Naptime, Schnaptime…

Oh, kids and the napping phenomenon. It’s a constantly changing struggle. It will be going great for months at a time, then all of a sudden, one kid decides they don’t want to nap. Or wakes up crying waking up the other kid. Or wants to play instead of sleep.

You may have seen this video that I posted on facebook last week.

It’s hard to even explain the trouble we have been having with Aliza. Since she was born, this girl has loved her bed and sleeping. I could easily just drop her in the bed and she’d got to sleep, at naptime and bedtime. When she was old enough to walk, we’d say, “ready to go night-night?” and she’d run to her bed so fast we couldn’t keep up with her. And she slept until 8 am!!! It was WONDERFUL I tell you! And if you’re a mom, I know you are totally jealous of that.

Well, about 6 weeks or maybe 2 months ago, she stopped liking her bed. She stopped wanting to sleep, she started screaming and crying in her bed. She started waking up several times at night and was up for good at 6 am. It has been horrible, heartbreaking and totally baffling. I called her doctor, took her in and I couldn’t really get an answer as to what is happening…

On the other hand, during the middle of the summer, Marielle started really fighting her nap. I was completely devastated. What would I do without a nap???!! I get so much done at this time! It’s my only break!! Well, after a while of us fighting about it, I gave up. I told her, “fine, you don’t have to nap, but you have to stay in your room and be quiet. Read, play, stare out the window, whatever, just stay in your room and be quiet.” I was so nervous about this. But day after day, this is what I found

Sleeping, everyday. Finally, we just went back to our regular nap routine and I put her in her bed after reading a book. Now it’s kind of back and forth and she naps sometimes and sometimes she just plays in her room.

Then, Aliza started having her sleeping troubles. I just knew that she was not ready to just give up her nap. She’s not even 2 yet, I just don’t think she could possibly give it up, and Marielle who is 16 months older, is still sleeping at least sometimes. One day I just had enough and I let her cry and cry and cry for 2 hours. I felt so bad about it, but I thought she had to give it up eventually. She never did, but I finally got her out of her bed and not 5 minutes later, this is her

She was so obviously tired. And this kept happening. She would not take a nap, and was so difficult to put down at night, but she was falling asleep everywhere during the day. I couldn’t understand it, I would fight and fight and fight her to stay awake in the car, so she would sleep in her bed. It wasn’t working. I was at my wit’s end and I took her to the doctor as a last straw. I just needed help with this. I really had no other idea what to do.

Our doctor told us to put her back on Zyrtec. It takes a few days for Zyrtec to start working, but by 3 days after we started it, she was sleeping better. She’s not back to her old self, but she’s not so hard to put down and she’s sleeping later in the morning. I feel so bad. Poor little girl couldn’t breathe well and couldn’t tell me .

Nevertheless, we are sleeping more over here and I am so happy about that. I just hope we keep this schedule for a little while longer!!