Campaign for Reform
This picture has nothing to do with the post but I liked it and had to have a picture.
On this election day I thought I would write a political posts. Before you get all upset because you are not supposed to discuss religion or politics, wait and read on. The reform I want is in my daughter’s schedule. You see, we have never really had a schedule and that is by choice. I know there are many of you out there who have your kiddos on a tight “Baby Wise” schedule and that is fine with me, it just was not for me. I decided that it was more important for my sanity to have a baby that was flexible and mobile for the first 6 months. I needed to be able to get out and still do things, with baby in tow. Katherine did great. She has learned to nap and eat anywhere.
So why am I trying to get her on a schedule now. Well, three reasons really. One is that before long she will be too long for her infant car seat. Right now if she falls asleep in the car and we arrive at our destination, I just pop the car seat into the stroller and the nap keeps on going. When she moves to the next car seat you can’t do that. So, I need to know when her nap will be, at least a general window so that we don’t miss them altogether.
The second reason is that I am exhausted from feeding her so much. When I started keeping a journal of her sleeping and eating to try to figure out her nap routine, I realized that I still breastfeed her 7-9 times a day. And, she still wakes up 1-3 times in the night wanting to eat. No wonder I am so tired. So I am trying to be better about solids. She really could take them or leave them, but I am making an effort to get in three meals a day so that maybe she will not be breastfeeding as much. I am not really wanting to wean, just cut back to a more manageable schedule.
A third reason is that we want to put Katherine in a Mother’s Day Out program one day a week starting in January. Right now with her inconsistant naps and her frequent breastfeedings, she would not do too great being away from mommy for 5 hours. So that is a huge motivator for me. I am ready to have one day of uninterrupted time to do things like run errands and clean the house, not to mention go to lunch with friends.
I know that I chose to do things this way and I knew that there would be a week or month of transition that would be challenging so I am not really complaining. I know I did this to myself and I am fine with that. Now that the time is here, it is hard, so pray for us.
So, we started this on Saturday. We had an our of screaming in the crib, followed by 20 minutes in the rocking chair, finally falling asleep for only a 20 minute nap. Then I put her in bed with me to take a nap and we both slept for an hour and a half. That day we had 3 full meals. Then Sunday there were 4 naps, 2 were 15 minutes long on the way to and from church and 2 were 30 minutes long on the way to and from our rent house. Not a great day. Yesterday she spit up her breakfast and glued her lips chut for lunch but did eat dinner. Today, she ate a little breakfast and is right now completing an hour of a nap, we will see how long it goes. So you can see, there is no pattern.
Well, I hear the little darling waking up on the baby monitor. A nap of one hour and ten minutes. That is pretty good for Katherine.