Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope that today you get some extra love lavished on you - either from a loved one, a friend, or God Himself.I've been complaining once again about James and his sleep habits. He has been sleeping through the night now very nicely, but lately he has started to wake up for the day at 5:00am! Sometimes he is up before that, but most of the time it is around 5-5:30am. This is just UNACCEPTABLE, and far too early. I've been trying to think of way to work around it - be it with his nap schedule, or bedtime. However, it just hit me like a tonne of bricks today - I think it's MY fault! A week ago or so I switched his naps from a long (1 1/2 hour) morning nap, and a short afternoon nap (1/2 hour), to be the opposite - a short morning nap, and long afternoon nap. I thought I was doing myself a favour - and making this change might help take away that morning nap completely. I also thought it might help him sleep longer in the morning, which at that time was a 6:00-6:30am wake up. Since I've made that nap time switcheroo he has been waking up earlier and earlier. SO, it's back to the OLD naptime routine - long morning nap, short afternoon nap. If he starts to sleep until 6:00-6:30 again, we will be happy! I guess I've just been fiddling around with his schedule so much lately - thinking it needs to change - I've lost sight of the fact that maybe it was really working just fine the way it was! Who says he has to be only having ONE nap??? Argh. Sometimes being a mom is so confusing.
8 comments :
oh sweetie - you have to stop being SO hard on yourself. kids have SO many stages - that it might not even be the naps at all - just a STAGE! but i'll agree - 5 a.m. would SUCK!
have you tried putting him back down? well, that's a dumb question - cause ya - you probably have. i remember when Kamryn was that age - and she would do that, i'd have to leave her in her crib for about another 1/2 hour just playing - and she'd eventually fall back asleep for 2 hours or so...now I may not have been able to fall back asleep - but at least she did.
the biggest thing i've found with Kamryn is not trying to get her to go to bed so early. i have so many friends who have their kids down by 7:30 - and it does work for them - but for us - if we want Kamryn to stay sleeping until 8 or so...we don't put her down before 9. it makes for a longer evening, but a much happier morning. and she still has a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon. but it all depends on her growth spurts & such...
it's such a maze this Mommyhood. everyone has different ways of doing it, and even though you want their advice, you still have to figure out what's best for you & your babe. and you are doing AWESOME! don't doubt yourself!
love ya.
Heather you're a great mom! Often in times like this it's just the little things that will mess up their schedule. Go back to what he knows and gradually change it if you think it needs to change.
5 am really is early, so he should be able to go back to sleep.
To be honest as well, keeping your kid up late so that they sleep in isn't really true, it's just a matter of how you train your kids. Both of my kids sleep from 7:30-8am, but that's only because I have trained them that way. So if that's what you want to work up to with James you can, you just have to do it gradually.
Really Heather, just pray and ask for wisdom...God even wants to help us in there little areas!! Blessings!
they always keep us guessing, don't they? In terms of switching from 2 down to 1 nap a day, let James lead. He'll eventually get disinterested in his afternoon one, then he'll sleep longer for his morning one, and you start bumping it back in 15 minute incriments until it's closer to 12 or 1. But I would say not to try and move him to 1 nap if he's not ready for it.
Hey Heather - I hope you can get the nap thing sorted out. Keziah still does her 2 naps and I don't see her switching to 1 anytime soon. Micah didn't commit to one-nap-per-day until he was closer to 2! It was a long transition time for him, I remember. And hopefully James' early waking is just a phase. Keziah was waking up at 6 am every morning and in the past 2 weeks she's slept past 7 every day! It seems if you wait long enough they tend to change up their routines (and I'm sure she'll change hers again sometime soon, lol).
Anyway, you mentioned on my blog about getting together and I'm definitely interested. I'm just not sure what my time's going to look like when I'm there. And I think I'll be spending most of it on the farm depending on whether my nephew Noah is stable or not. I think I'm going to be seeing Amber the day before I leave, so if we end up meeting in Rosenort I could probably pop by your place as well. I'll send you an email or facebook message once I have a better idea of what my plans are.
Happy V-day :)
Oh, I know! I'm with you on the nap thing. I've been fiddling around with Annika's schedule, too, thinking she's old enough for just one long nap. Nope. Not the case for her, either. She really needs that morning nap to get her through until noon...why fight with her when I can just lay her down and she'll wake up happy again?!! I hope you can figure something out with James' nap times. And I totally agree - motherhood is SO confusing at times!!! Happy Valentine's Day!
Hope it works out. And I agree with Janelle, you are hard on yourself at times. ;0)
Hope it works out. And I agree with Janelle, you are hard on yourself at times. ;0)
I don't know your feelings on this, but there was a time when Kalia started getting up at 6 (she usually gets up between 8 and 9) and I just went in there, told her she needed to go back to sleep, and let her cry for a bit if she needed to. It only ended up lasting a few days and then she went back to sleeping in.
Post a Comment