Sleep Schedules

I've decided that Sandy and I need to get to bed earlier.

Sandy's usual bedtime is 7 p.m., and I'm very happy with her sleep schedule. But when we push her bedtime back for events it seems that we both pay a heavy price the next day. She gets up at 6 a.m. regardless of when she goes to bed and it seems to take her an entire day to catch up on the sleep she missed if she went to bed late the night before.

So Bill and I decided that we need to be better about getting Sandy to bed on time and consistently whether that means turning down evening events (so long to my Thursday night book club), one of us going alone to events, or getting a babysitter. We got to try it out twice this weekend as Bill's family had evening events both Saturday and Sunday. So we took separate cars and I left early with Sandy and left Bill to visit until the end. Due to lost keys Saturday night and a very late dinner Sunday night (we went to the Draper Temple dedication and then met for dinner after), Sandy went to bed shortly before 9 both nights. It still created some hard days, especially today, but it was significantly better than if she had been going to bed an hour later when Bill got home. Hopefully we'll be able to be more consistent with bedtime now.

I was looking something up online and found some advice on a web site. I can't find it now, but it said that if a baby's bedtime is 7 p.m. the frazzled parent should be in bed by 7:01 p.m. I have been feeling pretty frazzled lately and it occurred to me that I haven't had very good sleep. Between getting Sandy's sleep schedule down (we're doing much better now), teething, and Bill being gone at class most nights I end up staying up late and getting up early. So, I decided that while we're recommitting to consistency on Sandy's bedtime I should recommit to consistency on mine as well. So the past two nights I've been in bed before 10 and life is looking much brighter than it has. Maybe I'll even be able to keep track of my keys. *

*I lost my keys four times last week and spent over 1/2 hour each time searching for them. I think it's just one of many symptoms of being sleep deprived.