 |
| image source |
The other day I was reading Design Mom's Work Life Balance Project. One of the things she mentioned was the importance of sleep. I'm a firm believer in that and seem to accomplish it for everyone except myself. I've struggled with this for years and I've had enough. There are not enough hours in the day for me to do all that needs to be done and somehow manage to get to the gym. Lately, it's been a fight to get the kids to go with me and that just isn't stress relieving for an activity who's soul purpose is to help relieve stress. The Design Mom referenced this book, so I ordered a used copy today. I figured it was worth the $4 I paid. So, I'll read this and I plan on digging out my Baby Wise book again, to review all it has to say. Hopefully, we can help Kipp get to sleeping more consistently through the night. He started eating cereal in the evenings last week. And today I gave him some at breakfast. I was pretty diligent with helping Bliss get on a sleep schedule and sort-of been lax with the others. Isla wasn't so bad, but I remember Zade was killing me. It took me until he was 6-9 months old before I had had enough and laid down the law. It's hard to start then, when you should be doing it from the beginning. Ironically, he's been my best sleeper since then.
So, if you're having the same issue with your baby or even older children. I highly recommend reading the Baby Wise books and take a look at this one. I'll let you know what I think when I read it. Have you read this one? Did you find it helpful?
3 comments:
I just pulled this off our shelf this week as well (right next to Baby Wise)! I'll admit that I've only read parts. The research indicated that sleep would be a challenge long-term for any colicky baby whose sleep problems weren't fixed early on (by that time our colicky daughter had already reached 7 or 8 months). Prematurely discouraged, perhaps, I put it away. Now 2 1/2 years later, things still aren't fixed (as predicted by that research), and I'm trying to resolve this now. Live and learn, I guess! Here's hoping you find some great ideas for helping your handsome little Kipp become as great a sleeper as Zade--and, even better, help yourself get the good quality, adequate sleep you want!
Well, you know I'm no star example when it comes to bedtimes and sleep patterns for my kids, but I can say that with Elyse especially, I wasn't sleep deprived really at all because we co-slept until she was almost a year old, as well as with our other two kids. I know it isn't for everyone, but I would just roll over and feed them, and roll back over and we'd all go back to sleep. There was no big production of it, no lights turning on, no getting settled anywhere else for a feeding. It's one of those taboo things, though, more popular in other nations and cultures than our own, and some people just don't get into a good sleep with their babies in their beds, but thankfully, it never bothered us. And you know I didn't have bedtimes for the other two until they started school. I wish that would have been different now, mainly because it would have be nice to have sat next to David on the couch without kids piled on top of us before bed, but because they went to bed later, they slept later, which meant I got to sleep later too. So no real sleep depravation there either. I guess I've been lucky or a bad parent. Haven't figured out which yet. They adapted to a "bedtime" much easier than I excected when they had too. I hope you get some answers. I marvel at all you can accomplish on such small amounts of sleep. I would be a mean mommy bear ALL the time if I had to function with as little as you seem to get.
I have my book...now I just need to read it.
Jeni, I just can't co-sleep. I don't sleep well and the same for Blasen. For us the bed is our space...for that matter our bedroom is our space. I admire your ability to not have bedtimes. I need just a little time at night to unwind and do something uninterrupted. I am a better mom for it.
It's so interesting what works for each family.
Thanks all for the comments and encouragement.
Post a Comment