My daughter has a cold. That in itself is not news. Children get sick on a regular basis. But today, after we (my one year old and I) went out, she fell asleep in the car. Now she hasn’t been sleeping very well and I get it. No way to blow out all of the guck that gets stuck in those tiny adorable noses. But with her head slightly tilted back in the car seat, plus a little chill in the air, it was the ideal conditions for a nap. A three hour nap.
Normally I am lucky if I get an hour or more. So I happily sat and worked on my iPhone. And waited. And waited. And waited. And had to go to the bathroom. And waited. Got hungry. And waited. And then hour three rolled around as I was contemplating calling my neighbour to give me a short break, when she woke up.
I would do it again in a heartbeat – if that’s what it takes to get her to sleep. Especially with a bad cold.
But it got me thinking, what lengths do we go to in order to keep our babies/infants/toddlers happy? I posted the question on a few different mother forums and here are the responses I got. Interestingly enough, we all seem to have car stories. Something about cars! There’s a few other non car related ones at the bottom. I hope you will play along and add a comment on either Facebook or below on what you have done to keep your little one happy. Always makes for a good laugh how similar we are in our approaches!
CAR SPECIFIC RESPONSES:
* When my daughter had a cold, the only time she slept was in the car – I spent my morning sitting by Starbucks and would go through the drive thru sometimes for a second drink!
* I drive to get the kids to sleep all the time. It’s the only way to keep three kids asleep for more than 20 minutes. I also listen to ‘What does a fox say?” on repeat for hours at a time to keep all my day home kids and daughter happy. Soon as it stops they start crying and almost nothing can distract them.
* I used to use a quarter tank of gas to get my son to nap. If there’s one thing I learned, it’s always pee before you leave, don’t forget water, a snack and maybe a quick stop at the Starbucks.
* My daughter and I would have to go for a walk everyday to get her to nap, then bring the stroller in the house to keep her napping. For my son (10 months old), I have to go in the basement, throw him in the wrap, turn on the bouncy castle and bounce on the yoga ball. I have to do this daily and when my daughter was two and woke in the middle of the night I got up and had to bounce her on the ball to get her back to sleep!
* I’ve had a nap in the front seat for two hours while baby slept in the back.
* For THREE YEARS (yes you read that correctly), our son would only fall asleep in the car. Every day, many times a day I would pack him up and go cruise around then go home and carry him into bed. Once asleep we could do anything, but to get him to sleep putting him in the car was the only way. My son is now five and a half, and still falls asleep in the car, so now we are doing the opposite and trying anything to keep him AWAKE while driving!
* When my son was a baby, I spent many times sitting on a couch in the garage rather than take him out of the van. We were selling the couch, but I did get many strangle looks!
OTHER NON CAR RELATED WAYS TO KEEP BABY HAPPY:
* I let my son sort my maxi pads and tampons into piles when he was a baby. I figured that anything that occupied him and wasn’t a safety hazard was fair game!
* I have listened to ‘What does the fox say’ at least 15 times today in a row.
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