Bad Habits and Nighttime Schedules

BAD HABITS Ok, so you hear all the time about kids watching too much tv or how some kids get in the bad habit of having to have the tv on to fall asleep and how this affects their quality of sleep. Well Rylee is probably going to be one of those kids. Chris and I discovered the other night that Rylee sleeps like a rock when the tv is on, but once the tv goes off it's all downhill from there. So we decided to test the waters the other night and leave the tv on all night without setting the sleep timer. Sure enough it worked! Especially if we lay her down and she wakes up, she just watches the tv till she falls back asleep. I hope that she's young enough that this doesn't become a habit. If it does it's all her daddy's fault (hahaha)!! He is the reason this bad habit started. . . he also has to have the tv on to fall asleep. I'm to the point at the moment that whatever gets us the most sleep is what we'll do. NIGHTTIME SCHEDULE So, it's taken us almost 3 weeks but I think the three of us have finally figured each other out and what works and what doesn't. Things seem to be more relaxed than what they were the first week or two. At least I feel more relaxed and less anxious. But I am the worrier of the family so if you were to ask Chris he'd probably say he's been fine from day one. Chris is like the glue that holds us (or at least me) together I think. I know he was during the first week of Rylee's life when the stupid doctors we're flipping out over Rylee losing a pound and had me in a panic. Anyway, back to the point. . . we've started a schedule with Rylee of the evening. Starting about 7pm she gets a bath (which i think she's starting to like). Those of you who were here the first week or two know what a challenge it was when it came to bathing. To say the least she DID NOT enjoy her baths. Then after her bath Daddy gives her a bottle w cereal and within 20-30 minutes she's out cold and off to "bed" she goes. This schedule makes it nice for Chris and I because we get a little bit of time to ourselves. I never would've thought a "schedule" would really work with newborn, but trust me it does. We actually found out the hard way Friday night that Rylee likes to stick to the schedule. We had some friends come to visit at the last minute and they didnt get here till almost 8pm, so Rylee didn't get her bath. Well by the time they left we were kind of in a rush to get her fed and off to bed. It was just kind of chaotic. Needless to say we paid for veering away from the schedule. It took us almost 5 LONG hours to get her to fall asleep and even once she fell asleep she woke almost every hour. Needless to say it was a long night. We have definitely learned our lesson. We now plan our schedule around her schedule. We even rushed through our meal at Olive Garden the other night just to make sure we made it home in time for her bath. Gee. . . I was kinda windy today. Guess I had a lot to talk about.