Naps Are For Sissies

After all my bragging about Fionn's good sleep habits in Seattle, I suppose I had it coming. Hell. On. Earth. In the form of a Nap Strike.

Yep. After being the ultimate little trooper during the wedding festivities in Seattle and coasting through the return flight back to DC, our Fionn unfortunately reached the end his rope once we got back to DC. And I, as a result, found myself at the end of mine.

It all started on Monday, shortly after my last post. After some playtime on his Gym-mini mat, I noticed that Fionn was getting fussy. This nearly always means that he is tired (when it isn't a matter of hunger, that is), so I carried him back to the nursery to begin the process of putting him down for his afternoon nap. I rocked him for a few minutes in the rocking chair, and he promptly fell asleep on my shoulder as anticipated. I stood up, walked him over to the crib and lowered him into the Nap Nanny which we were using as a sleep aid for Fionn due to his acid reflux. Note the use of past tense in that sentence. More on that later.

Anyway, as soon as I stepped away from the crib, Fionn's little eyes popped wide open, and he let out a deafening wail. No biggie, I thought. I scooped him up and walked him around the nursery a bit, patting his back, until he conked out again in my arms. Then I walked him back over to the crib and began to lower him onto the Nap Nanny. Same thing happened again. Little eyes popped wide open. Loud wail.

This continued for three days.



This might be a good time to remind you that I was on my own with the little tike from Sunday until Thursday of last week since Conor stayed in Seattle after the wedding to take some business meetings there. Oh, and as luck would have it, last week also happened to be the official recall of the Nap Nanny. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Nap Nanny, it is basically a contraption similar to a wedge pillow that allows Fionn to sleep upright as if he were sleeping in his car seat. It has been helpful with his acid reflux, and it definitely seems to contribute to his ability to sleep for long periods of time during naps as well as at night. However, it is apparently not supposed to be used in the crib. This, of course, begs the astute question, "Then what the heck is it for?" But that is a question for another day. The important thing to know for the purpose of this post is this: As soon as the recall was issued on Monday, I immediately removed the Nap Nanny from Fionn's crib, and we went cold turkey. This did not help the Nap Strike situation.

It was indeed a perfect storm of sleep deprivation for both of us. Although Fionn continued to sleep pretty well at night, his inability to sleep at all during the day made for a fussy little guy. It also became increasingly difficult to feed him a full feeding because he was so tired that he would fall asleep during nursing. Great, you say. Then he was napping after all.

Ah, but there was a catch, my gentle friends. Yes, Fionn would cat nap on my chest, but anytime I tried to put him into the crib or anywhere that did not involve my body as a sleep surface...Well, please refer to the above passages. So not only was Fionn not getting good, quality sleep, his Mommy was unable to detach herself from her darling boy for the entire day. That means no naps or alone time for Mommy at all.

Perhaps I had it too good. I am learning that many babies exhibit a similar difficulty sleeping in the crib starting from Day One. So perhaps I should count my blessings that we never had to deal with this before last week. Regardless, until last week, I was used to having some down time without Fionn during the day. Also, please remember that I was already exhausted from all the activity and stress (fun stress but stress nonetheless) of the Seattle trip. This on top of dealing with a fussy baby on my own for 3 days without breaks was not exactly what the doctor ordered.

Oh, I had some difficult moments, including at least one time where I had to step away from my crying son and just breathe. Deep, cleansing breaths. I love my son, I love my son, I would chant, with my eyes squeezed shut. Had I Ruby Red Slippers, I would have clicked them. Believe me.

It definitely wasn't my finest hour as a parent. But it's part of the whole parenting experience, after all, so I thought it to be important to include. It's not all rainbows and roses all the time, that's for sure.

You'll be happy to know that Fionn began to ease out of his post-Seattle slump by the time Wednesday afternoon rolled around. And Thursday was a complete dream. I guess you could say that we worked out terms and conditions that worked for both of us, and the Nap Strike was resolved. Since this time, Fionn has actually been a better sleeper at night and during the day than ever before. He is now sleeping 6-7.5 hours a night on a regular basis which has been an excellent improvement upon his pre-Seattle routine. Meanwhile, during the day, we have gotten into a fabulous routine of eating, playing, and sleeping (otherwise known as the EASY method, prescribed by the Baby Whisperer which has been a very helpful book).



So we are happy campers over here at Camp Crimmins yet again. Daddy (i.e. Conor) arrived back home on Thursday, and we have had a wonderful few days ever since. Conor and I even enjoyed our first Date Night last night as a belated celebration of my birthday. Jon and Jen were kind enough to keep our little guy while we enjoyed some quality time at dinner just the two of us. Thanks so much, you guys!

I also want to give a special thanks to my dear friend, Corey Thornblad, who watched Fionny for a precious hour during the Nap Strike so I could go to the grocery store to retrieve food (and a bit of my sanity) during my time as a single parent. It was so incredibly helpful, Cor! Thank you so much! On that note, I have to say that I have the utmost respect for single parents everywhere now, even more so than before. In fact, I almost entitled this post Ode to Single Parents Everywhere. Seriously, hats off to those folks. You are of a stronger stock than I.

Until next time, folks.