Routine

As a new mom, I find myself frequently being asked two questions... 1.) "Are you getting any sleep?" and 2.) "Have you gotten into a routine?" Currently the answer to both is "no".

Last week, Matthew and I decided to attempt going to church for the second time with baby Noah. After the service concluded I basically made the decision that I will not being going to church again for a long while, at least without a babysitter. Both times we made this attempt baby Noah has forced one of us to miss the service and stand out in the hall calming him down. The other parent of course, although able to sit through the rest of the service is too busy wondering what is happening in the hallway, and misses the sermon anyway. Anyways, Matthew who was standing in the hallway was approached by a few of our friends that are also moms. They recommended to him the book "On Becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo. It took me a few days to get a copy but I managed to read the book in of two days time. 

Basically the book suggests that if you get your baby on a flexible routine during the day, (feeding, waketime, naptime) waking them up every three hours to eat, then the will sleep long stretches through the night. The book is full of information on all sorts of things such as baby's crying, spitting up, growth spurts, feeding issues, etc. as well as statistics as to why routines are important for even the youngest of babies. I am interested to see if the plan this book lays out helps our fussy little man, and sleepless nights.

Tomorrow is Monday, and after a weekend of visiting family and lots of events on our calendar, I think it is a great time to start trying to establish this "routine". Currently the biggest challenge in our house is getting him to lay down and sleep, on his own. He will fall asleep and we will leave him, and within about 10 minutes he is wailing. He absolutely does not want to be put down. We are hoping we can overcome this battle soon and that Noah will learn to sleep and we (or myself 5 nights a week) can get some sleep.

My hope is that soon I can be one of those mothers that says, "Yeah my tiny little man is sleeping through the night," like I hear so often. And when people ask if we are getting sleep or in a routine I can answer with a resounding "YES!" :)