My Baby is the Worst Sleeper

Hey all! Happy weekend!

Friday morning started off with a very yummy breakfast: a toasted onion bagel + Earth Balance vegan butter + fresh tomatoes from the garden + salt and pepper. It was so good, I had the other half of the bagel too.

img_3900

After getting ready, I had an appointment with the chiropractor to get treatment on my bum hip flexor that’s been bothering me for over 2 months. I think (fingers crossed/prayers being said/wishing at every wishing well) that we are finally making progress. Unfortunately, I won’t really know until I try running again, but he has been doing ART (Active Release Technique) on it, and he said things have been loosening up nicely. He also said the areas of tightness are getting smaller, so at least we are seeing progress. He wants me to cross-train for 2-4 more weeks until I try running again.

After the appointment, I stopped at Kid-to-Kid (a local consignment store) to get some dress clothes for Cullen for church. He’s outgrown his ones from this spring/summer, so I found a pair of pants and two long sleeve button-up shirts he can wear.

I also bought Cullen a toy truck and this scooter. He loves riding toys like this anytime we go to other peoples’ houses, so I was pretty confident he would actually use it. To be honest, I’ve bought him so few toys because he doesn’t seem that interested in something for very long. Plus, we’ve been gifted quite a few toys as well. He was so excited about the scooter and pretty much rode it all afternoon.

img_3905

When we got home, we had lunch, and then I put Cullen down for a nap around 1:30 p.m. This later than what I would prefer because the later he naps, the longer he stays up at night. I purposely waited until this time though because he slept until 8:15 a.m. that morning, and I wasn’t sure he would be ready much before that. Plus I wanted to make sure he was good and tired this time as he has skipped a couple of naps earlier this week.

Well. . . . .after 30 minutes of him playing in his crib, kicking the crib, and rolling around, I knew he wasn’t going down. That’s 3 times this week he didn’t take a nap. Is he really giving up his nap already? I made him read books in his crib for another 30 minutes for some quite time at least.

img_3902

We have battled his sleep from the day he was born, and I am surprised we are still having issues with it. Thankfully once he’s down for the night, he’s a great sleep, but getting him to go to bed before 9 p.m. does not happen if he’s had a nap. It is often 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. before he goes down, and this results in only about 9-10 hours of sleep for him, which doesn’t seem like enough. (I can tell he is much fussier when he sleeps 9-10 hours, versus closer to 12 hours.) It is probably a good thing I haven’t been able to train because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get more than 6 or 7 hours of sleep each night either.

Cullen has never been an earlier riser, usually waking up between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. most mornings. I usually get him down for a nap around 12:30 p.m., and he sleeps for about 2 hours. But even when he wakes up around 2:30/3:00 p.m., he still won’t go down at a reasonable time at night.

What gives? Any ideas? I know this spring/summer the excessive daylight doesn’t help, but the sunset is now at 8:30 p.m., so I thought I would start to see an earlier bedtime now.

So we watched the live camera feed of the brown bears in Katmai National Park in Alaska. Cullen has no interest in the TV, but he loves watching the bears on the iPad. He also loves watching videos of kids on Instagram or Snapchat.

img_3903

After a while, we went for an afternoon walk. It was a picture-perfect fall day. Of course Cullen insisted on walking or riding his scooter for 75% of the time, so I pushed an empty stroller. I make him ride in the stroller when we walk along the rode because it is too hard to wrangle and dog and a toddler otherwise.

img_3909

I do love fall, but as I’ve said before, I wish it didn’t come so early–and wasn’t so short and rainy all the time.

img_3906

When we got back, Craig came home from work, and I whipped up an easy dinner. I made some rice, sauteed tofu, and heated up this pre-made curry from Costco. I’ve purchased this curry many times, and it is very legit for a curry.

img_3916

The good thing about a no-nap day, is that Cullen is ready for bed at a normal time for a toddler. At 6:30 p.m. I gave him a bath, did our bedtime routine, and  he was out by 7:15 p.m.

He is flossing his teeth in this picture, and it is honestly one of his favorite things to do.

img_3917

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. Run some extra miles for me!

Hi, I'm Michelle

I love running around the lakes of Minnesota, running after my two boys, and racing anything from the 5K to the marathon. I have been blogging here since 2010 when I ran my first marathon. I finally secured my sub-3 hour marathon after trying for 8 years.

Shop my Instagram

Tap Here

Follow me!

Leave a Reply

6 Comments

  1. 9.11.16

    Cullen is probably gifted. My son was never much for naps or sleeping either. His mind just kept going and going. I was sleep deprived for years but the kid turned out to be brilliant so it was worth it in the end (you probably also have a budding little scientist living with you, lol). P.S. Love the scooter.

    • 9.11.16
      Michelle said:

      You are not the first person to say this! Let’s hope it’s true!

  2. 9.12.16
    Austin said:

    Have you considered waking him up earlier in the morning to help him reset to the schedule you would prefer? I did this with my daughter when she had a hard time falling asleep for her nap and after a few days her internal clock kind of “reset”. It may be worth trying!

    • 9.19.16
      Michelle said:

      There’s been a handful of days he’s woken up around 6:00/6:30 a.m., and then I’ll give him a nap around 11:30 a.m., which is great because then he’ll go down around 9 p.m. But it never lasts because then he’ll sleep until 8 a.m. the next morning and we’ll get back into the later schedule. I could wake him up early every morning he sleeps past a certain time, but I always feel bad waking him up.

  3. 9.14.16
    Jenny said:

    As long as you can make it through the day (mentally and physically) without the nap I would try just skipping it for a while. He may go back to it after a while or maybe he really is done. At least you can enjoy some early bedtimes!

    • 9.14.16
      Michelle said:

      Thanks! While the break in the middle of the day is nice, I do prefer he goes to bed at a “normal” kid time!