Thursday, January 24, 2008
Okay, this is something that I've struggled with for months. Should you work your schedule around your baby's - or should your baby adjust to yours?
Last Sunday Emmanuel and I were all ready for church. It was 12:40 (church starts a 1pm). Emma was asleep still, even though I put her down for a nap almost 2 hours ago. Emmanuel told me to just let her wake up on her own. So I did, and she didn't wake up for another hour. We missed church.
And maybe the answers to this question will vary based on your family beliefs or where you grew up. When we were in Mexico, my in-laws couldn't understand why we couldn't just lay her down for her nap anywhere. My mother in-law even tried to put her to bed in a hammock! Emma just screamed, of course.
Yesterday, Emma didn't take a nap until noon. This made me think that she was going to start giving up her morning naps, and so I planned on going to playgroup today at 10:30. She fell asleep at 10:10 and we didn't go.
So what to do? Do you let them sleep according to their own schedule and defend her from everyone around you asking of your time at her nap time? Do you let them sleep a little and then wake them up? Or do you just put them in the car and deal with the grumpiness for the rest of the day? Sometimes I feel like other moms deal with things better than I do, because I feel like it's impossible to do the latter! A grumpy baby means a grumpy mom, (and then a grumpy dad) and each day is so important to me. So what would you do in those above situations? What do/did you do with your babies if you are a parent?
This is a personal invite to all who read this blog. Moms, Dads, friends, even if you have no kids - post away!
5 comments:
Okay, so not that this is the right thing to do, but this is what we do. In regards to church, we also meet at 1:00 which is smack dab in the middle of Jack's nap. So, we usually put him down a little earlier (all dressed and ready for church), and then wake him up right as we have to walk out the door. Surprisingly, he does quite well, even if he only sleeps for 30-40 minutes! Then we come home and put him back down for a nap. I just feel that it's more important to have our children knowing that we go to church,it's important, and we're not going to miss it for just any reason.
With things like play groups we'll go if they fit his sleeping schedule. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, but I'm not too heartbroken about missing something like that.
Hope that helps. Sorry about the long post!
Oh man, schedules get complicated! There's so much to them! Pretty much for me, Abs has a schedule, but when something comes up that I'd really like to do or is important, I mess up the schedule. Like today for playgroup, her nap time is literally at the same time 10:30-12:30. But, I knew she'd be able to last at least for the first little while there, so we went. But her age also goes into that. B/c I remember when Abs was just 1, I missed going to play group many times b/c she really needed her sleep and I knew she'd be out of it the rest of the day. So sometimes we'd go, sometimes not. Mostly it depended on the location and if I was needing some adult interaction! So then it comes down to if you know she'll be grumpy, do you want to deal with that or not? When I ask myself that, it just goes back and forth, depending on my mood. Whoa this is getting long!
As far as working her schedule into hers or yours into hers I think should be a compromise. B/c if there's something that you really want to do and it'll help you keep sane (this is my major factor!), I say do it, all the while knowing what you'll have to deal with afterwards. So just weighing the pros and cons.
With the church thing, I'm with Katie. I just think it's important to start the routine now. Although I always feel terrible waking Abby up from sleep! It's so sad! But then when Emma is older and you have another baby, she'll see you going to church no matter what.
And I definitely am NOT one that deals with grumpiness very well. I get impatient which is then followed by guilt for being impatient which leads to a not so nice day. That's pretty much it. I'm sure all of us moms have much more in common than what meets the eye!
(sorry it's SOO long!)
Thanks for your comments ladies. I actually thought the same thing about my post. Wow, it's so long. Are people actually going to read it? Haha so thanks for reading it and thanks for writing long answers - I don't think short ones would have actually helped. Napping all dressed and ready for church is a great idea. And I guess the playgroup thing was harder for me this week because I'm a visiting teacher (and buddy) to the new girl who coordinates playgroup now and I 1)really want to see her and 2)feel bad not going knowing all the effort she puts in.
All this thought is making me want a morning snack! Thanks again to Katie and Michelle!
Hi Emmma, you are a cutie. You always bring a smile to my face whenever I see your videos, Love Grandpa Dale.
Hi Grandpa! Thanks for your comment!
Love,
Emma
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