Can I just vent for a bit?

You may wanna skip this post. It's mainly me bitching about what a sucky napper Quinn has been lately.  I just need to vent, and also kinda want to record this now so I can look back on it later and be reminded of how things used to be and how much better they become (I know this is all a phase, the question is how long it'll take to pass).

Sleep? Pshaw! Who needs sleep?!

A few times we've started settling into a sort of decent nap "routine."  Each time it's lasted a few days, maybe a week or two, then *poof* it all goes away.  The past couple weeks have been the worst.  It used to be I could get him to take a couple of short naps in his bed during the day. Not always, but most days.  I think I've gotten him to take maybe two 20-30 minute naps in his bed in the past week or 2. I'm not exaggerating.  He'll sleep in my arms while nursing, while worn in a carrier, and sometimes in the stroller.  That's. It.

I try to nurse him lying down, pulling away once he was fully asleep, mouth relaxed. Each time as soon as I pulled away, he'd start rooting again and wake up.  He sometimes will sleep for an hour or more while I hold him, but stay latched on the entire time.  He's way more sensitive to noise and disruption now, so if D is around he can't really fall asleep.  What I've been doing is putting on a video for D, then taking Q up to his room, closing the blinds, bundling him, sometimes using white noise, and nurse/rock him to sleep.  Sometimes he gets a decent nap this way. Other times D will get bored of his video and come up to see us, which effectively means the end of nap time.  Explaining to him that I need his help to help Q sleep doesn't seem to do anything.  The hardest part about this is that I'll start feeling angry at D for waking his brother up, but I also can't fault him for wanting to be around us.

Babywearing naps work ok, though it can take a good bit of walking & dancing around to get him asleep.  These work best when we're out somewhere.

D still takes a good 1-1.5hr nap most days, which I tend to spend rocking Q to get him a decent nap, too, so he's not as grumpy the rest of the day (or for the next hour or 2 before he gets tired again).

Tired baby is tired.

At least he sleeps well at night.  He falls asleep anywhere between 8-9pm most nights.  Occasionally it's quick, other times it takes a good hour or 2 to get him fully asleep.  The past couple weeks he's been waking only once or twice to eat, then is up by about 6 or 7am.  I know we're lucky with his nighttime sleep.  I'm very, very grateful for it, as otherwise I think I'd lose my mind.  (Of course, as I write all this, I also know that it's very likely we'll hit another up-every-two-hours phase soon, as they seem to cycle in every so often)

So, yeah. As you can imagine, this makes for pretty long days, even on the days when I have the nanny to help with D.  Honestly, I don't think I'd even mind the no-breaks-all-day-long thing (as much) if it seemed like Q was happy with the sleep he gets. Instead he seems tired and cranky a lot of the time, which makes everything that much more frustrating.

To top it all off?  Zach's about to start a bunch of long days at work and then go to Ohio for a week.  So starting tomorrow and through the next 2 weeks, I'll be on my own through the kids' bedtimes.  This should be... interesting.