Natalie and I have really fallen into a great routine both in the mornings and afternoons now that Craig is leaving the house early and coming home late due to basketball. Awhile back I wrote a heart-wrenching (to me at least) post about how Daddy was CLEARLY Natalie's favorite person for comfort and joy during volleyball season because I just wasn't around very much. Craig kept reassuring me that come basketball season the tables would turn and I would be the one she would call out for in the mornings and at bedtime.
And once again I doubted myself entirely too much and I should have trusted in my husband (and in God).
Depending on when she wakes up we are usually down in the kitchen eating breakfast around 6:30 or so. She happily chomps on her cheerios and fruit while shrieking about the dogs or jabbering about babies. I get the Keurig fired up and then make both our lunches. The dogs scamper outside to use the restroom and then come in and sit eagerly by Natalie's feet, hoping for a stray Cheerio to fall.
Usually by 6:45 or 7:00 we are back upstairs so that I can take a shower while she plays with her magnets or reads books in the bathroom. Sometimes she will wander off to the playroom and return with a wonderfully prepared plastic breakfast consisting of peas and carrots for me. Or sometimes such as this morning, I will find her curled up in her glider with a book and a baby. I plug in my iPhone to the iHome and we listen to the Florence and the Machine station on Pandora.
After I'm dressed and ready around 7:30 we head into her room and take off jammies and put on a fresh diaper and outfit for the day. We usually have an intense debate over BOW or NO BOW which always depends on the choice of clothing. Medicine is given (if necessary) and teeth and hair are brushed.
Once we get downstairs, the pups are locked in their kennel and we gather up our supplies for the day. Backpack in hand, Natalie stomps to the garage door and out we go....but not without stopping (and pleading) for the Santa blow-up decoration in our front yard to be inflated. But much to her dismay, our Santa is a nocturnal creature and MUST get his rest during the day so we wish Santa a good nap and climb into the car.
Our afternoon routine gets started a little later than I would like because for the next three weeks I'm tied up after school with Cross Country practice until 4:45 which means Natalie and I don't arrive home until closer to 5:00. But once home I again turn on the Pandora radio in the iHome that is above the sink and we clean up the house....sometimes that means putting away laundry and toys while other days it's wiping down counters and picking up the leaves the dogs track in from the yard.
After about a twenty minute speed clean around the house the music stays on and the television stays off while I start the preparations for dinner. Depending on what we are eating, Natalie may or may not be involved and if not she pretty much has the run of the downstairs and she will color and read books or play with her babies and animals. Towards the end of the dinner prep Craig arrives home and keeps her occupied while I finish up and get the food to the table.
On the nights that he is home and doesn't have a basketball game, Craig is the one who reads a bedtime story and then rocks her to sleep but on Monday and Thursday nights it is my duty. Last night we got home from Craig's game at 8:45 and went straight upstairs for pajamas, teeth brushing, book reading and bedtime. After a few books I clicked off the lamp and rocked her for about eight minutes before her breathing seemed to level out. I picked her up and placed her in the crib but as soon as I closed the door her pitiful wails began.
Sigh. I sat on the bed and watched her through the monitor and anxiety crawled up my spine. I just knew it was going to be one of THOSE nights and I figured that it would end with me huffing and puffing with frustration, her face streaked with tears and Craig having to swoop in and save the day even though he was exhausted from coaching 7th grade basketball.
So I sat and I zenned out. I waited and listened. "Mama, mama, mama!" she wailed from her bed....and although I hated to hear her cry, I was secretly pleased that she was calling for ME! After five minutes it was obvious that she would not be putting herself to sleep and as Craig walked in the front door I was heading back into her room. I stood in that dark room for as long as it took me to methodically thump on her back, slowly and calmly FIVE HUNDRED TIMES. Literally. Five hundred pats on her back. Of course I counted....because you know....I like numbers. Again I sneaked out of her room while practically holding my breath all the while praying that she would not be flipped over and sitting up by the time I walked the ten steps to our bedroom.
