No Napping

Tim has told me in the past I should keep a journal. He recommended it once again this evening, especially after today’s events. Here was today's entry:

Yet again a nap time saga. After 4 straight days of fabulous napping, today was a bust. I put BJ down after nursing and he got up and spoke his baby language for a good 15 minutes until screaming followed. In that 15 minute time period, I had finished Kayla’s nap time routine and placed her in bed comfortably. I went in to check on BJ and like he has done many times before at nap time, I found a poopy diaper. Changed it, nursed him again – except this time Kayla kept sticking her head out of the room every few minutes to say – “in 10 minutes come to get you.” Needless to say, he was distracted so I put him back in his bed (at which point he immediately started screaming) and yet again went in to put Kayla in her place. Upon entering, I find her wearing her peach, hand knit sweater (backwards and upside down) with no shirt on. I helped her put her shirt back on, her sweater on properly and back in the bed she went.

Tim and I had finally figured out what we wanted to do for BJ’s first birthday and evites were on my mind. I turned on the computer to get them started but opted to check on BJ once more. Enter poopy diaper #2. This time I decided to try to coax him to sleep or at least calm down by a little rocking and pacing back and forth in our room. He calmed down some and I placed him back in his bed, got him to lay down and relax by rubbing his back (was that a giggle coming from his mouth I heard?), I then left, closing the door behind me. Immediately, screaming returns. Determined to get out those evites, I returned to my laptop and declared, “Scream it out my son.” The washer was going next to me so little could I hear him screaming or anything else that was going on in the other rooms. I created an evite that pleased me rather quickly only to have trouble loading the email addresses on our guest list. Frustrated about this and the fact that BJ was still screaming (especially since it was already 4:15), I was stopped in my tracks by a loud thud.

Thinking Kayla had gone to sleep because she had stopped coming out of her room, I ran to BJ only to find him sitting up in bed perfectly fine, but still screaming. I picked him up and off to Kayla’s room we went. I opened the door to find that instead of napping she had rearranged the furniture in her room. The bed was in the middle of the floor. The foot stool was on the opposite side of the room than it is normally placed and she was standing (half naked) on her purple reading chair reaching up into her closet to pull down some clothes. I looked at the bed to discover a wet spot – (a wet spot!!!??? we’ve had no accidents for months) and her pants, panties and socks on the floor next to her bed. I must have stood there for 30 seconds taking the whole scene in – wondering where on earth to start and how to properly respond. Rage is an appropriate description of my initial feeling, but sensing that would lead to nothing good or productive I continued there staring at my smiling, naked two year old daughter until all I could muster was: “You were awake this whole time Kayla why did you pee in the bed? We don’t pee in the bed we pee in the toilet.”

“I pee in the bed so pants and panties wet, I take off.” I think to myself, that wasn’t the question – I try again: “Kayla we don’t go pee pee in the bed. We go pee pee in the toilet. We don’t move our bed or chair or play with the clothes at nap time. Now, sit down.” I made her sit in the blue chair in the room, still half naked until I could determine what to do next. Thankfully, I was between loads of laundry so I decided after making her go to the bathroom again (on the toilet) and getting her dressed that she wash her own clothes and would put everything back the way it was. She put her soiled clothes and bedding in the washer, returned her bed, purple chair and the footstool back in their proper place and sat quietly while I swept the room. She helped me to put clean bedding on her bed and then we proceeded to work on the other laundry I had been doing, together. “No playtime Kayla. Only chores.” I taught her how to sort clothes, match socks and identify her clothes from BJ’s. She was tired and I was still calming down. But I was determined that making her work with mommy would teach her some sense of responsibility and not playing was a great consequence to her actions. The evening didn’t get much better. Any two year old without a nap has a shorter attention span than usual and an even shorter temper. And I still hadn’t made dinner. BJ wasn't too content the rest of the evening either. Thankfully bedtime came quickly and both babies were so tired there was no hassle with either of them going down.

Looking back I can’t help but wonder – did I miss the nap time window by a few minutes??? Did I do something differently than the 4 previous days? Was it something they ate? How can nap time go so well one day and be total chaos the next? Tim reminded me that they are their own “tiny human beings,” with their own needs and growing bodies. Teething, growing, runny noses, or just plain desire for independence can throw either of them off at any time. I can’t blame Kayla for having a hard time falling asleep to BJ’s screams (although I can blame her for rearranging her furniture). But, who knows why BJ wouldn’t calm down enough to sleep. Maybe I should just be content in knowing that somehow in the midst of all that, the last load of laundry is in the dryer, dinner actually turned out quite fabulous (omelets with green peppers, onions, ham and cheese) and I now have two sleeping beauties who went down earlier than usual because they were so tired. Now on to those evites.