Friday, February 18, 2011

Sleep.... or lack thereof

This is the face of a sad bawling baby boy. 40 minutes of crying and trying to get him to take a nap. One 45 min nap this morning and it's now 2pm and he's not sounding like he wants an afternoon nap. He had about 15 min in the car while I ran errands around noon. That's about it. Could he really not be tired??? Any ideas?
He sure was happy to get up and as long as I'm holding him he doesn't cry... other than that he's been crying pretty much the whole day... yes even in the car except for the 15 min he finally gave up to sleep (the whole purpose of the errands was to get him to sleep). Some days I'll try anything!

6 comments:

JakenDebbie said...

Aw man, Becca! I feel for you!! Do you have one of those big exercise balls? I've heard that bouncing them on those (while holding him, of course) can be really relaxing to a fussy baby.

We tried to get rid of Laney's binkey last weekend...she cried for a full two hours at nap time before I gave in. It worked with all the other kids...she wasn't having it. I HATE it when they don't take their naps!!

Sending all the hugs your way that I can!

Stine said...

My heart aches for all of you. We just have rough nights now and then and that is hard enough! I wish I had answers for you. I didn't have to start the driving for afternoon naps until MUCH later - but I did it, pretty much daily for both older ones.

Johnston Journal said...

Ethan was an awful sleeper. Thankfully Mason is an excellent sleeper - however -even at nearly 4 months, I have to swaddle him tight (I use a swaddle blanket) or he doesn't sleep long. With it, he'll sleep at least 3 hrs in am, afternoon and then goes to bed around 6:30 or 7. It's awesome! With Ethan, it was just awful that he never wanted to sleep, still doesn't. He has a very short window in the evening to put him to bed. If we pass that short time, the stinker won't fall asleep until at least midnight. When he was a baby, I had no idea. Still don't really! I feel for ya!!! If you find a solution, I'm VERY eager to hear it!!!

Chuckleheads said...

Bella and I watched a cartoon today that said if you play music the baby will sleep. :D Helpful aren't I? Love you sissy.

The Hannant Family said...

Ok I'm taking a little peek into you life. I do it every once in awhile to see how my favorite "johnsons"are doing. I stalk Anna pretty much daily. I feel your pain. I don't have a lot of solutions for you, but I did read a very helpful book called Healthy sleep habits, happy child. It really helped me with my colicky kid and my one that didn't like to nap. Also my one that didn't like to nap suffered from monthly ear infections and once we got her tubes she slept like a champ. Good luck! Jody

Melissa Bosen said...

Becca,
I'm sorry. Unfortnately, I can relate. Evan was SO STINKING HARD as a baby. He was just flat out fussy all the time, Mr. Fussypants, as we called him. Nothing worked more than once. As an infant, he would only take a couple of 20 minute naps per day. That's it!! And then my nights were just as bad. I remember asking the doctor at his 18 month appointment if it was normal for him to sleep more as a toddler than he ever did as a newborn, infant, baby. He said that no, it was not normal. I tried everything you can think of to get him to sleep....I changed my diet to see if it was something wrong with my milk...I read everything I could. I never did figure out anything with Evan....he just outgrew it with time. But he's such an amazing kid now and no harm was done from lack of sleep or from screaming his head off for months. :) (Preston had classic colic for 2 months and it was a piece of cake compared to what I went through with Evan)
Just keep doing your best and try to roll with the punches. Do you have a young woman close by who could be a mother's helper? She could come by after school for a couple of hours and be assigned to make James happy. :) That would give you a break from the crying so that you can stay fresh and energetic. Hang in there!