This is a blog about life with my beautiful and precious seven-month-old son, Moses Maxwell. In one of my favorite pics of him here, he's about three-and-a-half months old. I've been wanting to write regularly about Moses and about being a new parent for some time now, and today's challenges in particular finally inspired me to begin. Parenting can be as difficult and confusing as it is joyful and rewarding. Writing this blog is a way of recording and sharing the happiness and bliss, and also grounding myself inside what sometimes feels like an unfamiliar labyrinth. Today was one of our more difficult days together so far. Lately the big challenge has been napping and sleep in general. I'm almost too tired right now to say much about it, but there is a lot to say. Napping is an entire world unto itself. Getting a baby to nap can be a full-time job. The mechanics of baby sleep are elusive. When it goes well, it feels like an elegant work of art. But just when you think you've got it down, it falls completely apart--or so it seems. The frustrating thing is that it's frequently, at least in my experience, a mystery why it sometimes goes so well and sometimes goes horribly. Today wasn't a mystery, though. Today's nap destroyer was a big poop. Okay, so that happens sometimes: baby takes a big poop fifteen minutes or so after you put him down---just as he's fallen asleep and you've quietly tiptoed out of his room to the kitchen to sit down, take a deep breath, and enjoy your morning tea or whatever. The problem is, it's not as simple as just changing the diaper and baby goes right back to sleep. Getting a baby to sleep is like catching a wave, and if you are just slightly too early or too late, you miss the ride (this is one of the ideas that made a lot of sense to me from the well-known, among parents at least, book by Weissbluth, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child"). A poop, not to mention a poop diaper change, is just enough to throw baby off the napping wave completely, which means no nap and baby gets up and goes rather crankily about the day until the next naptime occurs, two or more hours later. But then what happens is a cycle of over-tiredness that makes it even harder for baby to nap the next time the sleep wave hits. This is the no-nap spiral that was today. But now Moses is sleeping soundly in his bed and tomorrow is another day on which hopefully the nap gods will shine.
