The Fine Art of Flexibility

We had a very busy week last week and I headed into it with a little trepidation, wondering how the kids would do with so much disruption to their sleeping/napping schedule. My DH told me that he thought I can be, at times, too rigid and inflexible regarding where and when the kids nap so I thought that for once, this week I would just go with whatever happened. I would deal with the fallout, whatever that turned out to be.

Wednesday we headed out for lunch with our nanny as her time with us has come to an end (she was only with us for the summer). Lunch of course coincides with what was, at that point, turning into their major 2nd nap of the day which happens around noon. I let them nap in the car on the way there, hoping that they would stay asleep while we had a nice lunch and adult conversation. Ha - their little eyes popped open as soon as we walked into the restaurant. They then fell asleep in the car on the way home only to wake up once I pulled into the driveway. Great...2 small naps instead of one long nap. I was expecting bedtime to be even more of a battle but surprisingly, it wasn't and they slept pretty soundly, only getting up once to feed at around 2am. Not too bad in my mind!

Thursday was my DH's 40th birthday and we headed out for yet another lunch with the family. This time they made it to the restaurant without falling asleep at all and then stayed up through the entire lunch which put them waaay past their normal time to nap. Of course, during the ride home, they fell asleep so I rushed them upstairs in their car seats, darkened the room and then transferred them into their cribs successfully without them waking up too much. Miracle! That night, bedtime was not that bad at all with only a little minor fussing 45 minutes into their evening sleep. I was really beginning to wonder if my DH was right about my being too rigid and inflexible with their sleeping/napping schedule.

Friday was my cousin's wedding and the service was at 1pm, right when the girls were supposed to be asleep. I don't know if it was a culmination of the sleep deprivation from the previous 2 days, but my two girls had a super long morning nap and so were able to stay up for the service. They were put to nap at 3pm when we got home and after we fed them and they had a good 2nd nap lasting about an hour. They then proceeded to sleep well that night while we were away at the reception.

I was worried that all this disruption to their sleeping schedules would come back to bite us Saturday for sure but to our surprise, they slept through the night with minimal fussing. We didn't have to get up at all to feed them. Gasp!

Sunday we had a family BBQ for my DH's 40th birthday and the girls napped well again during the day, often falling asleep in whoever's arms they were in at the time. Victoria had a restless night last night up until about 11pm but after that, she seemed to sleep very well.

So, I learned this past week that being a little flexible doesn't result in catastrophe when it comes to their sleeping/napping schedules. They also got to get out and see so many new things and experience so many different events like lunches out, weddings and family gatherings. There has to be a balance and I hope that the trade off between good sleep and being at home and the new experiences they got is worth it.