In the life of being a stay at home mom with four kids running around in different directions, sometimes schedules do not work for me. I'm organized, but not when it comes to Noah's nap & bedtimes. None of my kids have ever had a bedtime schedule, and all the girls have adjusted fine without them. However, I do have a daily schedule in which seems to work for me which helps me find balance.
This is how my schedule goes on a daily basis:
Noah is the only child I have in the home with me for eight hours. He wakes up at the time his sisters do, and they are all out of the house by 8:00 am. I feed him some oatmeal which is his favorite, and he will watch cartoons on PBS for about an hour or two. Sometimes I'll also lay out some paper and crayons so he can color. I just pray that he doesn't color on the walls. This gives me time to clean up the kitchen, put a load of laundry in (which never ends), check my phone, and email, read, blog, and TRY to put in 30 minutes of yoga.
When Noah gets restless, or tired of watching television he'll come to see what I'm doing and join in. Well, what he really wants me to do is nurse him. I am seriously trying to wean him from nursing, but I end up giving in. By this time it is about 10:30am, and if I have any errands to run (which I always do) I'll fit that into the schedule. Sometimes he'll fall asleep in the car, and sometimes he won't. His nap times vary anytime between 11am and 2pm, and the girls are all usually home by 3:00pm.
Then their is homework, piano/violin lessons, talking about their day during dinner, and since the weather has been great we will go for a walk afterwards. It's so nice to have a walking trail in our neighborhood. There are days when my better half will come home late so it's just me and the kiddos. By this time it's about 8:30pm. To some of you that might be considered a late time to put the kids to bed, but seriously...in our world today who has time to go to bed at 7:30 or even 9:30pm? Especially when it gets dark at 7:45pm. Maybe when I'm much, much older I'll be going to bed at a decent hour.
I think I have Noah utterly and completely spoiled. This boy wants to sleep in our bed all the time. He'll fall asleep in my arms while I'm sitting on the couch, or he will conk out on his own. I'll slowly move him to his crib, and then he wakes up! He does not like his crib anymore so I move him onto our bed.
I cannot get him out of our bed. Sleeping with his sock monkey no longer works its magic, and to be honest, I don't mind it too much. I do admit there are some nights where we would like a break and sleep on our own. I hope that once he's potty trained, and has his own toddler bed that he'll have more of a desire to sleep on his own.
I also found this book, and decided to buy it. So far I absolutely love it! I just hope some of the solutions will help Noah get better sleep, and sleep on his own without fussing.
I've also learned that going for walks does well for all of us. I think we need to do that everyday. Between the walks after dinner, and reading this book maybe it'll help Noah go to bed easier...and help us get better sleep.
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