Friday, November 02, 2007

I Need the Baby Whisperer...

Don't you kick yourself when you realize you knew how to handle a situation but you didn't listen to your inner voice so it ends up causing more trouble then if you'd just listened to yourself in the first place?

I'm kicking myself today because I still don't seem to be very "in-tune" with my daughter. At the beginning of the week we began adjusting her morning schedule so my dear husband can deliver her to the babysitter, instead of the babysitter coming to get her. So she has to get up an hour and a half to two hours earlier. Our little dumpling doesn't sleep much during the day so to me I thought it was very important for her to get her 10 hours at night, which mean a 7:00pm bedtime.

Well yesterday she was asleep when she arrived home at 6:15pm and had been for an hour. We woke her up and fed her and then gave her a bath. It was 7:30 so I thought I'd better put her to bed but I ignored the voice in my head that said (she doesn't seem tired). So I took her upstairs and put her in her crib. She played on her own for over a half hour. Then I thought she might need more milk before falling asleep so I fed her a 4 oz bottle (2oz less then normal because it wasn't two hours between feedings yet). So after the bottle it was back into the crib where she played for another good while. Then around 915 she started screaming. Both dear husband and I tried to console her but she kept on screaming. I told dear husband to make another 4 oz bottle. She drank the 2 oz's missing from the first bottle and went to sleep.

So two hours and much unnecessary crying later, I realized I could have likely averted the whole issue by playing with her until she tired out, fed her the full 6oz bottle around 8:30 and off to bed, only one hour late instead of two.

I don't like trial and error but I guess I have to get used to it. Since it seems that's what caring for children is based on. *Sigh*

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