Extending the Day
One of the things that people are most surprised about with Henry is his early bedtime. He usually is asleep before 7:30 (and more often than not 7:00). Now, this isn’t really our choice. By 6:00, he’s starting to rub his eyes and tug at his ears (sure signs of sleepiness), and as we dry him off from his bath a half-hour later, there are some crabby moans and plenty of yawns. After plenty of smooches and a feeding, he’s off to slumberland.
If we had our druthers, he’d be up an hour or two later. We want to see him more, play with him more, watch him crawl. But he is unwilling to oblige.
To make matters worse, Henry is slowly eliminating his third nap, meaning he last snoozes around 2:30. For him, a boy who loves to sleep, going more than 5 hours without curling up in his sleep sack is pure torture. (For us, too.)
Now there may be some of you out there who feel no sympathy for us because they have kids who have a difficult time getting to sleep, either for naps or overnight. But think about it: you’re getting to see your kids more than we are Henry! In fact, I have to sneak into his room (without Kristen’s knowledge) and stare at him just so I can get my daily baby quota.
Eventually, he’ll stay up later, and likely will get to the point when (like Kristen and I and probably every other kid out there) we’ll be running to his room and catching him reading comic books under the covers with a flashlight.
At 8:15.
June 25th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Last summer my sister, two-year-old niece, and I were out to dinner at a later time than usual. As we were driving home (at 9ish), my niece started to cry. We figured out that it was because it was completely dark out and she had never experienced night before.