Taking after mama.

Milo seems to have inherited some of his mother's traits, including a general disdain for daytime sleeping. If this led to long stretches of peaceful sleep at night, we'd encourage it, but Milo has yet to sleep for longer than 4 or 5 hours at a stretch at night. Happily, though he still wakes a couple of times a night, those wake-ups have become quick and peaceful, just long enough for a feed and a burp. Mommy can function on this kind of sleep, at least for now (ask her again after she goes back to work in 4 weeks).

Back to Milo and The Elusive Nap. On a typical morning, he and Madeline take a walk over to Caffe Sole, our neighborhood coffee joint, some time in the mid to late morning. Mommy relaxes with a cup of coffee, a pastry, and the newspaper, and Milo takes a nice nap in the Beco baby carrier. He often stays asleep for up to two hours, allowing Madeline to do some work, laundry, or two-handed e-mailing after she gets home. (This is one of our favorite times of day, second only to the sheer delight of Milo's first hour or two after he wakes in the morning, when he likes to lie on his changing table or in his crib and wiggle and giggle and chortle at the world - see below.)

But once that nap comes to an end, Milo is pretty much Awake For The Day. He'll catnap for 10-20 minutes at various points, but though he grows obviously fatigued, he just refuses to sleep for any length of time. Mommy can sometimes get a second nap of up to an hour out of him if she puts him back in the Beco and goes for a long walk, and he'll sleep for 30 minutes or so in the jogging stroller on occasion, but if he's anywhere else - crib, bouncy seat, swing, sheepskin, someone's arms, whatever - he won't last long in slumber. Here he is, pretending to be a good sleeper:

Not surprisingly, all this wakefulness makes for some pretty fussy evenings in Milo-land. Once we get through those trying "witching hours," he often returns to his congenial self for another couple of hours, before he finally conks out and we settle him for the night. We have high hopes of instituting some sort of bedtime routine in the near future, and we're trying assorted techniques to promote daytime napping, but our best intentions somehow all seem to fall by the wayside, and we end up following Milo's lead. Perhaps daycare will do a better job of it?

This weekend, Milo got his very first cold, which he caught from Madeline, who caught it on the plane ride home from New York. Happily, he also takes after his mama in being a relatively pleasant sickie, and he sniffled and coughed for a couple of days without really breaking his stride. He seems to have kicked it already, without any major unpleasantness. In fact, the most obvious outward sign of his illness involved sleep. Not that he napped any more during the day, but he went back to sleep for a long snooze on daddy's chest on Saturday and Sunday mornings, after his 6:00 a.m. wake-up to eat.*

Milo also got a visit this weekend from his Aunt Laura, Uncle Doug, and Grandma Eileen and Grandpa Peter. He had lots of fun with everyone, and especially enjoyed all the great new spots to cat-nap they provided.

*We've been trying to get him to do exactly this on weekend mornings, but when he's healthy, he's just not interested in playing "Sleeping Lions."

Comments

[Jennifer]

He is WAY too cute...those cheeks are so kissable! I'm sorry he's already battling a cold, but glad he's being a sweetie about it!
Ah, yes, sleep-deprived nights...I remember those! I hope he gets his sleep schedule down to a bit more of a science soon!! :)

[Chuck]

If you'd like, I'm sure Uncle John would be more than happy to teach Milo the art of daytime sleeping. He seems to be an expert.