The Un-sleepening
The Boy does not like to go to sleep. He never has and most likely never will. He has gotten better over the past few months and has surprised us recently with sleeping all the way through the night. For the most part he just fights his way into slumber every time he hits the mattress.
I do like sleep. I like it a lot. I do have trouble making myself go to bed, though. Maybe The Boy gets that from me. It’s not like he’s ever awake when it’s time for me to go to bed and can see me resist and stall and putter around so I’m not sure how he picked up that behavior.
His first couple of months home from the hospital were pretty brutal on everyone involved, especially his Mom. He would wake up every two hours or so to eat and then not go back to sleep. He would only sleep if he was swaddled tight enough to cut off circulation in any other creature. Also he had to be held by his head and his rump and bounced endlessly. We also figured out early on that he slept best in his bouncer seat with the vibration turned on. So. Many. Batteries.
Around 4 months old he surprised us by sleeping through the night. As new parents, when we woke we had a moment of terror, but after a quick check discovered he was, in fact, not dead. Then at month 5 he decided sleeping through the night wasn’t cool or hip or whatever the kids are calling it these days. He went back to waking up every couple of hours to feed. This was not a welcome change. We endured sleepless nights for 4 more months before we finally manned up and let him cry it out one evening. Within three nights he was back to sleeping almost all the way through the night. He would wake up about 5am have a bite and head back off to sleep and then wake up again at 8ish. Mostly acceptable.
Daytime naps are something altogether different. I don’t usually have to deal with those as I am at work, but I do hear about them every day. “Your child wouldn’t nap today.” Why is he “my” child when he doesn’t sleep. As if ownership can be changed at any point. Sheesh.
So The Boy doesn’t like to go to sleep. Some babies can be driven to sleep. I was one of those babies. In fact that was one of the many tools in my parents’ arsenal. They would put me in the car, drive around the block 3 times and, as if by magic, I would be asleep. This does not work for The Boy. At least not at sub-interstate feeds. He used to fall asleep once we hit 70 mph. He also used to be reclined in a rear facing “bucket” seat. Once he turned one year old, we switched to the “big boy” seat that faces forward. Well now there’s just so much to look at that he may not ever sleep in the car ever again.
We took a trip to Great-Grandmother’s house which is about an hour and a half away. It was late evening so the sky was dark, but there was a fair amount of light from cars and highway lighting. We expected him to fall asleep. He always fell asleep on this trip before, but this was the first time facing forward. He kept himself awake the entire time. As we were making the last few turns I glanced back and the poor little kid had his head resting on the side of the car seat, his eyes wide and staring like he had seen some kind of war atrocity. He had worked himself into a sweat and his hair was plastered to his head and his jammies were soaked. He never cried though. He just didn’t want to miss anything I guess.
Maybe the next kid will be a sleeper. I can dream.
Daddy On The Fly 
He sounds so like Hailey. That girl came out wanting to know where the party was. She didn’t believe much in naps either. Fortunately the second,her sister, believed in naps, could entertain herself and insisted on being in bed by 8pm! One can only hope for the second, but you never know. The third, the boy, was just like the first. If you could get him to sit still for 5 minutes in your lap, you might get him to sleep…for awhile. Good luck. Parenting is a crap shoot, but it has tremendous rewards.