Hypnotic

You know those old movies that show someone being hypnotized and there is a watch dangling back and forth and some old scientist is saying, "You're getting sleeeeeepppppyyyyyyy, very sleeeeepppppyyyy?"

That's what I need for this child to take a good nap.

Jack is on a great nighttime schedule. We bought "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Weissbluth last week and it's become the Bible in this house. Jack is on a schedule and damn it -- he's going to get his sleep.

So we're been putting him down for the night between 8-8:30 p.m. He gets a bath, gets some books and the he gets swaddled and goes to sleep within about five minutes.

He'll sleep for between three and four hours before he eats, then goes right back to sleep, sleeps for three hours, goes right back to sleep, sleeps another three hours, and then he's up for the day around 8:30 a.m.

So 12 hours, with a few interruptions, at two months old, is pretty good.

But these daytime naps are killing me.

He shows the tired signs anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours after he's been awake. He usually falls asleep while I am holding him. So I carry him to his crib and put him down.

Anywhere from 5-20 minutes later, he is crying.

I can get him to sleep for an hour or two around 11 a.m. most days. Then he's up for a bit and then we play the nap game.

Up, down, up, down. Crabby, fussy, sleepy, fussy, sleepy, fussy.

As a bonus, he will sleep for hours on end in his carseat, but I feel like I am cheating if he sleeps in his seat and not in his crib. Somehow, I think this will develop bad habits.

Today, we played the game with Josh's sister here to help out. I think she had enough because she ran screaming from the house when Josh got home. Oh wait, that was me. Moving on.

Anyway, we're working on the sleeping. But in the meantime, I need a nice hypnotist. Or a really good brandy.