The Reason I Keep a Strict Sleep Routine For My Toddler!

Routine is important. Usually my son wakes up at 9:00am, takes one long nap at 1:30/2:00pm, and he goes to bed at 9:3010:00pm ish. That’s our usual schedule day in and day out. Yesterday I had some errands to run in the morning so he took a mini nap in the car. By the time he took his real nap, it was pushing 4:00pm. I knew it was a little on the late side for him to be taking a nap, but I needed to get some things done around the house. I put him in the crib, and I started dinner. I ended up letting him sleep until almost 6:00pm. BIG MISTAKE!

Every night, I lay down with my son or I rock him to put him to sleep. I’m not the type to sleep train. I have nothing against it, but it is not for me and my child. Even though we spend all day together every day, our nighttime cuddles are “our time.” It usually takes 30 minutes to fully put him to sleep, and most of the time he will sleep all night. I really try to start this at 9:00 or 9:30pm so I can have a conversation with my husband in our room before going to sleep. It usually goes very smooth, but not last night!

I knew it was going to be a long night early on. It was 9:30pm and JJ was not showing any signs of being tired yet. So I let him play until 10:00pm. Yeah, yeah. I know that’s late for a toddler, but we do what we need to do. I started rocking him at 10:00pm. He seemed to get sleepy, and I was so happy! I was almost falling asleep sitting there with him! Then I put him in the crib.

The second I put him down, him eyes open. He saw me looking down at him, and he stared giggling.. I couldn’t help but to smile back because it was kind of cute… until it was pushing 11:00pm. It was frustrating because he had been asleep right before putting him in the crib, but afterwards, he was wriggling and trying to get down onto the floor. By midnight, I wanted to scream!

Well, by that time, I took a small bathroom break, and I let him sit on the floor. He seemed so hyper. I was so not.. I was so extremely exhausted.

We went back into the living room (where his crib is), and I laid him in it even though he was wide awake. I was so tired that I went and curled up on the couch. He never cried so I fell asleep there on the couch. I have no clue what time he went to sleep, but I woke up at 3:00am to go to my bed, and he was fast asleep with his little tush in the air. Haha.

I’m writing this at 6:30am the next morning. When my husband left for work, he accidentally made too much noise and little man woke up. I’m laying on the couch breastfeeding him in attempt to knock him out for a little while longer.

I’m not even sure what the significance of this blog is. Maybe to remind you to keep your toddler on a schedule or you’ll regret it. Maybe it’s just my therapy to recover from my long night. Haha. I’m just letting you know that toddlers like to try to pull all nighters with their mommies sometimes. Sorry child, mom can’t hang. I just need to remember never to let him take naps after 4:00pm anymore!

Well, while writing this, I managed to put him back to sleep so I am going to take advantage! I am going to sleep as long as I can with no alarm today. Until next time guys!