Life with a Babywise baby is typically smooth sailing…but there are always rough patches here and there.

We are in one right now as far as naps go.

Little Bug was in a wonderful routine of a 2 to 2.5 hour nap every afternoon until about 2-3 weeks ago. Her naps have become more like an hour to 1.5 hours.

And now she either has a cold or allergies. I am leaning more towards allergies because this all started differently than any other cold she’s had and there is no fever. Just all the signs of allergies…runny nose, cough, watery eyes, congestion.

(I know some of my friends are rolling their eyes because I would always claim to have allergies instead of a cold.)

But I really do think Little Bug is suffering with some allergies now. I got her some allergy meds (holistic) from the doctor and some peppermint oil that is supposed to help with allergies when you put it in the vaporizer.

All that to say…it is now kind of hard to pin point what changes might need to be made to naptime since now there is a very real possibly that the early waking/short nap is due to the coughing and sinus drainage I am sure she is experiencing.

Naptime had been 2pm. I was wondering if maybe she needed to lay down at 2:30 instead. I tried that a few days but again it was hard to figure out if that was what she was needing with all the sinus issues.

So, I suppose we will have to wait until her allergies (cold?) clear up before I can figure out if she is needing to move naptime to a later time. Or earlier time? Who knows?

Want to learn something about my personality? It drives me crazy to not be able to figure things out. When there is a problem, I know there is a solution out there somewhere, and I want to find that solution NOW.

Probably why I love Babywise so much. It gives me the tools I need to be able to problem solve sleep/eating issues in my child instead of flying by the seat of my pants. I don’t fly well that way for some reason.

We are experiencing some turbulence right now with naptime, but overall, nearing the end of my baby’s second year of life, I am so incredibly thankful for Babywise!

I look forward to starting from birth with #2. That doesn’t mean I will start all aspects of Babywise with #2 from the beginning (like CIO, for example) but it does mean I will start a flexible feeding schedule when #2 is a couple weeks old.

With Little Bug, she wasn’t fed on demand, but there wasn’t really a set 2.5-3 hour feeding schedule in place either. Sometimes she ate after 2 hours and sometimes she ate after 4-5 hours. Big mistake for the daytime! I should have been waking her up to eat every 3 hours so her metabolism would stabilize. Anyway…

Babywise. It’s not for all families, but it certainly works for mine!

- Elaine