Negotiating Naptime

There is a silent prayer that every mother recites at naptime, once her child has been placed in his crib and she has retreated to another room to listen with hawk-like intensity. The prayer goes something like this:

Please go to sleep. You've been awake for 6 hours, therefore you MUST be exhausted. Please do not let your babbling turn into crying. Stay calm. Relax. What was that noise? Did you just fall out of your crib, or simply hurl a stuffed animal across the room? Please go to sleep so Mommy can have some alone time. I love spending time with you, but I really need a break. Stop kicking the wall. I hear you, but I'm not coming in there. Please, for the love of God, go to sleep!

There was a time when Daniel would fall asleep as soon as his head touched the mattress. I shouldn't complain -- he's still a good sleeper. But naptime has become more and more contentious. I have to wait until he's happy and content to put him down, or else all hell breaks loose. Crying that sounds more like the screams of a torture victim. Even when he goes down calmly, he proceeds to "talk" and whine for what seems like an eternity. The past couple of days, it has taken him almost an hour to fall asleep! The whole time he's fighting the shut-eye, I'm sitting behind closed doors, reciting the above prayer to myself. I feel like I can't relax until I know he is asleep. So I sit on edge, waiting for the blissful sound of silence. Sometimes he teases me. He'll be silent for a minute or so, and then break into a stream of babble so emphatic that I'm sure he was never close to sleep in the first place.

I guess I'm lucky that he eventually falls asleep. I totally sympathize with those moms whose children sleep for a half-hour and wake up screaming at the top of their lungs. Perhaps, from now on, my "nap prayer" should contain a grateful clause at the end: Thank you for your willingness to give up the sleep fight! You'll thank me someday!