Sleep and the Rest of our Day

Figured I would expound a tad on my reference to Lo's naps in that last post. First of all, I should explain that my relationship with Sleep has been a complex, tempestuous insomniac affair for much of my life. So I have determined it shall be a simpler act for my children. Step one: find a regular bedtime. Jerry's work schedule fluctuates. To add to that variability, when Mr. Lo was napping half the days out of each week he had bedtime sometimes at 6:30pm and sometimes as late as 8:30pm; it made him see his dad some evenings at bedtime, but other nights not see him. Which confused and saddened the poor child. So it was a tough decision to make, but we decided to have Mr. Lo quit napping (which he was basically ready for anyway) in order to make his bedtime a perfectly regular, set time: 7pm. It varies by about a 30 min. window, but stays pretty firm regardless of weekends, dinner appointments, neighbor children knocking on the door at bedtime or neighbors throwing pinata parties at bedtime, etc. We stand strong! We eat dinner at 5pm sharp, have Lo hit the bath at 6pm, then clean up toys, brush teeth, I massage his feet with essential oils (Lavender and Lemon), a 2 min. nursing session and I hug and kiss him goodnight. He listens to soft church hymns as he falls asleep. He has been thriving on this routine and we are happy with it. It is my goal for Baby Ro to be in bed by 7pm as well, but her evenings have more variability because of her daytime napping getting switched around quite a bit. Also, because of being distracted by directing Lo's bedtime routine I often end up missing Baby Ro's ideal sleep window (when a baby is drowsy but awake) so she cries and fusses most nights or sometimes I have time to soothe her to sleep but I sense this inconsistency will cause problems for us in the future. This is the imperfect part of my life: 2 kids, 1 me. Jerry leaves for work at about 8am and returns around 8pm. This is his NON-busy season schedule. Intense, right? He has a 2-3 hour commute for many of his assigned clients. To get to and from work, he rides his bike, takes the train or light-rail and sometimes drives our personal car which believe it or not is a comparable commute time to taking public transportation. The commute here is officially the worst in the nation.  Anyway, it means that with our family's schedule, Jerry sees the kids for about an hour each morning during the weekday grind.  But the consistency of the routine has felt comforting.

After Jerry returns home from work around 8pm, the two of us eat dinner together, do dishes, plan for the next day, have companionship scripture study, and go to bed around 10:30pm.