Putting Gordie to sleep was starting to drive me crazy. I was especially frustrated because I felt like I was doing 
everything right. But for some reason it was starting to take forever to put him to sleep. I was racking my brain as to what the problem was.
The first penny dropped when I realized that his three hour naps had become routine instead of being an anomaly. So even though I generally think that waking a sleeping child is not a good idea, I was figuring I’d have to start waking him up after 2 hours so he would be tired at bedtime.
Then it sunk in. He wasn’t tired at bedtime. I was trying to put him to bed before he was even remotely sleepy. He in fact wasn’t having a sleep problem at all. He was waking up happily at 6 in the morning, going down for his nap like a dream and was in a good mood all day. He just wasn’t ready for bed when I expected him to be ready for bed.
I was the one with the problem. I was grumpily being woken up at 6, I was tired all day and I was frustrated when he wasn’t falling asleep after over an hour of me trying to put him to sleep.
So instead of trying to change Gordie’s sleeping patterns, I decided to change my own behavior. The first (and easiest thing) I did was start putting Gordie to bed when he was actually tired at 9. The second thing I’m still working on. Going to bed earlier. I think that might make a lot of things better.
The first day I tried the new plan it was wonderful. Gordie got some extra time with his dad in the evening and when I turned the lights out at 8:45 he was asleep 15 minutes later.
Of course though as soon as I figured this out, Gordie got a cold and was only napping for 2 hours and crashing at 8pm. Figures.
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