I am obsessed with my daughter’s sleep schedule. It’s her own fault – she’s been a pretty good sleeper since Day 1. And so, anything less than an 11-hour stretch at night, I’m ready to take notes and start a sleep log and talk to the doctor at her next appointment.
Seriously.
I’ve started a sleep log for my 23-month old.
Her dad was away for 2 weeks in March-April, and then we went on vacation for a week in April (*sigh* Brasil), and it seems like things just haven’t been right with her nighttime sleep.
And, it’s been about a month. And, she’s not even teething. I can’t handle it.
Yes, we’ve been spoiled rotten when it comes to her sleep, and I like it that way. When her sleep gets out of whack, I feel like it’s no different from actual bad behavior like biting or hitting — it’s just unacceptable.
And, it’s not like she gets up, and we have to give her a bottle, and she’ll go down in 30 minutes. Oh no. It’s more like, if she wakes up (for no good reason), we can kiss 2-3 HOURS of sleep goodbye. For example, she woke up at 3 AM one morning and stayed up until approximately 6:23 AM.
That morning, at 5 AM, my husband and I were arguing about whether to let her cry it out. That’s wrong on so many levels. And, I was there.
My daughter having good sleep habits/skills are partially about me needing 8 hours, and I recognize that. And maybe since my husband can function on less sleep than me, he can’t relate to my obsession. I’m sure there are other things that play into this, too.
I think we’ll turn a corner soon though. I hope. But we might end up on another scary alley since she’s going to be leaving her daycare in a few days.
Her daycare and my work are a package-deal, so since I’m leaving my firm, she’s got to leave her daycare buddies and teachers. This makes me more than a little nervous (on many levels), but I’m hopeful we’ll get her in with another group of buddies and activities and that this summer will be AWESOME. It is going to be awesome, right?
I am less obsessed with her food. This is entirely my fault. She likes chicken nuggets. Great, chicken nuggets. She likes spinach and kichri. Spinach and kichri and maybe some naan and also parahta. She likes her yogurt, waffles, croissants, and cereal.
Her 2 main food groups seem to be Milk and Carbs. And, I feel bad about this.
I want her to be the one throwing back strawberries or mushrooms or olives or salmon or apples or broccoli. But, she doesn’t because I didn’t really give it to her, and so now she likes what she likes, and so I feel like a bad mom.
She did try some sweet corn – like 2 kernels – at dinner tonight, and I was so excited when she put each tiny morsel in her mouth. She spit the first one out. I mean no judgment by this, but I don’t want to be the mom with the 10-year old who only eats grilled cheese. Nope, she doesn’t even eat that…or pasta.
Maybe this summer will be a good chance to introduce some new lunch and dinner options for my little friend. My unvaried menu for her, admittedly, is a product of my disinterest in cooking and some laziness. Whereas, my husband ,who loves good food and even likes to cook, is a lot more concerned with her eating a variety of good and tasty foods.
This reminds me of the often-touted three necessities of life. Food, Clothing, and Shelter. So we’ve covered food, and I’ll consider sleep to be synonymous with shelter. Clothing. Now that it’s getting warm and we’ll likely try potty-training soon — it’s going to be a BIG summer — I love love love to dress her in dresses.
She rocks the Bermuda shorts and T-shirt separates, but it’s just fun to put her in a dress. I’m not really a girly-girl, and I don’t necessarily want to raise one, but it could very well be out of my hands. I give you Exhibit A.
My daughter's recent obsession. Contents: Aquaphor, hand sanitizer, bracelet, two LEGO men, 2 contacts cases, sunglasses, and a plastic egg with a $1 bill and loose change.
She “stole” this bag that I used to carry our passports and such on vacation and proceeded to fill it with the contraband you see in the picture. Seriously. And, she takes it almost everywhere with her.
She took a full two steps back in her classroom when I tried to get her to put it in her cubby, since I knew she would see red the instant one of her little buddies tried to get a grab at it. She’s got her self-defense skills down, my daughter.
So, that’s where we are on the happenings of my almost-2-year-old little girl — I can’t believe it and can’t imagine what I’ll have to say about her in another two years.
Food, Clothing, or Shelter (i.e. Sleep) — what was/is your obsession? What do you do to be a little less obsessed? Why do you think you care about this one thing [so much] more than others?
