Nursing Your Kids

Last night was wretched. After spending forever trying to get him to sleep, Sam was up at 11.30, 4.00, then again at 5.15. I crawled into his bed (I am so glad we went with the twin size bed instead of a toddler bed because I really needed that sleep) and he slept until 7.30, a full hour and a half later than he’s been sleeping the past couple of weeks.

He’s got a bit of a cold so I decided to take him to the zoo this morning instead of the playground or playhouse. I figured he’d have plenty of room to run around, but fewer toys to stick in his mouth. He had a great time and got plenty of exercise running from animal to animal and climbing every staircase we passed. I packed a lunch so we ate that at 11.30 and shared an ice cream cone before heading back to the car by noon. After all of the running and excitement I thought he’d be ready for a nap. Then I remembered he slept in. After close to two hours of trying I gave up on a nap completely knowing that if he slept any later than 2.30 it would be impossible to get him to sleep.

He hung in for a while. His aunt and grandmom came for a visit and he adores them both. But by 5.30 he was falling apart. He threw a fit when Bob took his clothes off to put him into the bath then threw another fit when it was time to get out. Bob had to leave to chaperone an event for school so I was stuck putting him to bed on my own.

Sam wanted nothing to do with me. He wanted to read stories from our Curious George anthology but refused to let me finish any of them and slammed the book shut on my hand. Then he cried when I put it away. I tried to read Good Night Moon but it made him cry even harder so I turned off the light and tried to rock with him. After he punched me in the eye trying to wrestle away from me I asked if he just wanted to get in bed. He did. I put him in bed and sat beside him. He said, “nurse, nurse.” I asked him if he was sure and he started tugging on my shirt in reply. After about five minutes he was asleep- the first time in probably four months he’s nursed to sleep. Let’s just hope he stays asleep.