Battle over Naptime

Daelyn has reached that awkward napping stage. He has to have a daily nap or he's violent, aggressive and nasty. But he doesn't want to go to sleep, fights it with everything in him, and knows every trick in the book to keep himself hanging on by a thread, refusing to let sleep carry him away.

Both my other two children reached this stage. Yet, even now, at 9 and 7, if I lie down with them, they fall asleep, like yesterday. We just don't do this very often because I can't lie down with everyone at one and the older children just don't want to waste their time napping.

Today, I laid down with Daelyn. I told him a very interesting story about a naughty puppy that ran away from home to escape discipline, then ran back home to escape danger. We snuggled and I tried to be very still to lull him into slumber. No chance. He wiggled, played with his toes, scratched the wall, tugged on my ear. I threatened. No help. He cried, decided he was too hot under the sheet, pulled off his socks, and played with his stuffed animals. I spanked (just one swat). No help. He screamed, pouted, scratched his knee, and practiced opening his eyes as wide as possible. Finally, in desperation, I grabbed him and wrapped my arms around him, holding him gently but firmly to keep him from moving constantly. He yelled at me, frowned, maneuvered his arms (the only loose parts) into all kinds of wild gesticulations, then finally settled down and, within 3 minutes, was sound asleep.

Now, you may wonder why I persist. But if the child falls asleep that quickly when still, he needs a nap. He just can't seem to still himself.

The situation has gotten much worse since summer started. When brother and sister were in school, he knew naptime was a daily routine and he needed to settle down. The quicker he fell asleep, the quicker he was up and able to do fun stuff. But I've slacked off since the beginning of summer and he's had many days (more than I care to admit) of no naps - and we've all paid the price for that.

I'm working very hard at getting him back into his routine. Plus, he's still exhausted from camping - late nights, NO naps, extreme heat, and no end to fun stuff to do. This morning, he woke up around 6:30 mean as a snake. Even his sister commentd how desperately he needed a good nap. In addition to punching and kicking his brother, he screamed at me for half an hour that he wasn't going to Vacation Bible School this morning.

Since I'm working at VBS and Daddy's not on vacation this week, he had no choice. Dane tried to explain to him and got wolloped for his trouble.

So, we push through and force the nap issue. Now the house is quiet. Daelyn is fast asleep, Donovan's worn out from a long walk and resting peacefully at my feet. Deanna and Dane have run up to Grandma's for a game of cards, and I'm thankful I persisted.

I just hope this season doesn't last two long. I'm older now and my patience is running thin.