A Change in Schedule
I’m in the midst of a schedule change with the boys. This is a process where I drop a feeding and a nap by slowly lengthening the time between each by as little as a minute a day until we reach the desired feeding and naptimes, squeezing out one feed/nap set. Currently we’re dropping from three naps a day to two, and six feedings a day to five, or better yet four feedings a day if I can just convince them to quit waking up at 4am. The process can take a month to complete, but when they gradually adjust to a new schedule, I minimize the stress they feel from a disruption in their routine. This allows them to enjoy their new schedule for a long time, sometimes for as long as several days before I realize that it’s time to drop another feeding and nap and start gradually changing their schedule again.
Changing Abbie’s schedule was easier than the boys’. The most obvious reason why is that there’s two of them but only one of her, doubling the chances that one boy will take offense that I’m making him stay awake one minute longer than yesterday.
I’m also running into problems trying to make everyone nap at the same time so I can enjoy some child-free time every day to nap, exercise, scream in frustration, or whatever else I need to ready myself for the afternoon snack to bedtime rush. Integrating a three-nap schedule with a one-nap schedule is easy; just leave Abbie’s nap in the middle of the day, and have the twins nap with her and place the other two naps in the middle of her pre- and post-nap time. It’s simple, and only takes an undergraduate college education to pinpoint the optimal times for naps. Synchronizing two naps with one takes a little finagling, though. I’m trying to keep the twins napping in the morning, putting the joint nap as late in the afternoon as Abbie will tolerate, and eliminate the twins’ late afternoon/early evening nap. If my plan works, I’ll get to continue enjoying an extended child-free time every afternoon; if the plan doesn’t work, I’ll need to step outside for a screaming session while someone is awake because I’ll have a cranky toddler until naptime, and two fussy babies until bedtime.
Even if I didn’t have a toddler’s nap to work into the day, I’d still have problems adjusting their schedules. The twins have no problem dropping one feeding, as evidenced by that one feeding every day where I have to fight to make them eat an ounce apiece. They don’t however like the concept of a couple long naps every day; they prefer several short naps, maybe cycles of awake for 90 minutes and nap for 15 minutes, thus minimizing the stretches they must spend away from their baby gym.* I’m determined to train them to take long naps though, so I poke and prod to keep them awake before naptime, and coax and pacify to send them back to sleep before waketime.
Things seem to be progressing well so far. Abbie loves staying awake, so I’m hopeful that she’ll love waiting until late afternoon to take a nap. The twins aren’t napping well in the morning yet, but they’re doing well moving the joint nap later. Today they napped so late in the afternoon that I was able to drop the early evening feeding like I ultimately hope to do. I didn’t notice any excess fussiness making them wait longer between evening feedings, but I believe they’re teething now so I doubt I could tell the difference between mouth pain fussiness and hunger fussiness anyway.
* This is the opposite of Abbie, who hated taking naps so much that early in life she would fall asleep for well over an hour to minimize the number of times I’d set her in her crib every day.
Changing Abbie’s schedule was easier than the boys’. The most obvious reason why is that there’s two of them but only one of her, doubling the chances that one boy will take offense that I’m making him stay awake one minute longer than yesterday.
I’m also running into problems trying to make everyone nap at the same time so I can enjoy some child-free time every day to nap, exercise, scream in frustration, or whatever else I need to ready myself for the afternoon snack to bedtime rush. Integrating a three-nap schedule with a one-nap schedule is easy; just leave Abbie’s nap in the middle of the day, and have the twins nap with her and place the other two naps in the middle of her pre- and post-nap time. It’s simple, and only takes an undergraduate college education to pinpoint the optimal times for naps. Synchronizing two naps with one takes a little finagling, though. I’m trying to keep the twins napping in the morning, putting the joint nap as late in the afternoon as Abbie will tolerate, and eliminate the twins’ late afternoon/early evening nap. If my plan works, I’ll get to continue enjoying an extended child-free time every afternoon; if the plan doesn’t work, I’ll need to step outside for a screaming session while someone is awake because I’ll have a cranky toddler until naptime, and two fussy babies until bedtime.
Even if I didn’t have a toddler’s nap to work into the day, I’d still have problems adjusting their schedules. The twins have no problem dropping one feeding, as evidenced by that one feeding every day where I have to fight to make them eat an ounce apiece. They don’t however like the concept of a couple long naps every day; they prefer several short naps, maybe cycles of awake for 90 minutes and nap for 15 minutes, thus minimizing the stretches they must spend away from their baby gym.* I’m determined to train them to take long naps though, so I poke and prod to keep them awake before naptime, and coax and pacify to send them back to sleep before waketime.
Things seem to be progressing well so far. Abbie loves staying awake, so I’m hopeful that she’ll love waiting until late afternoon to take a nap. The twins aren’t napping well in the morning yet, but they’re doing well moving the joint nap later. Today they napped so late in the afternoon that I was able to drop the early evening feeding like I ultimately hope to do. I didn’t notice any excess fussiness making them wait longer between evening feedings, but I believe they’re teething now so I doubt I could tell the difference between mouth pain fussiness and hunger fussiness anyway.
* This is the opposite of Abbie, who hated taking naps so much that early in life she would fall asleep for well over an hour to minimize the number of times I’d set her in her crib every day.
posted by Matt at
11:07 PM
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