Schedules, Schedules, Schedules

As I write, it's 9:30 am, and my nearly 7-mo-old is babbling away in her crib.

She should be napping.

And she was napping . . . in the car, as we dropped big sister off at preschool. She napped for about 20 minutes, the popped those eyes WIDE open as soon as we pulled into the garage and turned off the car.

And now she is awake, refusing to drift back off for her much needed morning nap.

This seems to be the case around here nearly every morning that we take Meg to school. I can't seem to keep Kate awake long enough to get back home and into her crib for her morning nap. The consequence: a vicious cycle begins. She misses the morning nap, so she's awake (and generally cheerful) until about 11:00am. Then she lets me know it's time for some sleep. At that point, I know there is not enough time for her to get the kind of nap she needs because --dang it -- we have to leave again to pick Meg up at 11:45am. I either (a) put her down and then have to wake her up again (blast!! ) or (b) fight to keep her awake, and she promptly goes to sleep in the car and wakes up AGAIN when we get home for lunch. Either scenario generally leads to a melt down and a totally crabby baby by about 5:00pm.

And now we've thrown swimming class into the mix, so any kind of schedule on Tuesday or Thursday is just out of the question.

When I faced these conundrums with Meg, I always turned to some baby book for advice . . . Happiest Baby on the Block, Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, Baby Wise. They all had great information, and I usually found some combination of their advice worked to solve my problem.

I've come to learn that those books -- and nearly all the baby advice books -- were written for people with only ONE child. Or they are only to be used by first time parents . . . the authors must figure that by the second kid, you've got it figured out. They don't take into consideration the juggling that occurs with there is more than just a baby in the house.

There is no solution to this morning nap problem, I do realize that. I can't keep Meg out of school, and I can't change the time I drop her off. I won't wake Kate up earlier or later to try and readjust our nap timing. I just have to let Kate sleep when she can and not worry about schedules, routines, or what she 'should' be doing on these preschool mornings. She seems to be hanging in there OK. I might as well save my worry for some other, more dramatic problem around here.

Poor second born children . . . now I know why they grow up to be so different from the first borns!