BarefootinBoston

My adorable, charming, intelligent, bottomless pit son knows how to push all my buttons. I suppose it’s not intentional. Something is up with him, and I have no idea what it is. He eats like a champ, sleeps ok at night. His napping during the day is so god awful. I swear I can set time by the way he naps. Rarely will he sleep more than 30 minutes, and it is generally around the 30 minute mark where he will wake up. Um…you’re 6 months old there E, don’t you need more than 2 hours of naps during the day. I suppose I can tell that he’s not getting sufficient sleep based on the fact that he is never able to be awake for more than 1 to 1.5 hours without getting fussy and needing another nap (falling asleep within 5 minutes of putting him in his crib). Maybe this is the way he is. His doctor wasn’t the least bit helpful. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” was her response when I asked about lengthening his naps. Great, thanks for your help there Doctor.

The thing I don’t understand is that if I leave him in his crib, let him cry for a little while, he’ll sometimes go back to sleep. Now, to anyone but me apparently, this seems ok. But I would think a routine would form, that he would be able to sleep more than 30 minutes without waking up crying before going back to bed. I do not want to create a sleep monster. I fear I have created a solids monster with the way E attacks his thrice daily feedings.

My main new years resolution was to accept E for E, not try to put him into this mold of what he should be, how he should be acting, how he should be developing. Easier said than done. I was talking with my friend MJ yesterday and explained to her that I am like a cup and right now, I am full. Between Jack’s death, hunting for a new apartment, dealing with a land lord who was trying to screw us, E’s cranky state is the icing on the cake. And since I am home with him all day, that is what the focus is on. Boy do I need some yoga!

We have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday…hopefully his crankiness will be solved by then. I think it’s the incessent fussing that I suppose I am really upset about, the naps are naps. When he’s cranky for more than half the time he is awake (and he’s full, changed, all the things that they say babies get cranky about have been checked) something is up. It’s just figuring out what it is that is the problem.

The amazing part is, no matter how frustrated I am with E, all it takes is a simple smile from him to change the whole thing. It’s incredible. He can play me better than anyone else. And to think this is just the start.