The Thoughts inside my Head

I don’t know why I spend so much time ignoring the thoughts that pop into my head. You would think that after a couple of decade of making my life that much harder, by doing it my way, I would want and quickly follow the help these thoughts tend to bring. I say all the time that I am grateful for these thoughts or impressions or lightning bolts from above, but I realize today that I, more often than not, follow these impressions only after trying it my way first. I felt kind of dumb.

The Baby and I are Nap Training, yes; my house is now the Nap Training Center and as with anyone’s stay any type of training facility, the first few days are going to be rough.

I have a pretty good baby, quite near angelic. He sleeps well at night and, up until a month or so ago, was doing ok with napping during the day. We were still following the “Put your baby down for a nap within 2 hours of him waking up from his previous nap rule” and when naps only last 30 minutes….it felt like he was taking 1,000,000 naps per day. The Healthy Sleep Habits guy made it seem like the baby would just start taking longer and fewer naps, my baby actually started taking more frequent shorter naps. This was a pretty good sign to me that both Baby and I needed to make a change.

So, It was about 2 weeks ago that I felt like it was time to get in a Nap Routine! I now believe that if we had started 2 weeks ago we would have had a good routine going by now. But NO- I, being Kate, checked out a book, it is a good book, it has put me to sleep a few times, and so it wasn’t until today that I got to the part about napping. (I actually checked it out 2 weeks ago but I thought that I should read from the beginning instead of skipping ahead to the good stuff, It has taken a while to get there because, as previously stated, it has put me to sleep on more than one occasion). So, Instead of getting right down to the nap training I waited two weeks, what has happened in those two weeks- baby has started teething.

The Sleep Lady gave me some good ideas this morning, and so, I had a plan for the day all mapped out in my head. So what did I do when the first “Thought” came along that didn’t match my plan? I ignored it, that is right, I said “Whoa, that is not on my map, I must follow my plan, stick to the plan, the plan will help us….” WRONG, baby woke up after 30 minutes, even though the plan clearly stated that the morning nap should last 90-120 minutes. So, I listened to him talk to himself, he did manage to go back to sleep for about 15 more minutes but then he woke up again and instead of talking he whined then cried. I went in to try to comfort him and help him go back to sleep and finish his nap. So I spent a half an hour sitting next to his crib, rubbing his back and his hand and he spent a half an hour trying his very best to get me to pick him up, he won. He spent 1 hour and 15 minutes in bed, sleeping only half of it.

I had planned to put him down for his next nap around noon, but he started to fall asleep while he was eating at 11 and so, remembering all I have learned from reading all the sleep books, I put him to bed “Drowsy, but awake” at 11:30, close enough to noon right? This time I ignored the pretty strong impression that I should let him play, or roll around on the floor, until noon and then put him down. So what happened? He did fall right to sleep, but 30 minutes later he was talking to himself, this time progressing to crying instead of falling back to sleep.

It was during those 30 minutes that I had the realization that I should follow thoughts and impressions the first time. So this time I went in to see the baby and did what I was impressed to do. Oddly I was impressed to change an only slightly wet diaper and then put the baby back in bed. He went back to sleep, he has stirred a few more times but we are not coming up on the 2 hour mark for this nap!!! Wish us luck- because I have had the thought several times now, that it is going to take a couple of weeks before we are professional nappers/nap trainers.
So the thought that sticks in my head now is this- If I know that my life is easier and days go by smoother if I follow the thoughts and impressions that I pray to receive each day, WHY IN THE WORLD do I ignore them the first time and try it my way. How do I remember each day, with each thought, that I need to follow the impressions the first time and not wait until I know, without a doubt, that I need help?