So over the past month there have been changes to our lives. Some due to COVID-19 and also due to the fact that James has reached 20 months and changed some of his routine.
I know time is going too fast. It wasn’t that long ago that he was a quiet little boy who would simply play by himself or sit and watch the whole Peter rabbit movie ( with me).
In the past month James has dropped a nap. I didn’t force this on him. I read about it but I really wasn’t sure how to go about it. I really didn’t want to seem cruel and keep him up for as long as possible. I didn’t want to seem cruel to force him to have a nap at a certain time daily.
I honestly, didn’t know what to do!
I read about it but I wasn’t confident in my mothering skills. So, what did I do?
I tried to get him to nap but more than half of the time it didn’t work. I gave him milk hoping that it would make him sleepy. I read to him. I went out for a walk with him. However, I had no luck.
He would stay up for most of the day and only have a power nap (10-20mins). We both tried so hard to get him to sleep. However, he did sleep all night over 10 hours. So, we really couldn’t complain. I mean, there are kids out there who won’t sleep at night (I was one of them)!
I read somewhere that kids his age needed 12-14 hours sleep. Immediately, I felt awful. I felt that I wasn’t doing the right thing. But, I simply couldn’t get him sleeping when he needed it the most.
After a lot perseverance James had a nap. We didn’t change anything to make him drop a nap. The change in his nap routine was natural. It was him who decided (eventually) when he would fall asleep. After his lunch.
I have to admit it was hard to encourage him to have a nap. He is like a Duracell bunny and literally doesn’t stop all day.
Both Sean and I are now back to our normal hours. This was another change to our lives post-lockdown. We both quickly adapted to lockdown life pretty quickly and now we have adapted again to our life pre-lockdown.
The main change was getting James used to seeing our family more often. So we don’t feel the guilt when we both go to work. Last week we left James with both our parents, to give him time to get used to being alone with them.
It was just like going back to work after maternity leave. I really struggled with it. I think I was the only one who struggled with this. As James was fine. I was the one in tears. I was the one who was craving his hugs ( He gives the best hugs). I was the one who was messaging them asking how he was getting on. I was really missing him.
I was also worried. Worried that they wouldn’t know how to cope with the changes that has been going on with James in the past 5 months. As there has been a lot of changes!
James is now chatty. He doesn’t speak much sentences but he can show and somehow make you understand at times what he is saying. He knows how to grab your attention and he looks into your soul with his amazing blue eyes.
I was worried. That they weren’t expecting this? That they were expecting him an 16 month old version of him. Luckily, they didn’t have any expectations of him. I think they were just happy to see him and see that he was still a happy(ish) little boy but with a big voice!
So basically, I am now wingin mum life. I am not reading any parenting books. As every child is different. I am going to involve James as much as possible when it comes to parenting. As i literally have no idea what I am doing at times!
Hope you are all safe and well.
💖
Shining blue eyes 