This is an original post for World Moms Blog by DC Blogmama of Washington, DC. You can follow her on Twitter @dcblogmama or read her blog at amillionblogs.wordpress.com.
Photo credit of sleeping baby to Brendan C.
Photo credit of purse to the author.
It’s amazing how obsessed with sleep we become when we become parents. Our eldest was an awesome sleeper too, and the universe got it’s revenge by sending us number two who slept 20 minutes during the day and in 1.5 hour stretches at night = hmmmmm they were interesting times. I love that bag BTW. No-wonder she’s carrying it with her everywhere; too cute. My obsession is raising mature children; and that requires ignoring them quite a bit. Going well so far. 😉
i know. i’m scared (if we have a) #2, s/he will be the exact opposite in overall temperament. that won’t be pretty. ignorance — need to work that one into the parental repertoire. 🙂
I am and have been obsessed with everything it seems. In the beginning it sleeping, I had a spreadsheet where I highlighted his sleeping pattern… well I was trying to find a pattern as everybody told me that there is a pattern… I couldn’t find one – and after 4 months he started sleeping through the night, and I was wondering what I had been so worried about. (But the lack of sleep was the worse thing – like you, I just can’t function without sleep!)
Then I was more obsessed with when would he hold his own bottle… and after weeks of worrying, he suddently decided to do that aswell – so again, I seemed to have worried about nothing!
I think I am constantly obsessed about the eating, myself, I am quite a fuzzy (or is it fussy) eater, so I would like him to eat better than me. He is not great on dinners, as he can’t use a spoon (yet another obsession of mine), but just found out yesterday that he loves olives!
It seems that every obsession I have sorts it self out at some point… best of luck with yours!
Thanks Asta. This reminds me of the wise words (that I’m pretty sure I saw here recently) – that “this too shall pass.” : ) I think for the first month i kept a sleep, poop, and feeding chart…and I think I still have them in my 2009 weekly calendar. I should add that i’m obsessed with keeping all sorts of “documents” because you just never know.
I think sleep & food are definite obsessions with most mums. I know I am. My little one is nearly 17 months and still not sleeping through the night. I do wonder how I can function with sleeping increments of 2-3 hours at a time. But I do. And he’s definitely getting enough sleep despite waking up 2-3 times at night. He is a champion napper. I’m not going to obsess too much about his sleep right now, as long as he gets enough. But I do need to think about moving him to his own bed soon!
He used to be a really fussy eater, but now he eats bread, pasta, rice, carrots, peas, spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, lots of fruit. I have my mother-in-law to thank – she cooks everything from scratch, even pasta sauce, so I know my little guy is eating well. Less to worry about!
oooh – I am so jealous that your guy enjoys fruit. my daughter will have an occasional banana or strawberry. part of the problem/excuse is that our kitchen is often poorly stocked and we’re trying to figure out at the last minute what to eat/cook…and this doesn’t allow for many options. maybe now that i’ll be home, i can add this to my list of 97 things to do everyday. Wish me luck!!
I love my sleep! My boys were all awesome sleepers from 2 -3 months old (other mums – please don’t hate me) but occasionally if they got sick and their sleep patterns went out of whack then I really suffered. I do not function without sleep. I have friends though whose babies still weren’t sleeping through the night at 4 years old.
Clothes and food – can take them or leave them myself, neither really excite me. Don’t be too hard on yourself regarding what she eats – as long as she’s eating something, it will sort itself out in the long run. Just keep trying different things and one day she’ll surprise you and eat them, even if she didn’t like it a month ago, try it again.
I love your little girls ‘bag of goodies’ – adorably cute
thanks fiona. this makes me feel better. part of my argument at 5 AM was that we were teaching her to wake up and expect us (and milk) in the middle of the night and that we would go from having a great sleeper to then having a kid who would wake up and walk into our room at 2 AM. i had other very good arguments too. 😉
i love my daughter but she’s not that cute at 3:30 AM.
33 years and sleep is something that I have not been lucky enough to have (almost ever). I totally understand where you’re coming from, as moms we just worry.
When it comes to kids and their tastes…I saw one daughter totally loving everything frilly and pink AND Barbie to wanting motorcycle jackets. The one who would never put on a skirt without pants underneath is now the girly-girl. You never know.
