Friday, March 13, 2009

The Magic Elixir

Several of my friends are in the process of "Ferberizing" their infants. I always felt so lucky that AK would just go to bed without a fuss. Sure, sometimes she falls asleep while nursing, but more likely that not, she just gets a nice buzz going from it and lays quietly in her crib until she falls asleep.

And then there is nap time.

When at day care, it is unusual if AK, the amazing crawling wonder, takes more than one nap. And typically her one rest is in the morning (10:30-12:15 or so). This is so strange to me, especially since she wakes up at 8.

On Mondays and Fridays it doesn't seem possible that she will nap that early. If we are out running errands she might fall asleep in the car around that time, but at home she will just freak out if I put her down at 10:30.

What ends up happening is that I attempt to put her down after lunch. She wants none of it. Screaming, crying, etc. Which is really unlike her. So it kills me a little bit every time.

I know that if I nurse her for just a few minutes she will calm down and go to sleep. But if it isn't time for her to nurse, I don't want to get her into the habit of only getting drowsy at the boob. Today I tried to ignore her cries, I really did. But after 15 minutes of listening to her cry and 15 minutes of holding her until her eyebrows stopped being bright red and her tears dried up, she was still exhausted and still not sleeping.

So I whipped out my magic elixir (also known as baby crack). Less than a minute later her eyes clouded over and I transitioned her to the crib.

I should totally sell my stuff on eBay.

1 comment:

A's Mom said...

Never heard it called that before! That's the whole reason why we gave LMA paci during nap times, it totally calmed his down. But again, that doesn't allow them to soothe themselves. I know over the past month, since losing his beloved friend, that he has learned to go with the flow during nap time. He's always been great at night. It's whatever works for your baby.