Nursing Your Kids

Sam hasn’t nursed to go down for a nap in at least six months now but that’s because I’d given up on indoor naps entirely and taken our naps on the road. When the weather was nice he’d nap in the stroller and when the weather was bad he’d nap in the car. Then I got pregnant and my energy level plummeted. Two hour walks trying to get him to sleep were out of the question. For the last three months he’s only napped in the car.

I kept thinking that things would change at some point. Eventually he’d be old enough to reason and just calmly accept that it was nap time and he’d get into bed and lie down. But then I came to my senses and realized that I was screwed unless I actively changed our nap routine. Of course I was too exhausted to actually do anything about it, but the idea was that when my energy returned in the second trimester changes would be made.

Well it’s the second trimester and I still don’t have any energy. For some inexplicable reason I decided that today is day one of operation nap indoors. I prepped him all morning for the indoor nap after lunch. I told him that he was going to take his nap in bed today and he shook his head no and said uh-uh each time I reminded him of the indoor nap. After story hour we came home, washed our hands and ate some lunch. I reminded him that it was nap time. Again he shook his head no and said uh-uh, but this time he started to cry. I brought him upstairs and into his room. He began to cry harder and say light on, shoes on. I turned on the sleepy time music and asked if he wanted to read a story.

We read two Curious George stories, turned on the music, got into bed and read Goodnight Moon a few times. Then I put the book down and tried to help him fall asleep. He started to cry immediately. The crying escalated until I did exactly what I didn’t want to do and asked him if he wanted to nurse. He said yes immediately and nursed calmly until he fell asleep. As soon as I removed my nipple from his mouth he woke up screaming and crying, “More, more, more.” I let him nurse a little longer until he was asleep again and the same thing happened only this time when I tried to extract myself he bit me. Hard. I tried to cuddle him a bit longer but the screams just got worse and he tried to bite a chunk out of my cheek. After the third time I told him to put his head down I left the room.

He cried for a while then started yelling, “Mama, bed.” I went into his room and he asked for his pajamas and sleep sack. I got him dressed for bed and he cuddled with me for a few minutes and asked to nurse again. I told him no, he started crying again, climbed out of bed and tried to unlatch the gate in his doorway. I told him I’d leave if he didn’t get back into bed. He said, “Mama stay,” but didn’t get into bed so I left.

That was ten minutes ago. We’re an hour and a half into the process now. He’s clearly not going to take a nap today. I don’t know what to do. He’s obviously exhausted and ready for a nap but doesn’t want me to help him fall asleep. I don’t want to get into the habit of nursing him to sleep and leaving my nipple in his mouth for as long as he’d like but I don’t want him to give up naps altogether. I feel like breastfeeding just to get him to nap is taking a huge step backwards, but I don’t know what else to do. If he doesn’t learn how to nap in his bed I’ll be screwed once the baby is born.