The battle has begun...

Today, at 11:56 am, Sofia declared war on all naps. She has been very inconsistent with her nap time for the last month and as I began to read Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child, I realized that I have an exhausted child on my hands. She is constantly being stimulated and for her age, she isn't getting enough sleep. I figured that if she was sleeping 12 hours at night, that was plenty but I was waaayyy off. According to this pediatrician, babies her age need 1-2 naps per day. Well, I haven't read through the whole book so I can't say whether or not he is a quack or not but since the book was recommended to me by an experienced mother of 2, I would say it's legit.

When Sofia woke up this morning, she was clearly still tired. She was pulling at her ear (her notorious sign for sleepiness) and yawning the whole morning so after we went to the grocery store, I drove around to try to get her to sleep because I knew this would be a struggle but to no avail, she was awake when we got home. I took her to her room and rocked her while we listened to her lullabies and she was out. And by out, I mean, snoring, drooling, etc. The second I stood up to put her in her crib, she started to cry and hasn't stopped since. It is now 12:34pm and she is going strong with the crying so I will let her cry it out for another 22 minutes and if she doesn't fall asleep by then, we will just try again tomorrow.

I'm not sure how I feel about the Ferber method. It's so hard sitting here, trying to ignore the screaming baby I have in the other room but there's no other way for me to get her to sleep otherwise. My motherly instinct is telling me to run in there and rescue her but I know by doing that, I will be sending mixed signals because we haven't achieved the goal I set out for her: a NAP!

If anyone has any advice or suggestions on how to get my tired baby to sleep, let me know. Until then, I will keep posting about my Sofia's naptime battle.

On another note, I have to share this:

Sunday, Syd was at the gym and I had to take a shower which meant that Sofia would be bored, sitting outside my shower door, wondering what I was doing in there and why I wasn't outside, playing with her. I decided to give Sofia a snack and set her rocking chair in front of the tv to watch Sesame Street. I always assumed she was too young for television plus, I didn't want to get into the habit of just shoving a tv in front of her face to keep her entertained. So, I go to take my shower and Sofia just stayed in the living room, enjoying her snack and learning about the number 9. My little girl is growing up!

Hey mama, don't worry about me, I'm a big girl now!