Purging myself of nap frustrations via blog.

Owen has skipped 5 naps in the last 2 weeks (and he only takes one per day).
Of the remaining days, 4 of the naps were less than an hour long.
Of the remaining days, 4 of the naps involved Owen waking up screaming in the middle of the nap, but then returning to sleep after several minutes.
That leaves 2 days of 'good' naps, each an uninterrupted 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Pretty much every other mother I know has a child who routinely naps at least 2 hours, and on an off day takes .75-1.5 hours.

No it is not because he is not tired. Yes, it is because he is overtired. Sometimes it may be because when he skips a nap I put him to bed very very early to compensate and the extra long night's sleep makes it harder for him to nap the next day. No, keeping him up later after he skips a nap would not be really smart. Yes, trying to keep him up later would make him wake up several times during the night screaming and horribly grumpy the next day. Yes, I am quite frustrated that we are in one of these really horrible, worse-than-normal-horrible napping patterns right before we're traveling for both holidays. Sigh.

We had a couple of bad days last week that were completely my fault (not that you should blame me, I am doing my BEST!). I had gone in and helped him get to sleep one day when it was very clear he would not nap otherwise. While this might seem like no big deal, to my strong-willed child, it is a permission slip to cry during his entire naptime after I put him down on subsequent days. So, I think we basically had to do some re-nap training last week for a day or so. Then, there's the poopy diaper in the crib problem. Still happening now and then.

But today was an all new adventure! After having vowed non-negotiably to NEVER again return to Owen's room for at least one hour after the start of naptime so as not to send him any mixed signals and especially with traveling and sleeping in new places coming...today he was not going down easily, but then began to shrriiiieek in a truly horrific, abnormal fashion. I waited for a bit but noticed that there was no movement on his video monitor. I sensed a real problem, and sure enough he looked like a crazed animal when I walked in because he had managed to get his arm stuck in the crib. His elbow joint wouldn't pop back through and I had a hard time getting it out without hurting him myself. He was beside himself. I hugged him for a minute to calm him down and then tried to put him back down to go to sleep. Well, normally if I lay him back down he is very unhappy but he seems angry more than anything. Today when I tried he seemed hysterical. I think he was completely wigged out by getting stuck and was at this point unable to manage his emotions in any way. Moments of decision! What does one do? Is he throwing a tantrum and acting extra snarly just to get out of that crib and I should say 'naptime' and walk out of the room? Tried that...he sounded rabid as I left the room, like he would hurt himself. I returned and laid him down but he wouldn't even calm down with me standing there. Suddenly I just decided to put my hand over his eyes like a mask and he instantly got quiet and collapsed into sleep. So, it seems that he really was entirely overwhelmed and this was not just a tantrum to be ignored. But now we have one more mixed message to mess with this week's naps. He always finds a way to play a trump card. But I love him.