through phases of refusing a nap, then took them again. But in the end, we found that the struggle to get him to nap was extremely frustrating, and then (like Gabe) he would go to bed late. (I think, but would not bet on it, that this was at about age 2 1/2-3). I fought it for the same reasons you name, and it was all overwhelming. I hope for your sake this will be over soon. :0)

katy said...

Oh my! don't give into him dropping that nap! My head hurts just thinking of how yours must feel!

Today I got hit with a load of exhaustion around 5:00 pm, the kind I haven't had since I was pregnant (nope,I'm not again) and I thought of you and how tired you must be in your third tri with non-nappers. I hope Israel outgrows this phase very very soon for you!

(If it makes you feel better we had two crap naps today and were super fussy all evening! Misery loves company!)

Lynette Polinder said...

i feel bad for you and laughing loudly at your choice of words.