Random Bullets of Naps--and a car accident

Well, it's been quite the eventful day.

I did go to the curriculum fair this morning, to scope it out and get my ticket for the used curriculum exchange tomorrow. I got rear-ended on the freeway on the way there.

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Traffic was a bit heavy, but not too bad. I was just driving along when I heard a crash. I was being thankful it wasn't me that was hit and looking to see where the accident was when I got hit. There was probably at least a full 2 second interval between the first vehicle hitting the second vehicle and the second hitting me. It was such a long delay between the impacts that it really surprised me to get hit--especially since I was moving at the time I was hit and the car behind me apparently had been stopped when they were hit. I'm not sure if the first car hit the second car hard enough to ram it into me or if the second driver stepped on the gas and ran into me in the shock of being hit.

I pulled over, got out of my minivan, and went back to talk to the other two drivers. The woman in the middle vehicle (a jeep) was hysterical, sobbing into the phone and holding her neck. She didn't seem to be badly injured, but she was very upset and said that her neck hurt. Wierdly enough, she never did get off her cell phone until the ambulance arrived. She refused to talk to any of us and just kept talking on the phone. The grandmother talked to us, tried to calm down the kids, and called 9-1-1. The paramedics put the middle driver in a stabilizer and took her on a stretcher in the ambulance to get checked out. I think she will be fine, though it's always good to be on the safe side with a possible neck injury.

The man that was at fault in the accident was very apologetic and asked if we were all okay, and asked if he could do anything at all to help the other family today. The kids in the car seemed pretty worried about their mom, but their grandma was able to calm her down a bit. The older boy (maybe 13?) went in the ambulance with his mom and the grandma stayed with the Jeep and the younger (8-10?) boy and tried to reassure him. I had a box of joice in my van and gave him that, which he appreciated. I hope they're all okay and not too shaken up.

I'm thanking God that neither my van nor I seemed to incur serious damage. I was so glad I didn't have any of the kids with me, since DH had stayed home from work this morning to let me go stand in line at the curriculum exhibit.

My neck and especially my middle back and shoulder are pretty sore, but I declined the offer of a ride to the hospital. I have an appointment to get checked out on Monday, which was the soonest my doctor's office had an opening. If anything comes up between now and then I'll go to the ER or same-day clinic, but I'm not expecting that will be necessary. I probably will get a massage or chiropractic treatment ASAP to hopefully fend off a fibromyalgia/CFS flare-up. I'm more worried about a flare-up than about actual injuries. I know what serious whiplash and similar injuries feel like, and this isn't it. I got a bit jerked around and have some sore muscles, but nothing to worry about.

Hopefully that will fill my quota of car accidents for at least a year. I couldn't believe this happened; it was in almost the same spot on the same interstate freeway that I got rear-ended on a year ago last January, when I was pregnant with Baby E. That was also a 3-car accident in which I was the front car. Only this time I was going South instead of North.

Now the kids and I are off to a baby shower . . . busy day today!

On another note, some random notes about naps and a few questions for you all:

• Nearly every day this week Baby E has taken and hour or two to fall asleep for both morning and afternoon naps. I don't know if I'm putting her down at the wrong times or if she's ready to transition to one nap instead of two, but I hope we figure out something soon. Today she napped for maybe two 10-15 minute periods out of the 3+ hours we spent trying to get her to nap, but that was it. She did play with her crib toys a lot though. :) Her lack of naps is making her a bit grouchy.



• Something we've been doing must be working, though, because her nighttime sleeping has been gradually improving since we started trying to keep a more regular schedule. She went down to three wakings, then two, then one to two for several nights in a row. We did have a couple of times where she decided to be awake for 3-4 hours in the middle of the night, but even with a few steps back the overall progress has definitely been in the direction of more sleep.



• She slept last night for 8--count 'em--EIGHT!--hours in a row without waking. Actually, she did wake very briefly around 2 a.m. and soothed herself back to sleep within about 30 seconds, with no adult intervention. What's more, those 8 hours were between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. She's up for the day at 6 now, instead of waking at 8 as she had been doing, but she's actually! sleeping! at night. This is cause for great celebration at the Kangaroo Cottage.



• Now if we can just figure out naps. Since Baby E had been waking at 8-ish, I've been putting her down within 30 minutes of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. every day. But she acts tired about an hour after she wakes up and then doesn't go to sleep until sometime between 11 and 1 and then takes her afternoon nap between 4 and 5. We'd like to get her going to bed for the night closer to 8, so napping from 5-7 in the evening just doesn't cut it.
  
  I've tried watching her closely and putting her down at the first sign of sleepiness, but we've got about a 5-10 minute window and after that she's awake for at least another 30 minutes if we don't get her down soon enough, it seems. Also, it seems so random. I would really like to have at least some level of predictablility so I can plan outings around her naps, since she doesn't nap if we're not home.



• So, I'm soliciting reader input on the subject of naps. What have you done for naps with babies age 9-12 months?
  
  
  
  
  1. What does/did your schedule for naps and bedtime look like?
  
  
  
  2. Do you have set times by the clock for naps, do it by the amount of time they've been awake, or just put the baby down when you see signs of tiredness?
  
  
  
  3. If the child sleeps longer than expected do you let them sleep as long as they want, wake them up at the normal time, or wake them after a certain amount of time regardless of what time they went to sleep?
  
  
  
  4. If they wake after a very short amount of time or stay in the crib for an hour without going to sleep, do you consider the nap over or continue trying to get them to nap after that point?
  
  
  
  5. If a child skips a nap or takes a late or unusually short nap, do you adjust other nap/bed times accordingly, or not?
  
  
  
  6. Any other thoughts/input?