Saturday, June 19, 2010

Interfering with Bedtime Routine

I'll be honest. I never understood it when my mom friends would talk about how they didn't want to get "off schedule" with their baby's bedtime routine whenever friends wanted to get together. My thought was always, "Can't you just put the baby down at the friend's house (or my house)?" I didn't get it...until now.

This afternoon, we had plans to go to some friends for a BBQ. Knowing Katie's eating schedule, I knew I would need to feed her around 5-5:30, but didn't know what to do for dinner, which normally consists of barley and a vegetable. Honestly, I didn't want to bring the food with me because it would be too much of a production, and she is VERY accustomed to getting a bath immediately after dinner and I was not going to bathe her at our friend's house. So, the plan was that I would breast feed her around 5:30 and then we would scoot out of there by 7 so that we could get home, feed her, get her in the tub and have her asleep by 8 - 30 minutes later than normal.

Well, everything was on track until she completely passed out in the car on the way home. She slept all the way until I carried her (car seat) upstairs and set it down on her bedroom floor, and then she just sort of slowly opened her eyes (probably wondering why she was in her car seat in her room). I debated what to do - do I try to awkwardly get her out, leave her in her dress and put her in her sleep sack? Do I get her out and bathe her? As I stood there staring at her, she started to really wake up, so I decided to get her in the bath.

While I was able to bathe her, get her dressed in her PJ's and get her to bed (after 2 attempts with rocking her), it really is amazing to me how just slightly throwing off your routine can throw off her/our entire night. I did breast feed her a little bit since she didn't ever eat her barley and veggies. I'm really curious as to how the rest of the night goes...

I guess this is good training for us for when we are out of town in the next couple weeks visiting family. We are going to be faced with these types of scenarios a couple of times and will just have to figure it out and deal with it...

Again, I never understood it...until now!

2 comments:

  1. I think it's good to break the routine every now and then. Babies/kids are so resiliant and it gives you a little freedom to do what you need/want to do. We have friends that come over on Sat. nights. We do "the routine" with all of our kids and then she puts hers to bed in our Master Bedroom in the pack n play. Baby sleeps just fine and then they wake her and take her home later. At that late hour, she goes right to sleep in her crib. And, we parents, get to enjoy an adult evening at home!

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  2. Thanks Carol - I appreciate the feedback. I shouldn't get so uptight about this stuff...I need to have a life!!

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