Adventures in Napping

The napping phenomenon is an interesting part of the routine in this newly established Kuhns Family. My son is not a good sleeper. He comes by it honestly. I've dealt with bouts of insomnia and the curse of being a very light sleeper my whole life. I was hoping not to pass that on, what with those dominant Ryan genes and all, but it seems my son is about as skilled at sleeping as I am. I also hate naps. For starters, falling asleep in the middle of the day is a challenge for me, no matter how exhausted I am. And then, if I happen to overcome that hurdle, I tend to wake up grumpy and groggy - basically ruined for the rest of the day - which pretty much ruins the point of taking a nap in the first place. I'm afraid Wyatt may have a similar reaction to naps.

This morning's nap is chalk full of great examples of Wyatt at his finest. It begins, inevitably, with the slow transition from happy baby to fussy baby. This signals Mommy that he's tired, and needs a nap. And so it begins. I take him into his room, make sure he has a clean diaper, and cuddle him for just a bit to get him calm before placing him sweetly in his crib. He fusses, whines, and generally expresses his disapproval. He hates naps, after all. He grumbles and cries as his eyes get smaller and smaller. He sucks violently on his bink to make himself feel better about his terrible bad luck about being in his crib. His eyes are slits. He stares through his slits at Mommy until his lids are so heavy, he has no more strength to hold them open. And then, even in sleep, he whimpers for about 5 minutes, still annoyed at the evil nap. 30 minutes go by as he sleeps quietly, and then, out of his room, the crying begins again. Mommy is back in his room to soothe him, knowing that if the light crying gets worked up into wailing, he will not fall asleep again. He has spit out his bink and rolled his head to the side, on top of it. He's uncomfortable sleeping on a bink, naturally, and he's ticked. I put the bink back into his mouth, which he attacks like a piece of meat. He wimpers, staring at me with wide eyes, daring me to make him keep napping. I hold the bink in his mouth with one finger while I stroke his cheek lightly and stare him down. We hold a staring contest for about 5 minutes as his eyes get smaller. His "blink" is sleep, and he's out again to complete the second 30 minutes of his evil nap. (This dramatization was edited to keep it intertesting. In all honesty, there were actually about 4 trips back and forth to calm him before he napped, but that would have been overkill...) The beast wakes up hungry. He is MAD that he isn't being fed immediately upon waking. He hollers until he is given sustenance. After he eats, he smiles and gurgles and talks to mommy. He plays and he grins. Happy as can be. No beast in sight...until it's time for his next nap, of course...

Here's our 10 week-old Wyatt, post-nap and post-meal of course, testing out his new big-boy toy. He's trying to decide what he thinks about this shocking new thing. :) He's still too little to touch the ground and jump on his own, so we've added a phone book under his feet to help, which is working out nicely.