sleep strike?!?!....volume II

I'm starting to fear that I might have a post titled "Sleep Strike" on regular basis. When Ben was just a wee little pumpkin, and he'd have a good couple nights or weeks sleeping, I'd immediately want to do a full on V.I.C.T.O.R.Y chant and call all my friends and tell them I'd mastered the art of baby sleeping magic and we were in the sleep clear for the next 18 years. Then inevitably, two minutes after I'd conceived that thought, Ben would start to get a little cold, a tummy ache, a new tooth, or get in a fight with his Horsey (which I really think is the cause of many of his sleepless nights as they talk it out for hours, and often times Horsey ends up sleeping on the floor). What ever the reason, there is always a reason every few months for Ben to go on a "sleep strike" as I like to call them.

He has recently entered into a "proactive negotiation" phase, which I think is quite advanced for his age. :) If we are out and about around the post lunch, about to be nap time hour, and head anywhere in the direction of home, Ben starts up in the back seat in a sing songy / mocking voice. "Ben go night night....noooooooo. Ben play. Ben not tired. Ben go play. We go park." Yesterday it was "We go Back Bay, ok mama? We go Back Bay. Ben no go sleep." How does he even know what the Back Bay is? We really don't go there. I think HE thinks that if he distracts me, I'll forget all about nap time.

All this to say, that with another little one on the way, I can only imagine that I have YEARS of sleep planning, strategizing, begging, coercing...etc. in my future. Especially in light of the fact that my 33 year old husband still has sleep strikes from time to time!!!