You are getting sleepy...

I decided to do a post on our new naptime routine in case there's anyone else out there reading this blog who might benefit. Over the past 9 months or so, naptime had been hit or miss with Nathan. On some days, he'd be out like a light, while on other days it was constant requests to get up to pee, poop, get a drink, snuggle, etc. It was quite maddening. Of course, with no nap he would be exhausted, wild, and basically unruly the rest of the day. Then I started using a timer (I have a "timer" sound on my phone and would just make it go off when I thought he'd rested long enough. This worked until he starting asking every 2 minutes if the timer was going to go off. Then we instituted no talking while resting, and it would go something like this:
Nathan: Mommy, I'm sleeping, see my eyes are closed?
Me: No, you are not sleeping, because you're talking.
N: No talking?
Me: That's right, no talking, just resting.
N: Oh. *pause 30 seconds*
N: Mommy?
Me: Yes?
N: I all done talking, okay? I not talk anymore.
Me: Sigh :)


THEN I had a wild idea to try some progressive relaxation and visualization in bed right at the beginning of naptime. Overnight, I reached a nap success rate of about 90%! I assumed the two were related (because correlation doesn't equal causation, people!), but yesterday when I picked him up from school, he told me something really interesting. I asked if he napped, because he often doesn't at school, and he told me "yes I did my squeezing and rainbow exercises and then I took my nap." Here is our routine for those who are interested in trying:


- Of course darken the room and have your kid lie down in their bed comfortably. I ask Nathan to close his eyes, but I don't force it if he opens them. Sometimes he even laughs, but it doesn't seem to affect the outcome.
- We start with a progressive relaxation where I have him tighten and release his muscle groups from bottom to top, ending with his face. He's supposed to squeeze "tight, tight, tight" and then release with an "ahhhhhh." 
- Next we imagine a beautiful rainbow. I tell him to imagine that he's reaching out to touch it (he usually actually does reach his arm out) and first I describe the red, yellow, and orange feeling warm and the warmth spreading through his body like the warm sunshine. Then we do cool colors and I tell him to imagine the feeling washing over him like the ocean.
- Lastly, I count backwards from 10 slowly and attempting to get him to take one deep breath in and out on each number. The last breath is supposed to be the biggest and deepest. 
- After that, he doesn't just magically drop off to sleep. He still usually asks for a hug, or where his stegosaurus is, etc. And he usually takes a little while after that to continue winding down, but he does usually fall asleep after a  while. If you're having trouble getting your kids to nap, I strongly encourage you to try this! It's about a five minute investment of your time, and worst case scenario, it doesn't work but maybe YOU feel a bit more relaxed :)

Noah @ 6 months

Noah had his 6 month checkup last week and everything looked great! He weighed in at 15 lbs. 14 oz., which is 25th (!!!) percentile for weight and 26 inches which is 50th percentile for height. His head circumference is 10th percentile :) He got his shots and in typical Noah fashion cried for exactly four seconds, then got on with his life. We had been doing well with sleep until two days ago when, like clockwork, he hit his 6 month growth spurt and started up with the nighttime fussiness and waking every two hours. Last time this lasted about a week, so I am hoping he will be past it by the time we leave for our cruise one week from today. I'm ESPECIALLY hoping (I hope this every time there's a growth spurt) that when he comes out on the other side of the growth spurt, he'll sleep through the night. Crossing my fingers on that one.

I've been feeding him lunch and dinner daily, and just today started with breakfast. I had been holding off on breakfast because it will be tough to manage giving him breakfast on Nathan's school days, but he was putting his fist in his mouth this morning (which is what he does when he's hungry for a "meal" as opposed to hungry for milk). He is actually a pretty picky eater, so I have not invested the time in making food for him. Also, lots of the organics I would want to make (peaches, squash, etc.) are not in season so I think it would probably be more expensive to make food at this point. 

Developmentally I think he's right on track. Nathan, in his typical type A way, did everything early so it's not fair to compare the two. Noah has not gotten up on his hands and knees, and can't go from lying down to sitting up on his own, but he can stay in a seated position for a little while. He has just this past week started to reach out into his world to engage with things. As a newborn, there was no interaction. Then from 4-6 months, he would interact with things only when they were put into his "bubble." Now, he seeks out things that he wants and actively goes after them. I had hoped that this would encourage him to crawl after things, but he seems to just get frustrated instead. Oh well, in time, right?

Here's a 6 month picture:

Happy 3rd birthday, Nathan

Dear Nathan,

Happy 3rd birthday! Another year has flown by and you have blossomed from a toddler into a little boy. How can I begin to describe you?

You are very sensitive and cry easily. That can make disciplining you difficult, since you are unreachable with reason when you begin to cry. Sometimes, you have epic crying jags that can last an hour or more if we can't somehow cajole you out of them. 

You are sentimental- you remember who gave you every single thing that you own (and when/why they gave it to you). This includes toys, food, clothing, you name it. You also want to know "who made this?" about everything. You ask who made your house, the car, the shopping cart at Publix, and even who made you. You ask many incisive and inquisitive questions. That, combined with eyes like a hawk and a memory like an elephant means that nothing gets by you. Ever.

You ask "what" and "huh" a whole lot. It drives daddy and me nuts. You hear what we say, but you don't pay attention a lot of the time. We hope you will grow out of this soon. 

You love your little brother dearly; I sure hope it stays that way! You are always singing to him, bringing him toys, or telling me something funny that Noah did. You delight in watching him smile and in making him laugh. You tell me all the time the things you plan to do with him ("when Noah gets bigger THEN he can play blocks with me"). 

Your imagination is unmatched, so you find joy in playing with just about any toy. You love school and music class and the zoo. School is new, you just started at the beginning of January, and I already can tell that you've learned a ton. You have been talking about continents and tell us all the time that you want to take an airplane to South America to see volcanoes.  Oh yeah, you love volcanoes and tornadoes. And Angry Birds. And dinosaurs.

You love books of all kinds, but especially the pop-up ones from Uncle Jesse and anything by Dr. Seuss. You can recite by heart The Very Hungry Caterpillar (you've known this one for a while) and almost all of Fox in Socks. 

We look forward to watching you grow and learn even more this year. Happy birthday, baby, we love you so very much.