My daughter has two schedules – the weekday schedule and the weekend schedule. During the week, her grandpap watches her, and she typically takes two naps a day. On weekends, she’s up from fairly early in the morning until 11 pm or so!
My husband and I don’t intentionally disrupt her standard weekday schedule, but our baby just refuses to miss a moment on the weekends! I know everyone says to keep your baby on a schedule, but how in the world do you refuse this perfect little face when she just wants to hang out instead of taking naps when Mommy’s home??
We let our daughter lead in her sleep schedule, which includes her sleep schedule during the evening as well. She’s going to be our only child, and kids grow up so fast, so to be honest, I have zero interest in trying to force her to go to sleep when she’s ready to play.
When my husband is home and I’m not, sometimes she’ll take a nap (provided he holds her the whole time), but she absolutely refuses to close her eyes while I’m home. It’s party time sunrise to well after dark!
Some babies totally thrive on a schedule, I completely get it. I also totally understand that getting babies on a sleep schedule gives parents a tiny amount of sanity. But, for us, keeping her on a defined sleep schedule just doesn’t work. She’s totally healthy and happy, and since she has no medical reason to stick to a strict schedule, we just go with the flow.
We have grown to accept the fact that there’s basically no time to get anything done until close to midnight after she’s finally asleep (I started writing this at 11:15 pm by the way.) At one point we thought that she would take naps and we could get some things done around the house, but nope. None of that “sleep while she sleeps” was ever able to happen either because she only sleeps overnight. Thankfully there are two of us, so we can divide and conquer things on the to-do list. And, if the to-do list goes unchecked, so what!
I miss my baby girl so much during the day and I love when I walk through the door and she shrieks with excitement that I’m home! I want to hug, kiss, and cuddle with her 24/7, and I’m never disappointed to have extra opportunities to spend time with my sweet, snuggly girl.
Would it be amazing to wash bottles without her clinging to my leg crying because I’m not holding her…yes! Would I love to go to the bathroom without her trying to pull every last sheet of toilet paper off of the role…absolutely! Would it be fabulous to send an email without her hitting all the keys and either typing gibberish or deleting what I wrote…you betcha!
But, I know that there won’t be many years where she wants to hang out with me non-stop, so I take advantage of every chance I get – heck, I’m already jealous if she chooses to hug her baby doll instead of me!