That's the Plan

Baby Boy is doing pretty well with sleeping. He goes to bed at 7 p.m. every night without fuss. I can not tell you how many times Ben and I have thanked God for that little blessing. He wakes up once a night. Not horrible in the grand scheme of things. His clock, however, seems to have gotten stuck at this four a.m. time slot. Rise and shine is at 6 a.m. every day. And every morning my son insists upon rising between 4 and 4:45 for a little snack. We've tried everything at this point. We've fed him more before bed at night, we've fed him less, we've put him to bed earlier, we've put him to bed later, we've tried not feeding him and just rocking him or patting his back, we've tried letting him cry, we've tried getting him up for a late night "topper" ... I can't tell you how many things we've tried. He's stuck. I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to be breastfeeding my son at 4 a.m. for the rest of our natural born lives.

We've talked with him about this. Ben and I set him down on the changing table and explained that if he sleeps for just one hour more, he can get up for the day. He'd be happier, Mommy would be happier, everyone would be happier! So for now on he is going to sleep until 6 a.m. and then get up and eat. That's the plan. He smiles at us in the most accommodating manner and continues to alert us to his presence at 4 a.m.

Recently my son came to me and said, "Mama, I'd like to discuss the current nap arrangement. Up until now we've been doing a four nap a day schedule. However, I have drawn up a three nap a day schedule which I believe will work better for everyone involved. I would appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to review the notes I have here." I looked over what he had and he was right. Three longer naps were working much better than the current four short ones. So, now that's the plan.

I like to pretend that I have some element of control over what's going on in my household. Really I do. Truth is that I make grand plans and someone else works it out. We all know that most of the time it's God telling me that my schedule just isn't His. Letting go is probably one of my biggest challenges as a Christian and as a human being. God works with me on this one continually.

I'm going to admit now in this very safe little format ... I have no clue what I'm doing as a Mom. If you haven't figured that out yet, I really don't. I'm enjoying every moment of it, but admittedly, I am just along for the ride. However, it's better not to let the world in general know this. If nothing else, if I put on a false bravado, it keeps interfering individuals from giving me reams of unwanted advice. It's really good sometimes to pretend I know what I'm doing. In the interim, I'll go on making up my little schedules and getting things accomplished when I least expect them. For now, that's the plan.