I took a look at the monitor and WHOOSH. I let out a deep breath. The toddler was soundly asleep. Bedtime success with no frustration from either party. Hallelujah.
I totally underestimated the power of a routine with a child. I know that I personally enjoy a routine and that installing a consistent warm-up with my athletes is important but I truly had no idea how attached to a "routine" Natalie would become. It has taken us a few weeks (and a few tears) to get ourselves situated to the new normal but she has transitioned beautifully and understands (for the most part) what is going on, where Daddy is ("work" or "ball") and how it affects her life.
Showing posts with label Routine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Routine. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Non-Sleeping Beauty
And since yesterday I spent an entire post praising my child for being the world's awesomest toddler eater, let's move onto something she ain't so great at - SLEEPING.
This is not something she inherited from me.
I'm going to blame it on her father who definitely struggles to fall (and stay) asleep.
Natalie has never in her life slept beyond 8:00 in the morning. Not once. Not even if we keep her up until 10:00 the night before, she will be hollering from her crib at 6:30....or earlier.
Here is our bedtime routine:
- Momma puts on Natalie's pajamas, gives medicine if necessary and helps brush hair and teeth.
- Daddy is seated in the cozy brown glider in Natalie's bedroom.
- Natalie picks out one or two books to read and then climbs into Daddy's lap.
- Good night kisses and hugs for Momma.
- Lamp is turned on and overhead light is switched off.
- Momma leaves the room.
- Daddy reads the books and cuddles Natalie.
- At some point in time when Natalie is close to sleep, the lamp is turned off and she is just rocked until fully or almost asleep.
- Daddy places Natalie into her crib and heads out of the room.
- Most of the time Natalie wakes up and spends the next five minutes crying on the side of her crib before throwing herself into a little ball in the center of her mattress and passes out.
It's all sweet and fun until that last part.
For the longest time Craig refused to put her into the crib without Natalie being completely asleep nor would he let her cry on her own for any amount of time.
At the beginning of the school year Craig and I had a little powwow about our nighttime routine and I convinced him to try letting her cry on her own in bed for 10 minutes just one night. It absolutely killed him but of course within five minutes she was asleep.
As her parents, we know all the different "cries" that Natalie has - from the whimper of "that hurt just a little but I think I'm okay if you give me a hug" to the "I'm so tired but I don't want to go to bed because you guys are probably doing super fun stuff right now" and even the "oh my goodness I am in so much pain and anguish and you better come get me right now because I might explode."
Most of the time we get some version of the second type of cry and within that five minute window of us leaving the room, she is passed out in her bed and sleeps through the night........but here is the kicker - she is and EARLY morning riser. As in 5:30 AM.
Ugh.
This is the part where I do not know what to do. We can get her to bed and have her stay there throughout the night (for the most part) but this 5:00 in the morning crap has got to end. I'll admit it, when other people write about their children sleeping in past 8:00, I get a little jealous. A whole lot jealous in fact. Even if I can't sleep in that late do you know how glorious it sounds to have some time in the morning to myself to take a shower, put on make-up or even just drink a cup of coffee in pure solitude? Sigh.
And now that she has started up this 5:00 stuff and Craig and I both work long hours, we've taken up the bad habit of just bringing her to bed with us in the mornings so that we can at least sleep until 6:30. But this is not a habit I want to get into because although it can be sweet to wake up to her little face in the morning, I sleep TERRIBLY with her in the bed and a well-rested Momma is better for every member of my household.
One of my thoughts is to take the front of her crib off and convert it to a toddler bed so that in the morning she could play with the toys in her room without waking up me or Craig. BUT....that would completely upset our bedtime routine because during that five minutes of frustration before passing out, she would be out of bed and banging on the door.
