Credibility

Samantha always naps.  She used to cry herself to sleep every time, but she has never resisted going up to her room for a nap or for bedtime. 

I figured we might have a problem soon, though, because of that Teach Me Time Clock we got for her recently.  The clock is great;  it turns green at 7:30am and she knows she can come out of her room.  The only problem is, we can't set the color alarm for both overnight sleep and nap, so the clock has to be either green or not-green during her naps.  At first we left it not-green, but she seemed confused.  So we changed it so that it stays green most of the day and turns off only around 6pm, when she is sure to have finished any napping, but before she could possibly go to sleep for the night.  This means that she goes down for nap with a green clock, but it seemed to make more sense to her that way.  Still, I knew that at some point, even though I explained it to her, she'd just figure she could skip her nap.

Finally, on Saturday (this was right before her bloody injury) she was so excited about the party that afternoon, which she knew would happen "after nap," that she decided she would not nap.  I put her down as usual and then hopped in the shower.  She showed up a minute later saying, DONE WITH NAP.  I knew that she expected to leave for the party as soon as she said it.  I might have let the nap go that day, but she was overtired to begin with, so I was concerned that she would be cranky if she didn't nap, and that we might even miss the party. 

"I don't think we'll be able to go to the party if you don't take a nap," I said.  She gave me some angry response and ran back to her room, slamming the door.  But a minute later, she was back.  ALL DONE WITH NAP.  "If you don't take a nap, I'm afraid we won't be able to go to the party."  NO! GO TO PARTY. READY TO GO NOW. NO NAP!  

I was still in the shower, so I tried, "If you don't nap now, you'll have to nap in the car on the way to the party, and then we'll be really late."  But what I got in response was, YES, MOMMY. BE LATE TO PARTY. BE LATE. YES.  "But if we do that you'll have less time to play with Baby N."  YES, BE LATE. BE LATE MOMMY.  "But if we do that we'll have to drive around for an hour while you nap and it will waste a whole hour for your daddy and me, and we don't like  that."  YES, BE LATE MOMMY. BE LATE TO PARTY.  She meant it, and I was prepared to do just that, but I still wanted to try to get her to nap at home.  I told her that I didn't like that idea and that I really wanted her to nap at home.

So when I got out of the shower I took her back to her room and sat in the chair and said that I'd stay until she fell asleep.  (I never do this!)  She would close her eyes if I told her to, but she talked to herself and always ended up looking back at me, grinning.  One time I waited through 5 minutes of silence and thought she was out but the moment she heard me move in the chair to get up, she turned around.

I told her that I was going to dry my hair, get dressed, and get my book and that she should stay in her room until I got back.  She did, but she was still awake when I returned.  I told her that I'd stay and read my book while she fell asleep.  Still nothing.  It was edging up on an hour of working on this now and if she didn't get to sleep soon, we really would not make it to the party.  I finally told her to look at me and I said firmly, "Sam, I've made up my mind.  If you don't take a nap, we are NOT going to the party. Period."  And I meant it.  I knew the party would be a disaster otherwise.  She turned over and went to sleep immediately.  I stayed a few minutes, but she was really out this time.  And she had a nice, long nap.

That teaches me to be wishy-washy.  Of course, I already knew that maybes and hemming and hawing don't work, but, hey, everyone screws up sometimes.  Another thing this taught me, though, is that when I do tell Samantha something in a clear way, she knows I will follow through.  Good for me!