Grumpy and tired – but not at bedtime

Alby’s afternoon nap today stretched from 2:15pm to 5:20pm.  Let’s not go pretending that this was one chilled out nap time, he woke three times over that period, each in a heightened state of utter distress which wouldn’t be pacified until he was snuggled in and latched on in the peace of the bedroom. 

At the time I was feeling very sorry for him; despite keeping him on UK time when in Paris the move from Yorkshire to Surrey to France to Surrey has clearly knocked the little man out and he is suffering from serious jet lag.

Come 9:30 tonight when he was still awake and busy emptying the rubbish bin in the bedroom my sympathy had begun to wane.  I know that a 3hour nap in the middle of the day is too long and it will have a knock on effect but what’s a mama to do? The first time he woke I got him up, took him downstairs and he just cried and cried and cried.  He was totally floppy (I sat him on the kitchen table and his head flopped forward until it was touching the table top like he used to do before he could sit up properly).  So we went back upstairs and he slept in my arms, waking upset each time I tried to move him for at least 30 minutes before he could finally be put down and left and half an hour after that we continued the process again.

Whilst there is something very precious about having my son curled up in my arms the moment is ruined by two bigger concerns: firstly, and more immediate, the awareness that his long nap and late bedtime today will no doubt have a knock on effect over his sleep tomorrow which I need to crack down on a.s.a.p as best as I possibly can.

Secondly, I seem to once again be in the two-monthly cycle of thinking I’m doing it all wrong.  Alby only settled when latched.  I swear he would have loved a dummy if only I’d allowed him one.  If I think of myself as being a human dummy then I don’t really mind but I wonder how long it will go on for and if the supposed experts are right when they say you can’t spoil or teach bad habits to a baby – Alby’s character is developing so much in other areas it’s very hard to accept the notion that he doesn’t have rational thought yet.

For the moment it is late and I have an early start on the M25 so my ponderings must be kept short, but this will no doubt be a theme that I return to again and again in coming months – what fun!