13 Months Schedule

We've now been back home for a week and a half, and just yesterday did I feel like we had "clicked" back onto a schedule. That, friends, is the dark side of travel. Here's the schedule we've settled back into, at least for now. Our activities vary from day-to-day, but here are the constants.

7:00 - Wake, nurse, cuddle, dress and change babies
7:45 - Breakfast
11:00 - Nurse, nap
1:00 - Wake, lunch
3:00 - Snack
5:30 - Dinner
7:00 - Bath and bedtime routine
8:00 - Nurse, bed

Somewhere in there, I make sure that we leave the house EVERY DAY. This is so, so important for keeping all of us happy. And as they're getting older and more mobile, I'm fitting in as much play outside time as possible. I also schedule "Structured Activity" into each day (the most valuable thing I took away from Toddlerwise by Gary Ezzo). Examples of Structured Activity are finger painting, working with puzzles, reading, or playing a rudimentary version of Simon Says - just something that's led by a parent to help direct learning.

Wait until I tell you about the baby classes I've found for them. They're super dreamy.

Sleep

Last night Veda woke twice, and Linus woke three times. It was a "good" night for us.

It's been a year since I slept all night. That's not counting pregnancy sleep disturbances.

On the days after a "good" night (i.e., a night where I feel like I've completed at least one sleep cycle), I can laugh about it.

On the days after a bad night, sure, I'm pretty cranky about it. Desperate middle-of-the-night utterings of "I can't do this anymore" have been made. Still, you know what? I keep doing it.

But here's the point of this post: It isn't my fault.

Maybe you disagree, but hear me out. I've read many sleep books. I've read practically every bit of baby sleep information available on the internet. And I've tried everything I felt I could do in good conscience. Here's the conclusion I've come to:

I can do my best to lead the babies to sleep, but that's all I can do.

It isn't my fault.

It may not seem like a big deal to you, but that little revelation was a BIG DEAL around here. Giving in to that idea meant that I got to stop feeling guilty about some mistaken idea that I was depriving my children of the sleep they need to grow. It meant that I got to stop the pointless research that wasted time I could have spent doing something enjoyable. It meant that I got to stop feeling like a failure.

So, Internet People, some kids aren't good sleepers. You do what you can do, and that's what you can do.