My other thought is just to wait it out because she did this awhile back for a few weeks before going back to her better wake-up time of 6:30. She's also been battling a not-really-an-ear-infection-but-kind-of-an-ear-infection this past week. We have her on some antibiotics combined with a nasal spray to knock all the junk loose in her head and so far, so good....no fever which is hopefully a sign that the ear infections is staying at bay for the time being. We will head back to the pediatrician's office in a few weeks to have another look into her ears to see if the fluid has cleared up. If not, we're off to the ENT doctor.
Or perhaps she's just an early riser which could benefit us when she is in school?!
This is not something she inherited from me.
I'm going to blame it on her father who definitely struggles to fall (and stay) asleep.
Natalie has never in her life slept beyond 8:00 in the morning. Not once. Not even if we keep her up until 10:00 the night before, she will be hollering from her crib at 6:30....or earlier.
Here is our bedtime routine:
- Momma puts on Natalie's pajamas, gives medicine if necessary and helps brush hair and teeth.
- Daddy is seated in the cozy brown glider in Natalie's bedroom.
- Natalie picks out one or two books to read and then climbs into Daddy's lap.
- Good night kisses and hugs for Momma.
- Lamp is turned on and overhead light is switched off.
- Momma leaves the room.
- Daddy reads the books and cuddles Natalie.
- At some point in time when Natalie is close to sleep, the lamp is turned off and she is just rocked until fully or almost asleep.
- Daddy places Natalie into her crib and heads out of the room.
- Most of the time Natalie wakes up and spends the next five minutes crying on the side of her crib before throwing herself into a little ball in the center of her mattress and passes out.
It's all sweet and fun until that last part.
For the longest time Craig refused to put her into the crib without Natalie being completely asleep nor would he let her cry on her own for any amount of time.
At the beginning of the school year Craig and I had a little powwow about our nighttime routine and I convinced him to try letting her cry on her own in bed for 10 minutes just one night. It absolutely killed him but of course within five minutes she was asleep.
As her parents, we know all the different "cries" that Natalie has - from the whimper of "that hurt just a little but I think I'm okay if you give me a hug" to the "I'm so tired but I don't want to go to bed because you guys are probably doing super fun stuff right now" and even the "oh my goodness I am in so much pain and anguish and you better come get me right now because I might explode."
Most of the time we get some version of the second type of cry and within that five minute window of us leaving the room, she is passed out in her bed and sleeps through the night........but here is the kicker - she is and EARLY morning riser. As in 5:30 AM.
Ugh.
This is the part where I do not know what to do. We can get her to bed and have her stay there throughout the night (for the most part) but this 5:00 in the morning crap has got to end. I'll admit it, when other people write about their children sleeping in past 8:00, I get a little jealous. A whole lot jealous in fact. Even if I can't sleep in that late do you know how glorious it sounds to have some time in the morning to myself to take a shower, put on make-up or even just drink a cup of coffee in pure solitude? Sigh.
And now that she has started up this 5:00 stuff and Craig and I both work long hours, we've taken up the bad habit of just bringing her to bed with us in the mornings so that we can at least sleep until 6:30. But this is not a habit I want to get into because although it can be sweet to wake up to her little face in the morning, I sleep TERRIBLY with her in the bed and a well-rested Momma is better for every member of my household.
One of my thoughts is to take the front of her crib off and convert it to a toddler bed so that in the morning she could play with the toys in her room without waking up me or Craig. BUT....that would completely upset our bedtime routine because during that five minutes of frustration before passing out, she would be out of bed and banging on the door.
My other thought is just to wait it out because she did this awhile back for a few weeks before going back to her better wake-up time of 6:30. She's also been battling a not-really-an-ear-infection-but-kind-of-an-ear-infection this past week. We have her on some antibiotics combined with a nasal spray to knock all the junk loose in her head and so far, so good....no fever which is hopefully a sign that the ear infections is staying at bay for the time being. We will head back to the pediatrician's office in a few weeks to have another look into her ears to see if the fluid has cleared up. If not, we're off to the ENT doctor.
Or perhaps she's just an early riser which could benefit us when she is in school?!
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