What am I going to do with this child??!? I know age three is supposed to be bad, but this is ridiculous. He can be such a good boy sometimes, and then in the next moment so extremely aggravating and defiant that I hardly recognize him. I miss my sweet, cuddly little man. I miss him snuggling up with me at any time of day and talking sweet to me while he strokes my hair. Now, I may get a cuddle or a hug but every time it is immediately followed by a whine or a demand (or a hit or a "NO!"). What changed? Am I doing something different?
His newest thing is saying "I'm sad" and then fake crying or dramatically throwing himself down with a hand over the eyes (and no, I do not let him watch soap operas!). I'm not even sure he knows what "sad" means - but it does concern me that he uses it in out-of-the-blue type situations. He will just burst into tears or suddenly start whining. Maybe it is an attention getting tactic? That doesn't make sense though, because most of the time I try not to react.
I do think his bed time needs to be moved back again. He just seems so tired in the evenings. Bath time is becoming increasingly difficult and he goes to sleep very fast once we get him to bed. It is so hard though to put him to bed earlier; I don't know how people do it because by the time Hubby gets home from work and we eat dinner it is usually around 8:00. Then we do a bath and shut things down around the house and I can get him to bed by 9:15 - 9:30 at the earliest. I suppose I could switch baths to mornings, but then I don't know if he would actually be able to wind down in the evening without one.
I just don't know how I am going to do this with two. I really don't. I am so busy right now. And though I realize I won't be so busy with photo shoots and such when the baby comes, I do intend to keep working as much as I can. But how the heck am I going to take care of Kiddo, a newborn, and my work? I hope the newbie sleeps a lot!
Speaking of sleep, I should head to bed. I've got lots to do tomorrow.
Until,
D :)
2 comments:
For our sanity, we have decided that family dinner time will just have to wait until Chloe is able to stay up until 8:30 comfortably. It's not the best solution, but she eats dinner around 5:30 pm. When hubby gets home, they play for about 30 minutes, do bathtime, and then we put her to bed around 7:30. Then...hubby anｄ I enjoy dinner. That's been the only way we can get Chloe to bed at an earlier hour.
Yeah, I think... there is always a way. Children certainly do need routines, but it's important to remember that a routine doesn't have to be dogma. I've always been reluctant to change things with my son because I felt like he didn't handle our first move well and since then I've been maybe a little over-sensitive to making changes for him when actually, he's much more flexible than I am.
What I'm saying is, you feel like you *have* to "shut down" your house for your son to understand it's time to sleep. But maybe that's not strictly necessary. You might have to ease into it, but I bet with just a few little changes here and there you could change that and make the bedtime routine easier on everyone.
I mean that as a suggestion, not trying to act like I know your kid or what's best for anyone else. Just saying I had issues with my kid going to sleep for years and I just never gave him credit for being able to handle bedtime in the way that all kids do... and now he does and it's a heck of a lot easier on both of us! Whew!
In any case, I'm sure that when your new little one joins your family on the outside it'll seem rough at first and you'll probably be crazy tired. But it will work out as it needs to. Kids are (thankfully!) very resilient.
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