Sunday, July 12, 2009

Comment answer

I meant to say this in the last post:



Michele asked in the comments if the kids are waking earlier since I'm putting them to bed earlier. The answer is no, when we manage to get them to sleep earlier they sleep right through to their normal wake time. Fab, eh?



One word of warning. We've been experimenting with denying Pequita her nap in an attempt to make it easier to fall asleep. Huge success. But she immediately started having night terrors, half waking and screaming, crying, totally inconsolable. We went through this when she was a baby, so knew to take her outside into the night air, turn on lights, dunk her feet in cold water etc to wake her. My buddy Tif remarked in passing how her friend's son suffered from night terrors when he stopped napping. Uh. Whoops. The next two days I orchestrated naps all around chez Homestead and no more night terrors. It is a clear winner for me to trade an early, easy bedtime in exchange for the whole family not having to get up several times each night as Pequita cries. Let this be a lesson for all of you. It takes a village, clearly.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you are up for an experiment, try naps AND earlier bedtimes. My two oldest sons have both gone to bed at 7pm (and wake between 6:30 and 7am) since they were six months old. My oldest was a terrible napper (generally 1/2 hour at a time), but did nap better with a got a good night sleep. My middle guy will be 2.5 in August and naps 2-3 hours a day with a 7pm bedtime. It is counterintuitive, but sleep begets sleep... Our youngest is 16 days old, but we will certainly be following the same sleep schedules with him as he gets older. 7pm also has the added benefit of being great for your marriage. My husband and I get 3 hours of time together every night.. it is heavenly!
Heidi, Seattle

debi said...

Best wishes for Tuesday. I'll be thinking of you and sending good thoughts out into the universe. Probably doesn't help, but what the heck!