Bouncing Baby Boy

Once upon a time (four weeks ago), Tucker was a seriously awesome sleeper.  He’d nap for three hours and then sleep through the night.  Upon finding out that his program at school doesn’t require the kids to nap, I considered picking him up after lunch each day.  They assured me that if Tucker becomes tired, he’s more than welcome to lay down on the floor and rest.  I sent a blanket to show that I was open to this idea, but knew they were crazy and had obviously not spent enough time with my son. There is no way that Tucker would ever lay down when other kids are having fun.  On the floor.

In a lame attempt to be proactive regarding the creation of a new schedule, I recorded how much combined daily sleep Tucker was getting.  The average was 13 ½ hours. The first week of school came with some new challenges including “What in the hell do people pack for lunch when their kids won’t eat a sandwich and there’s no access to a microwave?”  The bigger problem was that Tucker didn’t take a single nap.  Our normally active and happy toddler was zombie-boy (minus the stinky falling-off skin) after 6:00 p.m.  With week two, naptime returned, but we continued to eat dinner with a zombie.

Time to experiment. We tried a long, late-day nap.  We tried a short “refresher” nap.  We tried skipping the naps altogether and putting Tucker to bed earlier.  Regardless of the nap recipe, we were dealing with grumpy, whiney, crying, clingy Tucker who didn’t want to do anything.  Perhaps even more annoying is that he’s waking up between 4:30 and 6:00 a.m. and jumping up and down like a psycho monkey making a loud “Wheee!” sound interrupted only by the jolts of his jumps.   Imagine “Whee (umph) eeeee (umph) eeeee (umph)…”  Eventually, he does go back to sleep but is exhausted the next morning.  Plus, his jumping and “Whee-ing” wakes me up.  Arrrgh!  What the hell do I do?  Any advice?  When did your kids give up their naps?  How much sleep do they get?  I know Tucker needs at least 12 hours or he’s just plain old tried.  WebMD agrees.  How do I get 12 hours of sleep carved out for him on the long school days? And if he doesn’t take naps on the long days, will he assume this is not a requirement on the short days?  Should it be? Why in the world is he going crazy jumping in the bed when he’s obviously delirious with sleep deprivation?  Did somebody tell him that he’s supposed to be a bouncing baby boy?  At 4:30 a.m.?

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This video doesn’t come close to illustrating the situation effectively.  I had to shorten it and, frankly, don’t know what I’m doing.  I think I cut off the most important “Wh…” sound and now Tucker sounds like he’s saying “Eeeeh” rather than “WHEEE.”  Therefore, I’ve also included a set of really awful drawings.  Anyway – see the mellow video version of what goes on in the pre-dawn hours here: BBBTucker, or check out my super awful drawings if you’re too lazy to watch the video.

Still (blissfully) sleeping…

Obviously, not sleeping
(and waking me up)

Down bounce…

Up, again…

And down, again…

And, after the above x 134, asleep,
once again…