Thursday, March 31, 2011

behind the times...

i've never been good at sticking with a schedule/timeline/etc...

after milo was born, i started taking weekly pictures with a duck and an owl to help chart his growth in a visual way that turned out to be pretty fun.

but i'll let you in on a secret - i often fell behind or forgot to take the picture on saturday (his week-iversary day), and would make up for it by taking the picture on monday or tuesday... sometimes even wednesday or thursday, and then would try to take it on monday of the following week, and then back to saturday so that the "weekly" pictures weren't so close on the calendar.

i'm now 2 weeks behind.

also, in our "sleep training," i've been reading how beneficial it is to have a more consistant schedule or routine.

this makes me cringe, if even just a little bit.

on sunday morning we go to church, every other sunday evening is small group, every other tuesday morning is mops and every wednesday morning is a moms group at church. while the three morning things are relatively close in time proximity, they're still not identical.

i've always been a little too "all or nothing" black-and-white for my own good. i've gotten much better about simply putting forth the effort and not letting my perfectionist tendencies prohibit me from moving forward with tasks - especially when it comes to milo.

but this routine idea is still too black and white for me. i feel like i should be trying to get milo on a schedule: 6:30 am wake up, eat, play, eat, 8:30 am down for a nap, 10:30 am wake up, repeat, etc. etc. (or whatever his natural routine may be...)

but he's a baby, not a teenager at school.

i know we need more structure, but then three days a week interfere with that structure, and i haven't taken the time to figure out how to work around it.

it was also suggested to me by my dear friend that for helping milo get used to eating rice cereal, one good thing to do would be to feed it to him at the same time every day.

maybe it's because nothing feels spontaneous anymore, but i just don't want to do it.

i will, because i want him to get used to eating so we can start introducing more solids (although there's very little that's "solid" about this mush they call baby food) without the whole experience being treated like treason on our part.

and the whole "bedtime routine" - again, i know it's good for him, helpful, and is well worth the effort - however, i haven't really gotten past closing the shades (or turning the bedroom light off), turning on "sleep lamb" to the rain or ocean waves recording, feeding him, and singing "twinkle twinkle little star" (the song is a new thing i thought i'd try).... anything more complicated, and i feel like i'd have to write down instructions for when ben (or anyone else) tries to put him down, and when written instructions are involved, you know it's gotten much too complicated.

and the middle two of those routine are considered "negative associations" according to this sleep book we're reading.

oy.

sometimes i wish raising children was more like baking... if babies were recipes i'd totally have milo perfected by now.

but then again, i'm glad he's not a cupcake.
and that no one's going to eat him.

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