When You're Sick, You Snuggle

February 21st, 2007

I'm big on structure. I feel that the sooner my 8 month old son has a consistent sleeping schedule the easier it will be to tackle bedtime as he gets older. Who knows, maybe not. But I guess I'm just a sucker for it. I like to keep his naps consistent; it makes it easier for me to plan my outings and i think easier on Hendrix.

I learned a valuable lesson today.

My son is not Superman. Without a doubt he has his limits. Let me explain.

Little man has a little bit of a cold. He slept a lot of today due to it, as he usually does when he is feeling under the weather. His bedtime is 9 pm every night. without fail. It usually doesn't take more than his nighttime bottle and some soft music. Piece of cake.

Well tonight, he just wasn't quite tired at 9. I had allowed his afternoon nap to go over a little bit extra to help him recuperate. So he stayed up and played until 9:30 and then i decided, "I'm the mom, I'm the boss and i say its time for bed!!" Oh how he cried!! It nearly broke my heart! I decided to try and wait it out a few minutes, you know, put my foot down! BUT OH HOW HE CRIED!! I finally went and picked him up. Then once he had calmed down, I put him back to bed. I'll give you one guess as to what happened. Yes, more tears.

This power struggle continued for about 45 minutes until I felt 1) terribly mean and sad 2) like giving up and letting him stay awake playing until he passed out from exhaustion and 3) like pulling my hair out.

So I caved in and took him into bed with me. All the books tell you it will create a codependency that will last well into toddler-hood, and I'm sure it probably is hard to break. But let me tell you, when i got that little nugget into bed with me, curled up in my arms, it took him less time to fall asleep then it takes to say it.


He just didn't feel good and wanted to cuddle with his mommy.

And so, yet another big mommy lesson to learn. The "rules and schedules", while in good intent, didn't always apply to everything. And thats probably a lesson carried over to everything. What do you think?