Sleepless Nights, Sleepy Days

One of the quirky and cool traits that Sawyer has picked up over the last year is sleeplessness. It's by no means constant, but it does happen on a pretty regular basis. Usually about one night each week (sometimes more, sometimes less), he has an off night. He wakes up in the dead of night for no apparent reason, and can be heard laughing, jabbering, dancing around and playing (quite contently, thank goodness) for hours (as in three or four) at a time. He simply does not sleep.

The after-affect is that he usually crashes the next day. He will not nap, even when he is so clearly tired and in need of some rest. He will fight it, dancing around in his room for hours if you attempt to put him there. It will eventually catch up to him, usually while watching a movie in the late afternoon (while Mommy is trying to prepare dinner) or sometimes even sitting up at the dinner table or standing over a toy table. He just crashes.

Last night was a good night. The two before that, not so much. And both yesterday and the day before, it was lights out about 6 p.m. And once he falls asleep, you can forget waking him back up. Changing diapers, sitting at the table with his favorite foods or drinks, putting on pajamas, nothing works. He is simply down for the count.

Here's Exhibit A and B.



Sleepless Monday night (3 hours awake). Sleepy Tuesday (6 p.m.).



Sleepless Tuesday night (2 hours awake), Sleepy Wednesday (6:30 p.m.).

The good news is that he usually sleeps through the night even falling asleep this early (clearly not on these two consecutive days, but usually). Perhaps he's catching up on the mere 8 to 10 hours he gets on a typical night. With no naps. At age (very nearly) three.

And he is not the only one. Though his brothers sleep a bit more (12 to 14 hours at night), neither of them nap anymore either. Three children. Under age four. With no naps.

Welcome to my world . . .