She. Wont. Nap. Following advice I read online (and the premise behind the book I am still waiting to receive from Barnes & Noble) I watched for Teagan's "sleepy cues" this morning. At the sight of the first yawn during play time I took her upstairs, swaddled her, and patted and shushed her until she dozed off which took about 15 min. I don't think she's quite ready for the "drowsy but awake" strategy, so I made sure she was sufficiently asleep and then set her in her crib to sleep. I turned the monitor on, and bolted for the kitchen to make breakfast. I finished breakfast and sat down for a breather on the couch.
After about 30 minutes I heard stirring so I went upstairs to shush some more and get her back to sleep. Finally I accomplished that, it was easy so she must have been tired. I stopped in for a brief bathroom pitstop and heard crying from down the hall. I picked her up but she cried and cried and I could not get her to stop. I looked at the clock and it had been 2 hrs since her last feed. So I took a deep breath and decided we could do feed, play a little and then try for a nap again. This time she only managed to stay asleep for 10 minutes and was back up again. My shushing efforts were unsuccessful so I finally decided to put her in the swing. That lasted about 20 minutes and I once again had a wide awake baby. After a little more awake time she was ready to eat again so I decided to feed her and see if she would sleep in the bed next to me. I was all prepared to be stuck there with her with laptop, phone, light remote, etc. But as I laid down next to her after she ate I was greeted by a happy, giggling baby who wanted to play with mommy. How could I not just laugh it off when my face was inches away from all of her happy cuteness?
At this point it was 2:15 so I decided to throw in the towel and get out of the house. I packed T up and headed out in the car, thinking about where I wanted to go as I drove. It was a little warm for a walk outside, so I finally ended up at Barnes & Noble. After a lap around the store with T strapped to me in her carrier, she was fast asleep and I perused the parenting books. Then I walked to Panera for a very late lunch, which Teagan slept through (and I managed to not spill anything on her). She woke up just as I was walking back to the car, so we packed up and headed home so she could eat. Afterwards she was wide awake so we played for a while and then she enjoyed "naked time" after a diaper change for a good 30 minutes.
Today I accomplished the art of getting her to sleep but clearly I have a long way to go in getting her to STAY asleep. We will try again tomorrow, and pray for sleep tonight. For now it's little cutie's bath time then off to bed...
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