Sunday, May 25, 2008

Sleep is more important than money...

As evidenced by our willingness to drive all over Crofton and Annapolis yesterday on a wing and a prayer that Chase would nap. It worked... he napped for about 45 minutes, woke up and with no change in atmosphere, the hum of our moving Jeep lulled him back to sleep for at least another 45 minutes!

It started in the morning with Chase's first nap... more appropriately, his lack of first nap. He was down for all of 30 minutes before little man was awake and unwilling to go back to sleep. And I tried... oh did I try to get him back to sleep. It didn't work. So we start the process over.... up, feed, play and when he is sleepy, back down for another nap. When he went down for the second nap, I thought 'great, here is where I recharge and get some mommy time'... 15 minutes after he went down, I hear noise. No, this can't be... he has to be joking. He wasn't. With the same unwillingness to go back to sleep, despite his mother's DESPERATE attempt, Chase was back up. It was now 1 ish and we had in essence wasted the day so far... it's amazing how quickly time passes when Chase is awake for the majority of it. We are now looking at the day thinking that it will be a pointless unproductive day... so we attempt to salvage it by researching parks in the area to have our pictures taken... and in doing so have Chase nap in the carseat. So at 3 (next nap time) we set off. We have our Garmin and we are just cruising all over Crofton and Annapolis looking at parks and checking backseat mirror. To our relief, most of the time, this what we saw...


Around 4:20 Adam and I were talking about plans that we had for the rest of the weekend... I mentioned Rose's graduation party that was tomorrow... Saturday. Just as Adam was telling me that today was Saturday, I was coming to that realization. No, no I didn't mess this up... I have to be wrong. We consult our calendar... yeah, the party started at 3 and was about 45 minutes away from our house, of which we are 20 minutes away from with no baby supplies. I was crushed. I have had this party on our calendar for months... I really wanted to be there. Now, not only have I not recharged from Chase, I feel like the worlds biggest schmuck. Ugh.

We decide to try to salvage the day (again), and head to Annapolis. It's gorgeous and we thought we could cruise main street. Chase woke up on our way there so we actually were able to get out and walk around.

As you can see we did get to enjoy the great outdoors. We sat on a bench for a little while and played with Chase and people watched.


We even got a fun family shot!

We timed going home so just as we got home Chase would be ready for another nap. He was cranky and getting sleepy the whole way home... so much so that I hopped in the backseat as we were driving to distract him from screaming. I take him immediately to his room, we do our sleepy routine, he is tired... until we actually lay down. It goes from drifting eyes to spitting out the paci to babbling to all out screaming. Then after the screaming comes crying... the kind of crying that people talk about when they talk about babies. Inconsolable crocodile tears. At this point my tears rival Chase's. I was so tired, so spent, so not wanting to be a mommy anymore. Adam came and took Chase while I finished crying. After some deliberations between Adam and I, we decided that Chase just wouldn't nap that evening and we gave up. He would just have to be a crankpot the rest of the eveing and he did not let us down. We limped along until 10 which is his current bed time at which point we all passed out.

I did get up with him at 11 something... then again at 12 something... and again at 6 something... unfortunately that is to be expected with a bad day of napping. Oddly enough, good sleep during the day means good sleep at night. Bad sleep during the day means bad sleep at night. Oh well. Today is a new day. Thank goodness.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least I am not the only one with a baby who does not know how to sleep! I sympathize whole-heartedly my dear. Life on this side of the bridge is about the same as yours!

chocolate hug said...

Oh what a frustrating day! I think it was at about Chase's age that I started to leave Sam in his bed if he wouldn't take his nape. The longest he cried was 45 min one night, but it happened only once. I know it sounds cruel, but now I have almost no trouble with him at all. If he wakes up in the middle of his nap all I do is wait 15 min and he almost always goes back to sleep. In the beginning I set a timer just to keep myself sane. If Chase knows his crying will get you to his room he'll keep it up...that is if he's not teething or something.

Keep being patient and trying different things!

diana

Anonymous said...

Just a piece of advise...you really should put down your carseat handle once the baby is in the car, that is what the fire department told us when we had them put in our car seat. Just some FYI since I see you have a little one, and I saw the picture of him in the car seat...he is a cutie putie by the way!!

LoveLladro said...

Amy - what I don't understand is where did he come from? Adam and I LOVE to sleep!

Diana - I have been contemplating trying the cry it out method... although he isn't generally just crying to see if I will come get him. He tends to have an actual issue. Gas has been a HUGE problem with us since day one. He literally strains and strains until he passes gas. Not sure where to go with that... all the 'experts' say he will outgrow it eventually... I am still waiting ;~)

anon - I had no idea! Thanks... I will try to remember that! and thanks... we think he's pretty adorable!

Nick & Rose said...

I love you and I don't think you're a schmuck! Don't worry about missing the party, you were there on Monday, and that meant a lot to me.

LoveLladro said...

rose - thanks! I still feel bad missing the party... I really wanted to be there! I had a great time on Monday and was really glad I could be there!

chocolate hug said...

You know your baby! Follow your gut. I always know when Sam isn't faking it because his head breaks out in hives when he's truly upset! I'm glad I figured that one out early, it's saved me a lot of worry.

kathi said...

So many memories. I remember crying like that too; you, not Chase. It's such a helpless feeling. I love that close up of him at the park. What were all the guys in black in the background?