Toddler Noah update

I've had a few blog posts about different things pertaining to Noah in the last month or two, and I was given great advice by lots of you mommas who have been through such situations. So once again, THANK YOU and I thought I'd update a bit on how he is doing.

Naps!
I was given so many different suggestions on this one and casually tried out a few. One thing is for sure, he is definitely not ready to give up his nap. The few times he didn't nap he was falling asleep around the house by 5:30pm (his stuffy chair, on the couch, behind his tool stand, etc.) So I went with the idea of pushing his nap back about an hour and so far that has been working awesome! He generally goes down now around 1:00pm with out any battle. Often he still doesn't fall asleep until closer to 1:30, but waking up around 3:00/3:30 seems to be perfect for him. He is generally falling asleep around 7:30/8:00pm for the night which is totally fine with us and has allowed us a bit more flexibility with our evening plans. He still wakes up in the mornings at the same time.



Potty Training
This was a no go. I was hesitant to try with the new baby coming soon anyways, so it wasn't a huge disappointment in my books. As good as he is about letting us know when he poops, and as much as he likes to sit on his toilet for fun, he was totally intimidated by doing so without his diaper on. Every time I tried it he began to cry and wanted to get off the potty ASAP. I took that as a clear sign that he just wasn't ready. No biggie, we'll try again a few months down the road.

Crib vs Toddler Bed
We've decided to keep Noah in his crib for another couple of months. We have a toddler bed for him in the garage a long with new bedding all ready to go, but decided to hold off. It's not that we don't think he could handle it. In fact, I'm pretty sure he could. It's more a decision hubby and I made for our own personal sanity. To be honest, we worried about the idea of Noah being woken up in the night from the baby crying and running to our room to 'join the party.' Then not only would we need to get the baby back to sleep, but also a toddler. Sleep is precious those first few months! We've got beautiful bassinet for baby Asher and my dad even made a more solid bottom for it so that we can use our angel care monitor in it. We are hoping to introduce the toddler bed around Noah's second birthday, which would be August.

Tantrums
So this is brand new. Noah has entered the fun and wonderful phase of tantrums! Over the past week or two he has started to drop to the ground and cry when he doesn't get his way. He doesn't pound his fists or kick his feet or anything like that; just drops and cries. Our system is to completely ignore the behaviour to show him that behaving like that won't get him his way. A few days ago he did some kind of bad behaviour that required him to apologise to me, which he does by giving momma or dada a hug and a kiss. He wouldn't do it and tried running to Matt for comfort. Instead, us parents joined forces and went and sat on the couch together and ignored him completely. Wow... did that make things interesting. Noah got so mad that daddy was on my side that he stood in one spot for 15 minutes and screamed and cried. We had never seen such a meltdown before from him. Once he had calmed down a bit I reminded him that he needed to apologise to me and he slowly walked over and gave me a hug. After that he wanted some snuggles from his dada and was a completely different child 5 minutes later.

 

He is generally a very happy and sweet boy! He loves to be around people, play with his blocks and cars, read and run around outside. I can't believe he will be two in only a few short months. Stop growing up so fast Noah! Oh how the time flies - we just love our little man.

Toddler nap battle - fight the fight or accept a change?

I'm not sure what to do anymore.

For a few weeks now Noah and I have had this nap battle going on. His night time routine is the same, with the exception of going to sleep now between 7:00-7:30pm (it was previously 6:30.) He wakes every morning between 6:00am and 7:00am and starts showing signs of tiredness around 11:30am. He has his lunch and into bed he goes by noon. Some days he falls straight asleep and stays that way for about two hours. The other few days a week he talks to himself for however long I leave him in there.

Usually by 2pm I call it a day (since that's when he'd usually wake up) and take him out, but then he turns into a huge grumpy mess by 4:00pm and can't keep his eyes open past dinner time. So I know he needs the sleep. Today for example, Matt and I have plans to go out for the evening and he will be at Nana & Papas, so he needed to sleep. I was in sleep training mode for two hours; going in, laying him back down and telling him he was tired and needed to go to sleep. Just before 2pm he finally gave in.

It's been suggested to me that perhaps he just doesn't need to nap anymore, but if that was the case wouldn't he be quite happy until bedtime? I wonder if it more has to do with his active brain and being over stimulated? The no napping does seem to happen more often on days where he has had a busy morning by being out at church, playing with friends, etc. If that is the case, how do I calm him down? We do the same routine for naps as we do for bed. Diaper change, stories, cuddles, etc. In a recent chat with my husband we did bring up the fact that his Fisher Price Aquarium that attached to his crib recently died. Could not having that music be enough to keep him from sleep? Or could it be that it's too bright in his room during the day with all this sunshine lately?

*Sigh* I really don't know. But I'm hoping we find a solution quick and get this settled before the new baby shows up. If any of you have been through this and have some suggestions I am all ears!

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PS - I've been considered not posting my blog entry links on facebook once I write them as I often wonder if people feel overly bombarded with my life. I really don't want to come across as annoying! I won't be offended if people don't want to read it, since the main reason I do it is for me. But then I've had people in the past tell me that they do want to read it but wouldn't know if I didn't post the link publicly. So please, if you like that I post it on facebook let me know. Otherwise I may just avoid doing that from now on and those interested can bookmark it or subscribe :)

Nap skipper

Noah skipped his afternoon nap again today.
He does this every now and then. It seems that if he misses that sleepy window (between 1130-1230) he won't settle and just gets another wind of energy. He usually can last just fine until around 4:00 or 4:30 but then things go down hill fast.

Sundays we are at church until about 12:30. It's a struggle keeping him happy and occupied for several hours, especially when hes tired and eventually gets bored of the upstairs nursery. When he was a bit younger he would fall asleep in the crib there and it would make things super easy, but he won't do that now. Sunday mornings are exhausting for both mommy and Noah...

So today he yawned all the way home and through his quick lunch before we put him down around 1:30pm. He whined and fussed in his crib for an hour before we finally gave up and brought him down. He was a happy child, running around and laughing. We started making an early dinner around 4:45 and he began to completely fall apart. Matt and I couldn't help but laugh when he had a complete meltdown simply because he couldn't get a cracker into his mouth on a spoon. He wasn't angry, he just started crying his eyes out with his head thrown back. Poor goober...
I don't get it. Most children will just pass out on their parents or the floor or wherever when they get tired enough. But not Noah! He just gets more hyper or more emotional!

At 5:45 we carried him upstairs, read him a few stories and put him down for the night. So early I know but he passed out pretty quick, and really it's only an hour earlier then he usually goes down.
And now, Dada and Mama finally get a break. Ahh...