Friday, August 31, 2007

Sleeping Naked?

I'm guessing I got your attention with the title eh? Well someone in our family thinks sleeping in the nude is the best thing in the world. The only problem is that this someone isn't potty trained! Yup you guessed it, Kaiden. Every time I put him down for a nap he ends up naked. Let me just give you some background on Kaiden's nap time. He use to go right to sleep when it was nap time but we're not so lucky anymore. For a while he started playing with his toys and you could always tell what he was doing b/c he was so loud. Since it would take him forever to fall asleep we started putting most of his toys in the closet (we have a child proof door knob so he can't get in). This really seemed to help. He would occasionally kick the wall for a little while but then would fall asleep rather quickly. But now he's gotten where he doesn't really like to take his naps. He's tired and rubbing his eyes so I put him in his room and close the door (that's right he can't open this door either!) and then its very quiet for at least 30 minutes. For awhile he had me fooled that he was asleep but every now and again I would hear a little bang and he was moving his little chair onto his bed. We told him the chair needed to stay on the floor and not his bed but when he continued to move it we finally took it out of his room. So now he's found something else to do while bored in his room besides sleeping...undress himself and chew his books up. He's torn pages in his books before so he only has those cordboard books on his shelf but now he just sucks and chews on the pages then spits them in a pile on the floor all while hanging out in his birthday suite! We've now taken ALL of his books out of his room but I'm not sure what to do about his need to undress himself. He's taken his clothes off a few times before, when he had his cast on but he stopped after the second time we fussed at him. But now its much more serious. After every nap time he ends up naked! Yesterday I thought he was asleep but then I heard him talking to himself so I went in his room and there he was sitting in the buff, and he'd wet his blanket too. We got everything cleaned up and clothes put back on. He got a spankin' and we toke away his favorite toys for the rest of the night. I stress each day that if he takes his clothes off he won't be able to play with his cars or watch any TV but it hasn't seemed to help b/c he's still undressing. Today I really didn't think he would do it b/c after talking to him about it he seemed to fall asleep pretty quickly. I went to check on him later b/c he'd been sleeping a long time and there he was curled up with his blanket with nothing on! Once he woke up Joe put on his diaper and had him watch as he put all of his favorite toys on top of the TV where he couldn't reach them. Kaiden would really get sad that he couldn't play with them and understands its b/c he took his clothes off. I think we're going to keep his toys tomorrow until after his nap to see if he keeps his clothes on and then he can get them back, hopefully this will work. I'd be fine if he just wanted to take his clothes off but its the diaper that I have the problem with. We've been lucky a few times when he hasn't wet the bed but there are those times when I have to go and wash his sheets yet again. When is nap time a thing of the past? I know he doesn't want to take a nap but he's so grumpy if he doesn't. And WHEN and IF he does fall asleep he usually sleeps for a good two hours at least! So how can he take a two hour nap one day and then not blink an eye the next? Does anyone have suggestions on how we can convince him to keep his clothes on?

7 comments:

Jamie Hamilton said...

Maybe you should just move to a nudist colony. No, seriously, good luck with that one. I wish I had some good advice for you, but that sounds like a tough one.

Stacy Hutchinson said...

What a challenge. I hope it's a phase that he'll soon grow out of. Ayden has a sensitive gag reflex, so I have to clean up vomit at 2am quite frequently. It's so much fun!

Kelli said...

My sister's little boy did that, but usually after a really messy diaper and he would smear it all over (see, you're lucky!), it was a phase that passed, but they tried putting onesies on him, overalls (harder to get off), and finally duct taped his diaper on. That worked but she hated doing it. Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess!

annie said...

i don't know about the keeping of the clothes on but i think he probably just doesn't need a nap every day. sydnie stoped taking naps between two and three. she still every once in a while takes a nap in the afternoon still though. if he is tired on day let him take a nap, but if he's not acting like he's tired don't put him down. it just sounds like he gets bored those days he's not tired :) its hard to do the no nap thing. i was so sad when syd stoped taking a nap.

Craig, Robyn, Noah and Kaiden... said...

I have to say I agree...sounds like perhaps he doesn't need a nap anymore. Or at least not everyday maybe?
I know Noah went through the same thing, he kind of needed a nap but didn't really want one. Perhaps you could try having "quiet time" instead of sleep time...maybe let him watch a movie or make him sit down to look at some books, anything that invloves him just resting for a little while.
As for the taking the nappy off - no advice there! Noah never did that!! Um, what if you got him some special undies to go over the top of the nappy? I know Noah used to love that, he wanted to wear them but didn't want to go without a nappy. Perhaps Kaiden would like that too, and he would leave the nappy on! Worth a try perhaps?!
Ha ha ha....Good luck :-)

Covington's said...

Okay, I am scared... I don't know what to say. I would maybe discuss being naked and how it's not really polite... ??? I really like the idea of duct taping the diaper on or putting the overalls on. My friend's little boy is having trouble potty training too. He is almost 4 years old. He'll poo and then take his diaper off and play with it and smear it on everything. He really likes creating wall art. So, I guess your issue could be worse so let's be on the positive side and just hope Kaiden gets over this phase and that you & Joe get through it.

7 Baldwin's said...

I too kept expecting you to write about some brown wall art. Count your blessings. And I agree with the overalls. My friend would put footy pajamas on her little guy on backwards so he couldn't get them off alone. Scott went through a naked phase before we had Brock- but he almost always left the diaper on. And it just passed after a week or two.
Good luck! Oh the joys of being a parent- you just wish there was one magic answer for every problem that worked for every kid!! (Scott's in a really stubborn phase and no one has a good answer to that one! FUN!)