Your little one’s got some great taste there, lol.
So true — you never know — I guess that’s what makes it easy to worry for me…but then also, on the flip side; it gives me hope too. 😉
My daughter has been awesome sleeper since the day one. But we’d never had a great sleep schedule. We had our nurse coming to visit us every month or two and she always would ask about her sleep schedule. When I told her that every day is different she always made funny face showing that IT”S NOT GOOD. She would say BABIES HAVE TO HAVE A SCHEDULEs:
– with sleeping
– with eating
I tried, but it didn’t work. My daughter had her own schedules, and she was perfectly fine.
It’s a little different (better) now, after my daughter reached 1 year. It seems like she goes to bed (at night and for her nap time) the same time every day. Still, she doesn’t eat at the same time every day. And she is not the healtiest food eater, as well. She LOVES bread with a little bit of spreadable yogurt and jam on top. She could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes I make her a grill cheese sandwitch, and she just vacuumes it like she was starving to death before 😉
Whenever we go to a restaurant she is perfectly fine with a slice (or two, or three) of bread. She eats a few veggies from time to time, and I try to feed her a little bit of fruit smoothies once a day. I know she’ll be perfectly fine, as well as your kid 🙂
Hugs,
Thanks PMP. 🙂 Spreadable yogurt — that sounds yummy!!!
My daughter has been on a great sleep schedule at night since 2 1/2 months old… which is nice. Your story makes me feel a little bad about complaining about always being the one to wake up at 6:00 am to feed her. I’m the food source. Her daytime nap schedule is non-existent though. She just naps when she feels like it. I’m fine with that though – as long as I’m getting to sleep some at night!
I was worried about food. My little one has just started eating solids at 7 months old! Luckily she seems to take after her daddy and not me – eating everything. My biggest challenge now is weening her. She will take some formula at daycare but not at home! She’s a pretty good baby until I try to give her formula… or even a formula/breastmilk mix. Then she throws a fit.
Hi DC Blogmama!
I’m obsessed with decreasing the amount of sugar and white carbohydrates that my daughter eats. It freaks me out how comfortable we’ve gotten to eating so many of them as a society! I want her to eat food that will give her more energy and that is high in nutrients that her body needs, so she’ll be healthier and happier.
I don’t exclude sugary snacks and desserts completely, but I try to do what I can on my side to get her used to having healthier choices in her lifestyle. For example, dark chocolate dipped walnuts instead of a treat that is pure sugar. Or, fresh cherries over a lollipop. If I can replace some of those treats like that occasionally, then over a year it can make a big difference.
Veronica 🙂
You know, the funny thing about parenthood, obsessions aren’t really obsessions, they’re more like viral trends. Take for example when our first child was born, I was obsessed with trying to find a pacifier she would like (and then was so thankful she never liked one). Then I was obsessed with her nursing habits, then her solids, then her naps, her activities, her milestones. When I reflect back on everything (5 years and an additional child later) it seems like each phase was so short lived. We become obsessed because everything feels so out of control on a macro-level that we hone in on the micro-level. 11 hours is amazing. Does she also nap? I’ve always considered myself a nap nazi (meaning I’ll do anything, even drive around for an hour) to get my child(ren) to nap but it’s primarily a selfish I need-some-down-time sort of act. Anyway, keep us posted about how things progress. Change is good and kids need to learn how to be flexible early on or risk becoming inflexible later. A note on her purse: I think it’s inspiring to take notice of how well she’d survive if she ever got lost in a crowd. She’s got everything she could possibly need, including enough to take the Metro home if she needed to…
I have nothing to offer in terms of advice on the sleeping part since neither of mine have been good night-time sleepers.
In terms of food, I highly recommend “real food” by Nina Planck: http://www.ninaplanck.com/books.html — especially if you have a #2. I didn’t totally agree with everything in the book (like raw milk), but overall it made so much sense to me. Since my #1 is such a picky eater (I followed typical suggestions for feeding in baby books and fed her baby jar food), I was willing to try a different approach. After reading this book, I decided to take the approach of letting #2 eat off our plates when she was ready for solids. Very unlike #1, #2 will eat anything and everything – even spicy food!