The Schedule

Now that Aidan is peacefully napping across the room from me, it's hard to remember that not too long ago this would typically be the time of day that he'd already been crying for hours with many more to come.

When Aidan was about 6 weeks old, he hit that terrible time where nothing would calm him. Having already been sleep deprived for six weeks, getting 5-6 hours in a row at the very most (on the best, happiest nights) I was going crazy and had images in my head of throwing Aidan against the wall (not that I'd actually do it). My friend's mom told me how she had put her daughter on a schedule based on a book called My First 300 babies. One night, I left Aidan crying in his crib because I just couldn't listen to him anymore and looked up the book on Amazon.com. I read all the reviews and saw that almost 100% of the readers gave it 5 stars and said it changed their lives. I ordered the book on the spot and vowed to do whatever it said.

The book arrived about December 20, right around Christmas. This book is written many years ago so it suggests some things I wouldn't do, like tummy sleeping and solids at 4 months, but the basic idea is creating a predictable schedule for mommy and baby so that you can know what to expect. The mantra of the book seems to be "Babies are unpredictable, it's how we respond that matters".

So, over Christmas, when he was 2 1/2 months old, I trained Aidan to follow this schedule. My family was visiting and I think it was a lot harder on them to hear Aidan cry than it was on me. I got some criticism that Aidan's bedtime was too early - 6:30pm. The very first day I put Aidan on the schedule, he napped when he was supposed to and continued to have a very long nap (2 1/2 hours) every day at the scheduled time. He doesn't always do it now, but most days he does. After 5 nights of crying, he also adjusted to the bedtime and would sleep from 6:30pm until 4:30am. He now sleeps until 6am.

Putting Aidan on a schedule changed my life. It means I can't always go out whenever I want, but it also means that I get my evenings to myself and a full night's sleep, as long as I go to bed early enough myself. Aidan also cries a lot less and seems a lot happier. A lot of people are against putting their babies on a schedule but for me it has made me love my son when before I was crying most days and didn't know how to cope. I definitely was not one of those moms who love their babies at first sight. The lack of sleep was getting to me, not to mention the constant nursing. But I'll save that topic for another blog.