Hitting Reset

"He doesn't really need to nap very much because he sleeps so good at night. We've been out of town. He's just so aware of everything now he can't seem to settle down. He might have an ear infection. We're being too loud. Our house is too small. Stanley getting a drink woke him up. It's too hot/too cold in here. I'm feeding him at the wrong time. His sleep sheep went off. The wind is crazy. He just loves to stand up. The postman - God, he puts the mail in our mailbox so loud!" Yep, all me. All craziness. And admittedly, these are just some of the outlandish justifications I've made trying to explain why Charlie's naps went downhill.

We'd had spells of this before. His morning nap has always been short, but in mid-January when both naps fell to 40 minutes, I think we both almost died. And it was never-ending. I tried everything...I even foiled his windows, but in hindsight, I did it in a half-ass, desperate kind of way, so it didn't work. But I was legitimately desperate. His lack of sleep made for a discontent, frustrated little guy and an exhausted mama. I couldn't walk out of the room. I couldn't feed him the way he wanted. Changing a diaper was like I was ripping his fingernails off. I kept telling him if he would just sleep he would feel soooo much better, but something was getting lost in translation. Somewhere in the midst of my desperation I made a doctor's appointment...on a Saturday. Embarrassingly, this is the third time I've made an appointment sure that he had an ear infection (or something!) only to find he's totally fine. I asked about teething remedies, feedings and sleep times. She assured me we were doing everything right, so WHAT WAS GOING ON?!

My mom came down at the end of February. Charlie's naps where still on the fritz, and I was working a.lot. Exhaustion doesn't even kind of cover it. After listening to my slew of unfounded excuses and seeing how light Charlie's room was, she agreed to make blackout curtains. We found an unbelievably cute print at Hobby Lobby, and mom sewed her little fingers off lining the fabric with dark grey fleece. We hung one up at a time until they were finished, and voila! Like magic he was taking long naps - hour-and-a-half to two-hour long, every time, kinda naps. And added bonus - he's going down for naps crazy easy (like as easy as he goes down at night). If he doesn't pass out in my arms, he quietly lays in his crib until he's just out. Way different than the fits of standing and crying we were dealing with. The cave-like darkness is a fantastic cue for sleep. Blackout curtains are literally life-changing. Life-saving. Going from 80 minutes to almost 240 minutes of time a day to get stuff done around the house, catch up on work emails, and I don't know, take a freaking shower has made this week a breeze. Let's keep up the good work, Chuck. And Gigi, well, we all know you're just a life-saver (and a wizard). Blackout curtains, y'all. Getcha some.