We apparently have a new schedule in our house.
Miss Fiona is very much her Papa's girl. She wants to stay up late and sleep later. Since she was very small trying to put her down for the night before 10 was almost impossible. We tried everything, and every night we would spend however much time between the time we decided to put her to bed and roughly 10 o'clock with fussing and crying and the in-and-out that comes with a baby that is not ready for bed. Like any self-respecting parent with a willful child that refuses to sleep, we gave up. Fine. Bed time is no earlier than 9 - 9:30. We were rewarded with a child that would happily sleep 12 hours. This left me to my own devices in the mornings. I could get the older kids out, have some computer time, and get some work done! All before my littlest angel decided to grace the day with her presence sometime around 10.
With our increasingly busy activity schedule we (and by we I mean me) decided that maybe it might be a good idea for her to start waking up a little earlier. While I'm not looking for a wide awake toddler at 6, 8 wouldn't be so bad. We might actually make a play-date somewhere close to on time. I might actually get a little snuggle time with my husband in the evening that isn't immediately followed by unconsciousness.
Changing her schedule was surprisingly easy! I started on Monday, waking her up at 8 to see how it'd go. She did really good. Tuesday she was up on her own at 8. Wednesday we were up much earlier because of an appointment. She's napping fine, she's going to bed about an hour or so earlier now! There's peace in the house at night!
Last night, just before 9, I heard her in her bedroom and went to go check on her. She was standing on her tippy-toes, holding her baby doll over her head trying to get it into her crib. She caught me peeking and said "nigh'-nigh' Mama". Well OK! Apparently it's bed time. So I scooped her up, and put her in her crib. She looked at me and said "how about a baba?" No problem! I gave her kisses, tucked her in and then sent her Papa in with the requested baba. We didn't hear a peep out of her for the last 11 hours! I can hear her in there now just chatting away.
We are making progress.
My next trick? Trying to get her into a toddler bed. Something tells me this won't be so easy!
2 comments:
A toddler bed will be a piece of cake. She has older sisters that all sleep in big girl beds. Both my girls were the same with sleeping from 930-10. I miss it, now they are up at 8 (and I am NOT a morning person and I dont have other ones I have to get out the door) whether we have somewhere to go or not.
I'm hoping it will be easy. I'm not entirely sure she's ready (I know I'm not). But, I think it's better to work with her on it now instead of when I'm too big to move! She tends to spend a bit of time in her crib where she is just "chatting" and I'm worried that if she can get up she will.
We'll see how it goes.
Thanks for the encouragement!
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