Early to Bed…
Parenthood is funny. Things that ought to make sense often times don’t, and coming to grips with this new truth is often hard on the senses.
For example: Baby goes to sleep at 8pm and wakes at 6am. 6am is TOO EARLY. Conventional wisdom says: “Put baby to sleep at 8:30pm and gain an extra half hour of sleep in the morning.”
While this line of reasoning makes perfect sense and would work for an adult, I think most parents find that putting baby down later *actually* means that they rise earlier. and crankier. and miserable-er.
We tend to eat dinner late around these parts. On top of that, Jude will usually take around an hour to finish a meal, so bed time gets pushed further back than what I would like/what he needs. I (finally!) recognized that the poor kid just needs to get to bed earlier (for both our sakes) and have been making a real effort to get him to sleep between 7-7:30pm. It’s not at all hard to get him to actually fall asleep at 7pm; what’s hard is getting him ready to fall asleep that early. We used to eat dinner between 6-7pm. That, however, pushed bedtime to at least 7:30pm, and more often than not, we were seeing the far side of the 8 o’clock hour before the wee one nodded off to sleep.
So, now we do dinner at 5pm. By 6 o’clock he’s done eating and we can do potty/story time, bath time, more story time, and still be settling in for milky/sleep by 7pm. And, it works. Jude is normally asleep within 15 minutes of lying down for milk, and he’s sleeping until at least 6am–more often 6:30 or 7am. It doesn’t make sense, but what part of parenting does?
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Good times. And of course, as they grow, things keep changing. That’s the story of… that’s the glory of… parenting!
Stella has always been a late-to-bed kind of kid. Which has generally been okay. We had to make a concerted effort to get her into bed within the 9 o’clock hour.
I have to admit, I thought this post was going to be about Early to Bed, my favorite special store for grown-ups. I’m only a little disappointed.
Does “favorite special store for grown-ups” mean what I think it means?
Sorry to disappoint!
A Google search confirms my suspicion. Sweet.
Totally sweet! One of my favorite places in Chicago.
Let’s not say disappointed, though – let’s just say it was a violation of expectations. But not a bad one.