Instruction Manual Please!

Cooper's first three days at daycare were very successful. I had been so worried that things wouldn't go well. He handled it much better than I did. When at daycare Cooper ate good including burping good and minimal spitting up, played hard with the other kids, and took 2 1/2 hour naps, even while other kids were screaming, running around, and banging on the piano. When I picked him up on Wednesday I had to wake him up. And surprisingly, since he hadn't eaten a third bottle, the ride home was very pleasant, no crying or fussing at all. Since I go back to work this coming Tuesday, I decided that I wanted to spend one last mommy day with Cooper. So Thursday was the day we stayed home and played. I thought since Cooper had a successful first week at daycare things would be just as good at home. Apparently, Cooper had other plans.

Cooper decided that during the day he didn't want to sleep at all. Every time I tried to put him down for a nap he would only sleep 1/2 hour at a time and then wake up fussing and crying. Now I know that Paul and I are rookie parents and Stephanie (daycare provider) has taken care of kids for over 15 years, but come on, only sleeping 1/2 hour?! And we have also had trouble getting him to burp. And if he does it usually includes a nice mixture of spit up. What's up with that Cooper?! Stephanie said that when it's time for Cooper to take his nap she wraps him up in a blanket, lays him in the crib, and that's that. Within 5 minutes he is asleep and stays asleep for a long time. At home it takes me at least 15 minutes just to get him to go to sleep. And forget about staying asleep. Exactly 1/2 hour after he has been placed in his crib he is wide awake. This his how it's been all weekend.

Today has been an especially frustrating day. I nursed him this morning at 6:00. Then at 8:00 he wanted to get up. So daddy got him up, and boy was he grumpy! While changing his diaper he screamed through the whole thing. This never happens with Cooper. He usually loves his diaper changed. Then Grammy and Grampy held him for a few minutes before he started crying in desperation because he was starving. After feeding him a bottle (which he didn't eat very much of) he fell asleep in Grammy's arms. Nap time! NOT! When I was wrapping Cooper up in his blanket he started laughing and smiling at me. Then Grammy tried to rock him to sleep and all he did was stare at her wide awake. We got him up and played with him for another 45 minutes. By then he had been awake for over 2 hours and had not had a morning nap. When I put him down for his second nap I gave him his pacifier and he was asleep in seconds! I thought this was a great sign that he was exhausted and would sleep for at least an hour. Boy was I completely wrong!! He only slept for 20 minutes. So we thought rocking him back to sleep would help.
NOT!

This is Cooper after 15 minutes of rocking! Does he look tired after only sleeping 20 minutes all morning? You'd never know he didn't sleep by the way he was acting.













So dad continued to rock him and a few minutes later we were here. ( see picture)












Still awake, but calm and not smiling.

Then a few minutes later we end up with this picture.











This is Paul giving a what-the-heck look as Cooper is pooping in his diaper. There goes another nap. After changing his diaper Cooper was wide awake, smiling and laughing for 10 minutes until again he started crying, dying to eat. During the bottle, he spit up so much that he went through 3 bibs. And most of it ended up on Paul! As far as we know he hardly ever spits up at daycare. What are we doing wrong! Oh it's so obvious that we are rookie parents. Especially since I blog in great detail about his entire day. Any advice you may have would be greatly appreciated. I want to remember this so when he has kids some day I can look back laugh and say " it's payback time!" That's what our parents have done to us. I have to say one last thing. Even though Cooper doesn't sleep when at home, we have been blessed with a very happy child. Paul and I are so thankful for this.