It's been just over six weeks since we moved back into our little house and with that move has come a lot of transitions.
One of the most notable is the sleep routine we've recently adopted for the boss of the house (aka- Andy, our adorable two and a half year old). I wrote about transitioning from co-sleeping to getting him into his own big boy bed here if you want to have a read about the system we used. It worked really well for us and found that we encountered a really peaceful transition from having him in our bed to moving to his own bed. He was napping really well during the day and getting down well at night and I felt like I was winning at life.
However, as with all every stage of parenting- things change. Bed time was becoming a complete nightmare leaving everyone in our house tired, cranky and a little perplexed as to what to do. So I did what any mother would do and I googled, grabbed parenting books, read all the things and then I dismayed even more and ultimately just did our own thing after working through the Mummy guilt that maybe it wasn't the right thing. You feel me?! I know you do. The sleep debate is a big one in Mummy land, and this here blog post is just my two cents worth. I am a big believer in every mother doing what is best for her babies and her family and I am a huge respecter of differences, no one is the same and there is no such thing as a one size fits all parenting approach. You do you, Mama.
Back to the nightmare that I was eager to turn into a peaceful daydream.
We ditched the nap.
No more naps during the day. Andy was napping so well during the day and then completely missing all the our sleeping goals at night time, we knew it was time for the naps to go. He was ready and there was't even a transition period. We just did it. Andy is getting exactly the same amount of sleep- it all occurs between the hours of 7:00pm- 7:00am and we all feel better for it.
This is what our evening routine looks like at the moment, it's a little different to the approach we adopted to get Andy into his big boy bed initially in terms of the way we communicate with him. Here's what an evening at our house looks like:
5:00pm- dinnertime
6:00pm- bathtime
6:30pm- bed time drink and quiet play outside of his bedroom
7:00pm- teeth and bed time
7:20pm- Andy is asleep and we do high kicks and laugh and laugh
Our bedtime entails one parent going into Andy's room with him. We read four books, pray together and put on his oceanic sounds machine. Then whoever is doing bed time will lie down with Andy until he falls asleep. During this time we usually have a little chat about our day and talk about the things that we want to do tomorrow. We take a little moment to give Andy some affirmations about what he did really well during the day after which there is no more talking and Andy drifts off to sleep. The whole process takes about 15 minutes and for us it's been fantastic. We really cherish that quiet time with Andy to just be still and reflect. We have really fun and jam packed days with a lot of adventures, it's nice to take the quiet time and remember all the fun we've had and I like to think it makes for happy dreams.
And that's how we ditched the afternoon nap! He's officially a big boy now.
Happy parenting to you all!
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