Are you a Schedule Nazi?
Ummm, yeah. That would be an affirmative.
How old are your kids now? Have you always followed a rigid schedule?Our kids are a few days shy of 14 months. We started out with a rigid feeding schedule. When the kids were in the NICU, they were fed and changed every 4 hours on the dot. We kept that schedule up when they came home. I mean, we HAD to or else we would have gone completely crazy. Can you imagine doing on-demand feeding with 3 individual babies!? I don't think so.
I have to admit that we were pretty clueless when it came to sleep though. There were no real naps and they were cranky! They weren't getting good sleep. We weren't getting good sleep. It was really, really, really rough. A few months into it, our doctor recommended the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth and it totally saved my life! It was then that we started the strict nap and bedtime schedule. What a difference it made in our lives! Which leads me to the next question...
Do you think that your schedule is conducive to healthy sleep patterns in your kids?
ABSOLUTELY!!! Like I said before, my kids were not sleeping well when we didn't have a schedule. It took about a week or so for them to get used to a new way of doing things, but soon after we started, they were sleeping through the night and taking 3 naps a day. What a relief!
Now we are down to 2 naps a day, a short morning nap at 9:00 and a longer afternoon nap at 1:00. They go to bed between 6-6:30 every night and sleep until about 7:00 in the morning. They never wake in the night and are excellent sleepers. We don't even have to rock them to sleep; we just lay them down and after a few minutes of making noises, they are out like a light. I'd say those are pretty healthy sleep patterns, wouldn't you!?
Do people give you a lot of flack for being a 'schedule nazi'? How do you respond?
No one has really given us a hard time for sticking to our schedule like glue. People who know me well, know that I have always been a schedule follower. Maybe it's the teacher in me, maybe it's just my compulsive nature, who knows! So it probably doesn't really come as a shock to anyone that I am a strict scheduler with my kids.
Generally, our family and friends are pretty sympathetic to our situation and know we have to do things our way for our own sanity. When someone does give us flack for being so strict, I remind myself that they just don't have a clue what it's like to have triplets. And that's okay. I understand what it's like. And I'm sticking to my schedule.
Has your routine become more relaxed as your kids have gotten older?
Our schedule has relaxed a little, but our kids are still pretty young. I feel more relaxed about it. I mean, I don't start panicking if we're off our schedule anymore :) I no longer keep sleep charts and pee/poop charts, so that shows I'm relaxing a little, right?
How do your kids react when they are completely off their schedules- and how do you get them back on track?
Our kids are very rarely off schedule. They don't react well when their nap times are messed with. Case in point - I took them to a MOPS meeting on Friday and we skipped their morning nap. It was a disaster.
My kids thrive on a schedule. They know what to expect and there are no surprises. They are happy, healthy and well-rested. What more could I ask for?
Our Schedule:
7:00 - wake up, milk and breakfast
PLAY
9:00 - morning nap
10:30 - snack
PLAY
12:00 - milk and lunch
1:00 - afternoon nap
3:00 - snack
PLAY
5:00 - milk and dinner
PLAY
5:45 - baths & pajamas
6:30 - bedtime
No comments:
Post a Comment