Sleep is for the weak...

Or so I used to think! "You'll sleep when you're dead" was another favorite of mine!

My sister asked me yesterday, "Are four month olds supposed to be on a schedule?" She was asking about a baby she nannies for, but it got me thinking.

I started googling (one of my favorite past times) 4 month old schedules. The first website gave me a good laugh. It had 8 different "sample schedules"as follows:
stay at home breastfeeding moms
Working breastfeeding moms
Stay at home breastfeeding moms with an older toddler
Stay at home pumping mothers

And all the same for formula feeding moms.

No where did it say "part-time, random hours working breastfeeding mom with two toddlers, two step kids, two cats, and a dog". Then I read the schedules, and none of them mention "time for babies tummy ache to get better" or "time for the Tylenol to start working after shots" or "time for baby to cry because those teeth are starting to move around". It was the picture perfect, "tummy time for exactly 10.467 minutes" and "time in baby saucer for mommy to clean". Ha! I love the picture perfect baby scenes!

I laughed, then went on to the next website. Ahhh... the baby wise! You can never look up "schedule" without seeing raves about the baby wise method. I once was asked about how I felt about "baby wise". I'm not a fan. Maybe because there's no way in my day to day events can I plan to have my baby down at the exact same time everyday or feed at exactly every 3 hours whether she's hungry or not. Maybe it's because I'm jealous that I cant have that perfect schedule. Maybe its that even IF I had that perfect schedule, I'd probably get reeeeally behind on bills, paperwork, cleaning, organizing, meal planning, etc. Maybe because it just doesn't make sense. I would LOVE to have my baby sleep through the night at 7 weeks, but I love my freedom to roll with the random spur of the moment events that pop up in my life more.

So, in conclusion, I've come to the realization (yet again) that every mom and every baby is different. I do it different than others, and that's ok. New mothers out there... do what FITS you and your lifestyle. If your baby doesn't sleep through the night at 4.785 weeks... he will eventually! Don't fret, instead enjoy those midnight cuddle sessions while everyone else is sleeping, they don't last forever!