Puzzled

For quite a few weeks, Daniel and I (mostly I) have been frustrated over Ava's sleep habits. She doesn't seem to like to take naps. This makes her wired, a little fussy, and very difficult to get to sleep at night. It has pretty well consumed my thoughts of late, mostly because I have spent 30-40 minutes every time I put her down for a nap giving her a pacifier, saying "shhhhhh.....shhhhh" over and over again, patting her chest rhythmically, and pulling out the pacifier when she is almost asleep (only to have her eyes spring open again). As she takes 4 or 5 naps a day, you can imagine that I spend a substantial part of my day doing this. My right wrist is getting sore from all the patting.

So, we went through our normal naptime routine this morning, I put her down, and decided to let her fuss for a few minutes. I then came in and said "shhhh...shhhh" a few times. She responded by squealing and smiling--she likes mom's company. I then left again. Daniel went in a few minutes later, put his hand on her chest and again said, "shhhh....shhhh." Afterwards, she rolled over and went to sleep. No pacifier, no nothing. All by herself. And I thought to myself, "Why have I been hanging over the crib shushing and patting 4 hours a day?" Maybe it's just "Daddy Magic" as Daniel calls it. I'm afraid to expect that it will happen again.

I'm not sure very many of you will find that remarkable, or even interesting, but it gives me a little ray of hope that I won't be doing this when she is fifteen years old.