If anyone could benefit from a daily nap, it’s a 19-month-old maniac who spends all day chasing after preschoolers and attempting death-defying stunts, right?
My son has not taken a nap at daycare in two months.
Since the rest of the kids there are four to six years old, there’s no built-in naptime where the whole group takes a breather and rests for a bit. And since my son has a pathological phobia of missing out on fun, he just…won’t nap. According to the daycare provider, every day they lay him down and try to get him snuggled in for a little snooze, at which point he jumps up and down shouting “outside! outside!” (where all the big kids are having tons of fun without him, obviously) until they take pity on him and let him run free.
As a result of this refusal to nap, when I pick him up at 4:30, he’s pretty much in zombie-mode, fighting to keep his eyes open on the five minute walk home. At this point, he’s definitely ready for a solid three-hour nap…but it’s 4:30! That’s no time for a nap! If I let him nap at that ridiculous hour, he’ll either wake up rested and raring to go at 7pm and stay up till 11pm (no thank you) or refuse to be roused and sleep through the night, only to rise for the day at 5am (been there, done that; once again: no thank you).
So instead I go for option #3: force him to stay awake until at least 6:00. Of course, since he’s so freakin’ tired, this is not easy. I usually start by giving him a bath, since he returns from daycare so filthy it almost defies understanding, and then I give him dinner.
Correction: I try to give him dinner.
Do you know how hard it is to eat when you’re so tired you can barely keep your eyes open to see the food? Or when all you want to do is suck your thumb?
Yes, he is trying to suck his thumb AND eat a cracker. At the same time.
These dinners are far from successful. However, I have wised up in recent weeks: I no longer bother offering him full meals, since I know he won’t consume them. Instead, I just try to get a few precious crumbs of sustenance down his tired little gullet before his sleepiness becomes so pathetic that I start feeling cruel for keeping him up, give up, and put him in bed.
As evidence, here’s a sampling of his dinner menus from the past few weeks (and just to clarify, I do indeed mean that each one of these comprised his entire dinner, not that he ate all of these delightful treats on the same night):
- Four peanut butter crackers (pictured above)
- One half of one chicken nugget
- Seven honey-graham cookies and two bites of banana
- Six raspberries
- Ten macaroni noodles
- 1/4 of a bagel with cream cheese (practically a feast!)
- One string cheese
- One veggie pouch
- Two bites of some pizza I was eating
- Nine pieces of Life cereal (dry)
- One silver-dollar pancake
On the bright side of this madness, I am saving an awful lot of time by not cooking for the kid five days a week.
The Baby Is Fine 
Hope he continues to stay active to keep up with with the older kids since he will physically mature ahead of other kids. Used to know a lad like that. At first one would think they were a pain on the baseball field but we gradually accepted him and he caught up pretty quick. Other yute his age were way way behind him. Those were the days when summer was just pick up and play – no structure like today….
So love Mick’s use of the word “yute”, Daddy and I just watched that movie the other day. Mo, I love your honesty and willingness to “go with the flow”!
I think you’re adjusting to the situation rather well. I am busy reading “Your child won’t eat” and trust me it makes you feel a whole lot better. Do what you can and send him to bed – sounds like a good plan.
We also have the problem at night where Nicky doesn’t want to sleep – he stays up with us. But at least he does have his daytime naps – no one to play with here. (Other than the dogs of course!) And he sleeps in.
I feel less badly that Des ate four peas and four carrots and four pieces of pizza for dinner last night. What’s with four?
Trying to negotiate their eating/sleeping, etc. just never gets easier for me. Once something gets consistent, it changes. I’ll never keep up!
Someday when he’s hungry he will eat more for dinner. Don’t sweat it. He looks healthy and happy, and at least he sleeps!!
I am so jealous you don’t have to cook!
I remember those days!! Poor baby must be exhausted!!
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