I never would have imagined being on a schedule would make my daughter so happy. I always thought we would just go through our days doing whatever, whenever. I accepted that a bedtime routine could be beneficial, but I honestly thought I would never go beyond that for Dav before she hit her school-aged years.
I have been struggling with a little one who was increasingly fighting her sleep and getting crankier and crankier as the day wore on. I decided to watch her for a week to see if a daily pattern emerged on it's own. I made note of what times throughout the day she started exhibiting signs of sleepiness, or hunger, what times she was really wanting to be engaged or left to play on her own. To my surprise I saw a definite pattern after three days of watching.
It hit me slightly less hard than the realization that maybe she didn't want to co-sleep anymore had hit me. My kid is craving structure in her day. So I wrote a schedule around her natural timer.
The schedule is less rigid in the morning. I follow Dav's lead which will sometimes veer up to thirty minutes off of the schedule, and then bring it in tighter as the day winds down. By the time she's ready to go down for her last nap of the day, she's right on target.
Her mood and her willingness to go to bed at night (or even just down for a nap) are greatly improved. We'll keep with it for as long as it keeps working for her. I'll share our schedule with you, in case anyone is interested! Hope you are all enjoying the end of the work week!
I have been struggling with a little one who was increasingly fighting her sleep and getting crankier and crankier as the day wore on. I decided to watch her for a week to see if a daily pattern emerged on it's own. I made note of what times throughout the day she started exhibiting signs of sleepiness, or hunger, what times she was really wanting to be engaged or left to play on her own. To my surprise I saw a definite pattern after three days of watching.
It hit me slightly less hard than the realization that maybe she didn't want to co-sleep anymore had hit me. My kid is craving structure in her day. So I wrote a schedule around her natural timer.
The schedule is less rigid in the morning. I follow Dav's lead which will sometimes veer up to thirty minutes off of the schedule, and then bring it in tighter as the day winds down. By the time she's ready to go down for her last nap of the day, she's right on target.
Her mood and her willingness to go to bed at night (or even just down for a nap) are greatly improved. We'll keep with it for as long as it keeps working for her. I'll share our schedule with you, in case anyone is interested! Hope you are all enjoying the end of the work week!
| davschedule.txt |