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Sleepy but not asleep

The piece of sleep advice that I just can't seem to make work for Luke is to put him in his crib sleepy but awake. This morning I nursed him for my usual 20 minutes and put him in his crib. He happened to be awake, but I thought he was sleepy enough to drift off. Nope.

He screamed for 30 minutes at the top of his lungs before falling asleep. He did manage to take a 1.25 hour nap, which was good (esp. since he really doesn't get an afternoon nap) and unusual: usually he takes a 45 minute nap after crying himself to sleep.

The thing is, I know he needs to sleep. He was yawning and rubbing his eyes before I put him down. He was snuggling against me and not wanting to run around at top speed. But if he goes into his crib awake (or sometimes even when I bring him into a darkened room) he seems to think that I am trying to be a cruel tyrant who makes him do things he doesn't want to do.

Probably I'm putting him down when he's too tired... I feel like I can't do this right. One principle I have learned on my own, not from the sleep books, is that you can't make a child sleep, you can only create the right environment to encourage the child to sleep.

Maybe after our 15th kid I would finally get the hang of sleep (by that time I would be raving mad, but a sleep expert). On the other hand, if it were that easy, there wouldn't be all these books about it, I guess. For all of you who have children who sleep easily, count your blessings and try not to be too superior to those of us having trouble.

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