Sad Face

The Sad Face: or, Why Karston Hasn't Had a Nap Yet Today

Today Karston perfected his sad face. I asked him if he were tired after my mother came over for lunch (50 mph wind gusts, she has no power), and he said Nigh-nigh, so I set him down in bed. His lower lip went in, and the corners of his mouth went down. I reminded him of night-night, but he just reached for me with that sad face. No, I couldn't refuse, so I picked him up. A short while later, my mother went to show me how putting the kid down for a nap was done. As soon as she set him on his bed, he made his sad face again, and this time his lower lip trembled. Yeah, she picked him up again.

I'm sure he's tired, but if he's going to look that unhappy about it, it's going to be tough to put him to bed. I thought I had an easy shot when he was stretched out on the floor, not playing, just lying on his back. But once I picked him up, he came back to life. It's hard to put a lively toddler to bed; much easier with the sleepy kid.

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Kicked Out of Bed

We've been working on Karston's sleeping habits lately. When Karston was fussy one afternoon last week, Daddy set him down for a nap and walked away quickly (my naptime technique). And it worked, he stopped fussing in a short time, and fell asleep! We've also been putting him to sleep in his own bed. Karston's been a little fussier today, so I think tooth #17 is coming in but it's very dangerous to check (my finger gets chomped). He's also woken up very sad the past couple nights perhaps from the teething, so we've brought him into our bed for cuddling.

For the first two weeks of putting Karston to sleep in his own bed by himself (without one of us sleeping there with him for most or all of the night), Daddy cuddled him to sleep before sneaking away. Well, for the past three nights in a row, Karston has kicked Daddy repeatedly when they lie down in bed together, and he says the same babble syllables each time. The first night we were baffled. Last night we were pretty sure that Karston was kicking Daddy out of bed. And tonight, Karston did it again. This time, he even punched Daddy too. He still wants to delay bedtime as long as he can, but now (in less than a month!) he wants to go to bed by himself. Karston kicked Daddy out of bed! Our toddler is growing up!

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Misbehaving and Tired

Karston played quietly with his TinkerToys this morning for about two hours. Then he wanted to sit in my lap, and continue to play with TinkerToys for another hour. (We all love TinkerToys.) A little before 11:30 AM, I caught an evil whiff, and changed a poopy diaper. In the hall, he started talking about do-do, so I let him feed himself several doughnut holes. (He's learning the advantages of speaking our language, and we like to reward using the correct word instead of his usual fluent baby tibetan.) Then he chugged the water in his sippy without a valve (faster chugging), and asked for mo'. So I gave him more water in that bottle (he was ignoring the blue sippy with valve and water, and his juice sippy), but not much, just in case. Then I heard an odd sound, and just in case was happening. He was holding his water upside down, dribbling it on the chair. I told him NO very firmly and rushed over. He gave me the "what?" look but kept pouring, so as soon as I got over there, I took the water away. That made him cry. I set him on the floor so I could clean up, but he was hopping back into trouble as fast and loud as he could, so I picked him up, and almost took him to his room. But we're doing so well on him sleeping by himself in his room that I didn't want him to have any bad associations with that room. Instead, I flipped him on his back on our bed and told him to think about what he did. I heard some crying (for less than a minute) because he hates to be left alone on his back. I went back to the kitchen, sponged up the water, ran the wet-dry vac, and generally cleaned up that mess. After I was done, guess what? Karston was sound asleep! So somewhere between 11:40 AM (setting him down) and 11:50 AM (checking on him again), he fell asleep. I just wanted him in a time-out while I cleaned up, but naptime is fine too. He woke up about 2:00 PM, glad to see me, and generally happy; a complete change from when I set him down! I know I've said it before, but his bad behavior and tired go together.

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That Odd Warm Feeling

Karston got his fingers pinched in the CD tray this afternoon (it doesn't pinch hard, but it scared him), so I sat on the couch to let him nurse as the fastest way to cheer him up. Suddenly I had this uncomfortable warm feeling seeping on my legs. It turns out that we were on the third diaper leak of the day (so four new outfits for him today, and two for me), but there's that uncomfortable moment when you try to figure out what happened to explain the warmth. Luckily I was off the hook on this one! (My water broke early, and I just made it to the bathroom in time. So at least once, the warm leak was me, and apparently my subconscious still remembers because "Karston did it" was my second thought.)

Hopefully no one else knows this feeling! *grin*

Happy Easter, y'all!

Technorati Tags: Toddler

Naptime

I think I just won the "putting the toddler down" contest we didn't know we were having. I was cleaning up the kitchen after lunch, and Daddy was playing with Karston ... who turned fussy. Much resistance to the nigh-nigh suggestion. I called out my suggestion to set him down on his bed, but got some questions about those simple directions. So I walked out of the kitchen (Karston was headed my way), scooped up my toddler, and headed to his room. He stopped crying while I was walking there patting his back. I set him on his back on his bed, said Nigh-nigh, and walked out. He stopped crying about 20 seconds after I left his room. Daddy waited two minutes, said he was surprised, and headed in for a peek when I called him back. The way this routine works is that you must wait at least ten minutes before checking on the child! How do I know it's ten minutes? (Actually, nine works too.) When Karston was very small, I learned that after 8 to 10 minutes of nursing while asleep, I could set Karston down and he wouldn't wake up. Daddy thought he saw toddler eyes before he made the U-turn, so I'm glad he didn't peek any more. What makes it works is the non-negotiable aspect. I set Karston down, I tell him to go to sleep, and I leave. There's no coddling, no cuddling, and no mercy (within the first ten minutes). And he falls asleep quickly! I think Daddy was being too nice; but he is a really nice guy and a great daddy, so that's no surprise.

We're finishing the second week of putting Karston to sleep at night in his own bedroom. Initially, Daddy wasn't sleeping well because he was so used to cuddling Karston to sleep! And I admit, it felt weird to be able to pull covers up over myself. Daddy has to have covers, and Karston freaks out under covers. Even on a king-sized bed, the covers aren't wide enough to cover one person, drop down to leave someone in the middle uncovered, and then come up to cover me. So I wear more clothes to bed.

But this setting him down when it's clearly naptime, and he only makes noise for twenty seconds ... I could get used to this! It's worked for the past month, so I think we're really making progress on sleeping (for all of us). But you know, it might be my naptime too ... *yawn*

Technorati Tags: Toddler