Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, or Why You Shouldn't Wake a Toddler

In all the excitement of his first haircut and Grandma coming over to play, Harry was (possibly) too excited to take a nap. He usually sleeps after lunch, napping for an hour or two, but yesterday that was a no-go. I gave it two attempts and my mom made an effort too, but alas, no nap.

Harry did finally succumb just before 5 o'clock, which sent me into a panic. Falling asleep that late could not bode well for a normal bedtime. I put dinner in the oven, set the table, and wrote the check for my car payment, and then woke Harry up just as Kevin was getting home from work. I picked him up, gave him a squeeze, and turned on Blue's Clues, thinking he might be so excited about the show that he wouldn't mind being woken up: BIG mistake. Harry cried, whined, screamed, cried, squirmed, cried, rinse, repeat. He wanted nothing to do with me, and Harry eventually got so worked up that he vomited.

Happily, Harry returned to his normal, happy self and we had a pretty uneventful evening. We did the normal bedtime wind-down routine, and Kevin rocked Harry until he was sleepy. Usually at this point one of us puts Harry down in his crib, he rolls around to get comfortable, and we exit stage left. This time, though, Harry immediately started crying, standing up, reaching for Kevin, etc. We let Harry cry for 10 minutes or so, hoping he'd work it out himself, which he did.

Kevin and I went to bed as usual only to be awakened by crying/screaming at 12:30. Harry had vomited again, all over his crib, which meant that I did a rush job on the bedclothes while Kevin dipped Harry in the tub. We repeated his normal bedtime routine, stories and cuddling and rocking and singing, and again Harry refused his crib. I couldn't blame the kid: I mean, he had just thrown up in said crib and I can understand not wanting to get back in. Our bed, which I'm sure was his first choice, was not an option in my opinion (or Kevin's) so we decided that Harry sleeping in his room, even if it was on the floor, was more appropriate than Harry sleeping in our room. So Kevin and I split the remainder of the night into two shifts, each of us taking our turn sleeping on the floor with Harry, who slept like, well, someone else's baby who sleeps well.

Dear Reader, I am not willing to do this sleep training thing again.