When?

Please excuse me while I vent a little...

Although our Boo is the cutest thing in the whole world (biased comment, I know), I find myself getting very frustrated with his horrible napping practices! He will only sleep for 30 minutes. Then he wakes up all happy and wants to play. We leave him in the crib, knowing that 30 minutes isn't enough sleep for him (not to mention, I can't get much done in 30 minutes). Usually between 20 and 30 minutes later, he starts to get fussy and we go give him his papeyer again. He would normally go back to sleep after that for about an hour. Well, lately he's been fighting that second part of the nap. He just is so fussy but exhausted too. He sleeps for a couple of minutes and then wakes up and cries...ugh. I feel like I've done everything I can short of letting him cry himself to sleep (which I just can't do) to promote good sleep/napping habits, but have yet to see the fruit of our labor. So I ask you...
When is he going to sleep for more than 30 minutes?
When will he bridge those 2 naps together?
When will I be able to start and finish a household chore while he sleeps?
When will our "being consistent" pay off?
When?
When?
When?

Thanks for listening. I feel better now. I know I should be enjoying the moment and not looking forward to "when" this or that happens. And, I do enjoy Boo and this stage of his life, but in terms of napping, I do long for the day it works the way it's "supposed" to . Am I being naive in thinking that it will actually happen? I mean, I know I've heard friends talk about consistent nap times and that their children slept 1-3 hours during these times. Did I imagine it all? Am I kidding myself? I mean, he is over 6 mos old now and we've been doing this dance for a while.

I know I've painted this horrible napping picture for you. But, the truth is, he goes to sleep very well and for that I'm very grateful and do think this is where our being consistent has paid off. We don't have to rock him to sleep and tiptoe out of the room. We read stories, sing him a lullaby on the way to the crib, put him down with his ya-ya and papeyer and he's usually asleep within 5 minutes. And, I'm grateful that he doesn't do this 30 minute thing at night and that he usually only requires some help finding his papeyer when he awakes at night, which is more often that I'd like, but it could be worse.

As you can imagine, I'm writing this as he is swimming in his crib, supposed to be sleeping and it's taken me a lot longer to write because he keeps waking up crying. I even tried to feed him, but he was clearly tired and not hungry. Oh brother!

And then I think, he's the one crying...how does he feel? Does he feel like we're never coming back? That we've banished him to his crib for life?? Boy, mother's guilt is a real emotion, huh?

Please don't get the wrong idea, I just love him to pieces! I just needed to get this off my chest and seek advice. Thanks for listening. Like I said before, I feel better already. Unfortunately, I think I'll be feeling the same way at about 1:30 p.m. when he wakes up this afternoon after sleeping only 30 minutes then...

Wouldn't you know it...he's asleep now! Yay! Yay! Yay!