frazzled

This bottle-less sleep difficulty was supposed to last 2 or 3 days.   At least that's how it played out in my head.  Today was day 4, and I'm afraid I cannot claim victory.

We have officially cut out morning nap.  Benjamin doesn't seem to be suffering, or crabby in the morning, so it seems like the right call.  He wakes up around 7 or 7:30a.m. and plays for 15 to 30 minutes.  We take our time eating breakfast and then if its not too hot,(which it has been lately) I like to go on a walk.  Before the flood, we played in the basement and I make sure Benjamin has 45 minutes or so of quiet time in his room.  

Lately we have been eating a 11:30ish lunch and taking our sweet time with that also.  He's been pickier about what he eats this week,along with a semi-boycott from milk, so that has been frustrating.  He has discovered a passion for watered down grape juice, and always loves water.  

We go down around 1ish for his nap, and he goes down like a champ regularly.  He also sleeps for appx. 2 1/2 hrs which is nice.  Our afternoons usually involved a lengthy book reading time, a 1/2 hr or more, or an actual trip to the library (which is worth a whole other post!). I try to get some stuff done after a book time, and he's pretty good about loving to play by himself.  

He gets pretty restless before the hr is up, and Curious George saves us at 5:00!  Then I can get some supper ready!  We eat around 6:00 watch The Office and Wheel...and then play, read, walk or HGTV till bed!

This is when my happy go lucky little boy has been stumping me the last 4 days.  We used to take 1 1/2 hr nap in the a.m., 2 hr nap in the afternoon, and be ready for bed around 8:00 p.m.  Now that we have taken away bottles, and the morning nap, I haven't gotten him to sleep before 9:00.  He doesn't act super tired, just a little more naughty than normal, and after 12 hrs of mommy duty, I shut down around 8:00.  For him to whip out some strong will at that time of night has me in a tizzy.  I can't figure out if he isn't tired, overly tired, or just likes getting out of bed, cuddling/playing, and then going down a second time.  I let him cry for 22 minutes tonight, and it got us no where.  I don't like cry time, and especially when its not productive.  And I really don't like that he's not drinking more than a couple sips of milk in the day, and sleeping 3 less hrs.  It makes it worse how lovey and adorable he is when I get him out of his crib.  You don't even understand how great he is.  If I wasn't SO TIRED it would be my favorite part of the day.  He cuddles against my chest as we watch t.v. and he looks up at me out of the corner of his eye and smiles.  Its like he knows there is nothing he could do at that point to make me angry.  Little stinker!

On that note, I do need to record that today, I gave Benjamin my first spank'n.  I'm not sure if Joel has before, and honestly it was super light on a diaper, and hardly worth the title of a spank'n, but it caused an intense amount of tears nonetheless, and a cry for Daddy while he clung to my neck.  I normally say things once, and then if he repeats he gets a small swat on his mouth.  We usually are done with the issue at that point.  Tonight it was between 5 and 10 repeats of the offense, and it was after 8:00, and tapping his mouth was not effective.  To the bottom I went, and I'm not sure if it was the act of spanking or my tone that caused water works, but he stopped repeating the offense.  Wouldn't it be great if he just learned now, that obedience would prevent any future acts of discipline.  I'll keep my hopes up! :)

Well, if you stuck around to read all of that feel free to give me advice on getting my little man to bed.  I'm running out of ideas!