It happened today. I hit a wall. It was sometime mid-afternoon, with both Collier and I crying, sitting in his room. He was exhausted. I was exhausted. But he was SO tired, he couldn't (wouldn't) sleep. Before Collier was born, I figured that if I just paid attention to his cues, he would direct me to the schedule he needs. (umm....incorrect, Adrianne) For several weeks now, we've been operating on "Collier time", without a really defined schedule, and serious nap issues. C will nap just fine--for about 45 minutes. This clearly isn't long enough. He progressively gets more and more overtired throughout the day, and inevitably melts down each afternoon and evening. Many days of meltdowns have led me to this point--I am going to have to take charge of his daily schedule.
So, here we are! Tomorrow we are hitting the ground running with a strict (at least to begin with) 3 hour eat-play-nap schedule. If he wakes up early, I'm going to give him the opportunity to get himself back to sleep. This means he may have some challenges in store over the next few days. But how else will he learn? My friend Ashely had a really wise piece of advice about this situation: "having a schedule makes them (her twins) confident that I'll meet their needs,". While it may be challenging at times, I've got to teach Collier that I will meet his needs, and I know what they are. It's a trust thing, I guess.
So, I've got Philippians 4:13 running through my head and my mama friends on speed dial. Let's do this.
I'm amazed it took you this long to have a "moment"... I am pretty sure Preston was like a week old when we had our first meltdown together. :)We lived by the three hour schedule for a long time. It really does work if you stick to it! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I will be calling on both you and Ashley in the months to come! What book did you read? Ashley recommended Happy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child to me. We will see...
ReplyDeleteCami...I promise you that I had several meltdowns before now. It just took me until now to decide that I needed to let him cry it out. I think this new schedule is what we both need!
ReplyDeleteAndi, we read Healthy Sleep Habits. It's great, but doesn't mention anything about the "45 minute intruder" (it has a name, who knew?) Hope Peyton is great! :)