I’m in a bit of a pickle.? My child is a very schedule oriented type of person.? Good thing he has me as a mother I suppose.? Our days go a bit like this.
7:00ish wake up
7:30 or 8 breakfast
8 or 8:30-10 cartoons for him work for me
9:30 or 10 snack
10-12 play for him, housework for me or errands if needed
noon lunch
1:00 nap (naps 1 – 1 1/2 hours)
2:30 go outside and water and play
3:00 or 3:30 snack
4:30 come inside to start fixing dinner
5:30-6 dinner
6:30-7:30 play
7:30 bath
8:15 bed
We often deviate from this to make time for play groups or special outings, but the food element throws him off.? If we don’t eat a decent lunch or if we miss snack times he gets kinda pissy.
This morning the child ate most of his breakfast and then at 8:30 (approximately 2 seconds after I sat down to cry over my lost website check my email he comes in to ask if he can have Os in a cup.? I told him no because I wasn’t snack time.? He pitched a fit, but eventually go over it.? 15 minutes later I walked into the kitchen to get a kleenex.? He asked again if he could have Os.? I wasn’t in the mood to argue and gave in.? Boy happy.? Mommy happy.
At 11:30 the boy was playing outside and I was doing my requisite housework.? He started asking for a snack.? I told him no that it was 30 minutes until lunchtime and he could wait.? I didn’t want to give in on this one becaues often if we eat too early it totally throws him off and he turns into a raving lunatic.? On the contrary.? My no caused a freak out.? Crying child, irritated mommy.? I brought him inside to have his tantrum in his room because I didn’t want the neighbors to think I was killing him.
He cries in his room, I sit at the computer and marvel at my beautifully restored website.? After a while the crying stops.? I go down to check on the boy and tell him that he can come out of his room now.? Child is fast asleep.
He knows I get pissed off when he rocks at times that are not designated sleep times so when he pitches a fit and I send him to his room he gets in his bed and rocks.? Evidently he cried so much and rocked that he fell asleep.? Of course I cannot confirm the actual rocking since I didn’t watch.? It is just my assumption.? In any case he fell asleep.? At 11:40 a.m.? Without lunch.? Curtains and door wide open.
So my question becomes, do I let him sleep or wake him up.? I called the trusty husband and we both agreed to let him sleep, but I’ve never come across this situation.? Odds are that if I woke him up he would never take a nap later in the day.? That would suck.? But the crapshoot becomes how long will he sleep without lunch.
What would you have done?
I would and Have let him sleep…he sleep when tied and eats when hungry. Though I am a stickler about snacks too. I think that a nap when he required it was a good thing and maybe he is becoming slowly less OCD about his schedule…I am a tight scheduler but I admit that I loosen to my needs.
sorry about the hoard of spelling errors…next time I promise to proof read before hitting send
I would have let him sleep as well. But like you, I would have called BIL and asked him the same thing. It’s quite the shock when they deviate from the norm! Can tend to freak one out. I also would let him have a little snack at un-snack times, too. He is probably growing and needing the extra calories and extra sleep.
I’d have let him sleep as well. Same thing happened at my house today. I tried to brush the teeth, and holy hell broke loose. I tried to go find sister’s clothes for her, holy hell #2. And then, the kicker…I walked to the kitchen to make him a bottle (he’s 19 mos) and you would have thought the world ended b/c I can’t hold him and measure out formula, measure water, fit that bag onto the bottle, etc. It was 1.5 hrs before naptime…but he went to bed and slept for 2.5 hours. This afternoon should be interesting.
Yep, let him sleep. He’ll wake up much happier 🙂
Let him sleep and fed a late lunch, then like no or little snack before dinner.
Since it was early in the day, I’d let him sleep with lunch ready to go upon wake up, then make sure he didn’t have too late an afternoon nap…if very cranky, maybe only 20-30 minutes.
I always thought I’d be all scheduled. Turns out I’m too lazy. Maybe when he’s older…
I agree with you: let the poor boy sleep. It sounds like he was having a day to match yours, and probably just needed to crash. Maybe an early bedtime will be in order?
I hope the rest of the week is pleasant and full of fun events! You deserve it!!
Let him sleep… for sure and give him lunch later.
Our schedule is very similar to yours, but Liv is up at 6-6.30 am.. Lucky me
I’m right there with everyone else. I would’ve let him sleep, and just had lunch ready for when he woke up. Some days are just “sleep” sort of days!
Ditto on the sleep issue. Structure is good but sleep is oh so much better. Hope the rest of your day was fun!
I would let him sleep, and take my chances with the rest of the day. Meanwhile, while he’s sleeping, I’d have a nice leisurely lunch by my laptop (or maybe I’d try to accomplish something productive, depending on my mood! ;))
Sorry about the site drama.
Never wake a sleeping child!!!
Actually I’ve been breaking my own rule about waking a sleeping child but only because I am trying to shorten the nap a little bit (makes me want to cry just saying that – I love nap time) because we need to put a stop to the 2 hour nightly crib party the child has been having lately. But with Sabrina, if she falls asleep – even just for 5 minutes in her car seat – she won’t sleep again during the day so I let her sleep where she falls (rarely happens).
Let him sleep! As the mother of two very routine oriented children, I have come to believe that if they go that far off schedule its usually because they are getting sick and sleep is the very best thing you can do in that situation. Good luck!
Sleep and then lunch. No snack. But everyone already told you so, you did the right thing.