Which leads me to my first MAJOR tip: sleep when the baby sleeps! Seriously. Seriously. When that tiny bundle passes out, run for your bed. Run! Everyone tells new parents this but they ultimately and stupidly will decide to do something more "important" like eat or shower or laundry. Let me tell you what people, no one cares if you stink when your a new parent. They come over to see the baby, not you. No one cares about you or your smell. Just keep a 3-4 foot radius when you hand over the kid. Arms-out handing and no one will notice, trust me. The second they close their eyes you have started a timer and no matter how you decide to fill that time, they will rise in about 2 hours. You'll look in the mirror and kitchen and at your house and you'll be pulled in a million directions but you should be in bed. With me it was always food. It still astonishes me how famished I get nursing. It's a fight for calories and moms always loose! You won't think "baby weight" when you're inhaling anything in sight to keep from passing out. But for the love of Oreos, take that grilled cheese to your room! Don't look at the piles of spit-up covered laundry, just go. You're on a timer remember! The second you try to pick up a sandwich someone will tell you the baby is awake and hungry anyway. You might as well have been sleeping.
When you aren't sleeping and the baby is, never ever under any circumstances wake them up. It doesn't end well. Would you want to be woken up from the most peaceful slumber? NO. Well they don't either. My husband still doesn't listen to me on this one and he is forever paying for it. When our first daughter Addison was about 2 months old she was taking a very long nap and he thought I should wake her up so she didn't miss a feeding. I told him she would just eat when she woke up and that was fine but he didn't listen. He woke her up and guess what folks? Besides screaming at the top of her lungs, she poop exploded. And when he went to change her diaper, she peed everywhere. Now, did this have any correlation? I have no idea. Seriously, she would pee on him every time he took her diaper off until she was about 8 months old. Girl didn't like to be naked. At all. But maybe if he had let her sleep he would've at least been prepared for it. Loralei, our second daughter, can scream. And she will if you bother her. Like white-chick-in-the-shower-horror-movie-high-pitched scream. You think I'm joking right? Well dogs within a 3 block radius start howling when she cries. Ok, that's a little extreme. I could post a clip to show you, but I don't want to burst your speakers so just take my word for it. And trust me, the few times Josh as woken her, he just finds her paci and puts her right back down. She's totally going to own
The last, and MOST IMPORTANT tip I can give you involving sleep and your darling "little" is: DON'T SCREW WITH NAP TIME. At about 4 months old, you'll notice a pattern emerging in your tiny guy or gal. Generally, from morning to night, it roughly looks like: wake up and eat, play for 2-3 hours, eat, tiny nap, play for 2 hours, eat, big nap, eat, play for 3 hours, eat, little nap, play for 2-3 hours, eat, bath time, story time, eat, sleep (hopefully through the night which translates to 6 consecutive hours). If you want to leave the house for any reason the golden hours are in the morning. Especially if you have older children to take into account as well. I'm not lying. Get up and get the heck out. Feed them of course, but then bolt for the minivan. Kids have the most pep in the morning and are more willing at that time to be drug around a store or five as long as you have snacks/bottles. As lunch and that afternoon nap roll around they get batty and you will end up being "that parent" with the screaming kid at Target. You don't want to upset the Target employees with your kid's loudness because for the next 3 years that is pretty much your Disney World. So, like I said before, get up, eat and dash. You can maybe leave right after that afternoon nap for an outing as well but it depends on how long they sleep and how well they sleep. And no matter what, the day is likely all downhill after about 4pm. I don't know why exactly this is but kids just loose their uhm, "stuff" about an hour before dinner. Maybe it's because they get hungry before that big meal, maybe they just like to be home with their own toys, maybe they are exhausted because you walked through every store in the mall, I just don't know, but you better be home working on dinner by 4:02pm.
That being said, if you decide to forgo this advice and think you can hit the beach and they will just nap, or maybe you want a late lunch downtown with friends, or a new playgroup meets at a different time, you better plan ahead. A nap in the car seat is better than trying to shift it to later all together but be prepared to have an insane tiny human on your hands later. They are packed full of energy and will go go go until they get "over-tired". This is a real thing. Josh had never heard of it until Addison hit that point after a fun day downtown where we were going going going and she just could take it anymore. When we got home she was so wound up nothing would bring her down and she screamed herself, yes screamed not cried, to sleep. Then she slept fitfully tossing and turning all night. Once you experience this "over-tired" firsthand you will obey the laws of nap time, trust me.
*Disclaimer. Not every kid is this way. I've heard stories of kids who just go with the flow or drop where-ever no problem. This is not the case with my two angels. We've had an exemption here and there where they do great but I've found it easier to loosely follow their self-set schedules and let tired babies sleep. Besides, afternoon naps means Mama can watch her shows on TV and stuff her face with chocolates undisturbed. It's a win-win.
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