Fight for Naps

The best advice my pediatrician ever gave me, except how to fix an out of socket elbow on a child, I have fixed it twice now on Hazel --loose ligaments, a tendency to play rough and fight back will do that to you. Anyway, the best advice he ever gave me was fight for naps. Hazel was starting to give them up, if she ever took them at all, her favorite past time is rip your room apart while you are supposed to be sleeping.

I took the advice. We hold 1-3pm, or 1-4pm (if I am having a particularly rough day) sacred in our house and hardly ever miss it. The girls have a clock in their room, they know how to read the hour. I tell them when they can come out. "You can come out when it says 4 right here." They usually sleep about 50% of the time. But mostly I need that time. Juggling babies and toddlers and a home weighs on me.

Of course they can go to the bathroom whenever, a privilege they totally abuse or they would have me believe that they have the world leakiest bladders from 1-3pm and after 7pm. In the morning, they can come out when the clock says 8, if they are changed and beds made, this maneuver helps me get the babies fed and myself showered before I get peppered to death with requests. I am a better enforcer somedays than other days, but I try to be firm.

We try to get the girls in bed by 7 or 8 pm. We brush, read scripts, and pray or fight over who gets to pray and then get upset if we don't get picked, a problem I intend to rectify this week with a prayer chart.
I know the critics out there think we put our kids to bed too much, but too much sleep never hurt any kid. N8 and I need that time to regroup, tidy and talk.

Quinn and James are begging to be put to sleep around 7:30pm and usually make it 'til 5am. Wilson is a different cat. That boy sleeps about 3-5 hours less than the other babies. I call him Wilson the Watcher, he never wants to miss a thing. He doesn't mind sitting in a swing, or being carried around as long as he can watch the goings on until he falls asleep around 9 to 11pm.

Wilson Lover of Chaos, for a rare moment sleeps.

My friend Hannah used to come over and get Wilson, like he was some sort of novelty party favor. This baby that loves people and chatter and chaos and never cries as long as he is held. She would take him out to dinner with her friends and pass him around or to a friends house for a movie, then bring him home when he was asleep. Hannah left on her mission this week, seems like months ago, Wilson misses her, so do we all.