Napping Against All Odds

So since the weekend, we've been working really hard to get Finley to sleep on a schedule. Not necessarily a clock schedule (always at 8:30am or 12:30pm, for example), but on a wakeful to pre-nap to nap schedule. Some days have been better than others, but overall it's going well. A big nap in the morning, a big one in the early afternoon, and a catnap in the early evening is the goal. The morning one is much easier to come by so after Finley's been up for an hour in the morning, I start to think about putting him down. Ideally though, he will last two hours...so each morning I try and stretch him a bit more. Today he woke up at 7am so 8:15 was my goal, but at 8:15 he was still pretty happy go lucky. Around 8:25, I decided we should make our way to the nursery since you don't want to miss his napping window and allow him to get overtired (trust me, it's not pretty).

We walk into his room and I go to draw the blackout shades and what starts to happen, a large banging noise that basically makes the windows rattle. I peer out the back window of Fin's room and see two excavator type machines three houses over working on a lot where a house was knocked down. Here's the view:

The sound was outrageous, not to mention the vibrations we could feel. Oh lord--who could sleep in this environment??? I paced around a bit holding the little guy, not sure whether to just let him try to sleep or if I should bag it and let him pass out on me on the couch.

I walked into our room and the study/guest room to see how it sounded in those rooms with the doors shut. Our room was a bit quieter but the study was much better so...now what? The kid can't (or shouldn't) sleep on the bed solo and the floor's pretty hard...ah ha, baby bjorn travel crib to the rescue!! A generous gift from Uncle Bernie and Aunt Annette that we planned to use in Prague this summer and any other trips, but not one I thought we'd use at home!

It's super easy to set up, I was able to do it while holding Finley! I did have to put him down to put the sheet on the mattress, but that was okay. I brought in his Sleep Sheep white noise machine and tossed that into the crib and then swaddled up the sleepy dude (one arm out now!). We bounced on the ball for a few minutes and I laid him down, fingers crossed and holding my breath. I tiptoed out only to see something else troubling--another excavator coming down our block on a flatbed! Where does it stop?? In front of our house in order to dig a huge trench for our neighbors (who are remodeling their house), yeah--now there is going to be loud banging on 2 sides of our house!! I mean, come on!

I sat on the couch and thought about the ridiculousness of this situation. Being in our house was like being inside someone's mouth during a dental procedure with the occasional earthquake aftershock.

But against all odds, Finley snoozed away...and woke up 1 hr and 45 min later! Way to go, buddy! We took a short walk to an outgoing mailbox when Finley woke up and I just had to get a close up of the giant, noisy mess up the street. Serious construction, huh? Glad we live a few houses away.

As it was time for his early afternoon nap, the excavator next door filled up a dump truck and they both rolled away. Phew! The stuff going on a couple houses down seemed to take a lunch break, so I figured that was the perfect time to get him down. Isn't he cute in his construction-themed outfit? I thought it was appropriate for today :) It's a bit wide for him, but for being around the house all day it was just fine.

Here's what he looked like 20 minutes into his nap...I know it was risky to go in and snap a photo (with flash!), but the blog demanded it!

Thanks again to Uncle Bernie and Aunt Annette, what would I have done without this crib?! If he can sleep through today's events, I feel much better about traveling with him. Maybe he's becoming a bit more flexible in his old age (3.5 months!).