People don't always agree with my parenting, but then again, it's MY parenting and they don't need to so that didn't really bother me. I mean it's what works for us, right? I have established a kind of strict schedule when Arya was five months old because the fourth month sleep regression bitch-slapped the fuck out of me. No night light (literally pitch-black), air-conditioned, a little bit sound-proofed bedroom and a lullaby playing in the background since day one. About the sound proofing though, not really- most of the time I just tell them to shut up and that works because as long as there's nothing too-stimulating, everything' great. It may come off as intense or complicated but it's what's been working for us so it doesn't matter, not really.
Anyway last February we moved to Cavite with my dad. Which means yes, new apartment, new (and loud) neighborhood, new everything and no air-conditioner. It's pretty much like going back to zero after having well-estabished a sleep schedule so things got a little chaotic; we went way past her bedtime, woke up too early, had cold, cried our eyes out, etc. Things basically got ugly in every sense of the word and that went on for several weeks. Now though, almost three months in- with Arya being seventeen months still nursing and currently still going through the dreaded one-nap transition, we have two sleep schedules to go by.
ONE NAP SCHEDULE
6:30 - WAKE UP TIME
7:00 - BREAKFAST (CEREALS, SOLID FOOD AND NURSING INCLUDED)
8:30 - BATH
9:00 - PLAYTIME (WHATEVER SHE LIKES DOING, BASICALLY)
11:00 - NAP (USUALLY UP TO TWO HOURS, SOMETIMES MORE)
13:00 - LUNCHTIME
14:00 - PLAYTIME + SNACK (MALL SOMETIMES)
17:00 - DINNER
18:00 - BATH
18:30 - GOAL TO BE ASLEEP
Sometimes when she gets too tired, she takes that one nap as short and terrible as half an hour, wakes up too early in the morning and has way too many night-wakings because of the transition so some days we still go back to taking two naps to make up for too long awake times and all the lost sleep. Also with the traveling atleast for 6 hours plus the traffic going back home atleast once a month, this one works really well because car rides make Arya extra sleepy so that makes things kind of easier. With a few tweaks and differences here's what the second schedule looks like
TWO NAP SCHEDULE
5:30 - WAKE UP TIME
6:30 - BREAKFAST (CEREALS + NURSING AND REFUSES SOLIDS)
8:00 - BATH
8:30 - MORNING NAP (USUALLY AN HOUR)
9:30 - SNACK + PLAYTIME
12:00 - LUNCH
13:00 - AFTERNOON AND LAST NAP (USUALLY AN HOUR AND A HALF)
14:30 - PLAYTIME + SNACK (WE GO TO THE MALL SOMETIMES TO KILL TIME)
17:30 - DINNER
18:00 - BATH AND SOME QUIET TIME
19:00 - GOAL TO BE ASLEEP
Things weren't always great; especially from going to one transition to another. We're still at it! Establishing a schedule works for us, yes but that doesn't mean it will or will not work for you because not all babies are the same. It just so happens that this is what gets us by and like I said, it sometimes gets pretty damn ugly but tomorrow's always another day and so long as we never stop trying to make up for all the shortcomings, we're doing great, mamas and papas. I hope that whatever you're doing, no matter what you're going through, always remember that you're enough. We are enough.
- E x
No comments:
Post a Comment