Earlier this week, we experienced our first full-bodied tantrum. It happened at naptime, twice in one day. Naptime usually goes smoothly for us, but I think Patrick is transitioning to a one-nap schedule, and his body is a bit confused. One day, he’s tired at 10 am, and the next, he refuses to sleep until 11:30. I suspect he’s trying to find a new rhythm, which can be a rough process for a toddler. He has gone through similar transitions and sleep regressions before, but he n

I kissed his forehead goodnight. I lay across his feet. One arm resting on his chest, the other patting on his bum. He’s kicking, tossing, making sounds. I feel the usual desperation to calm him down so that I can do something else. That was me a month ago, putting my 4-month-old baby to sleep and struggling as usual. I had decided to stop picking him up unless absolutely necessary. He’d gotten so heavy that rocking him to sleep in my arms became so painful that I almost drop