During the sleep training process, you have to be pretty strict and consistent with your schedule, so clients always ask me, is it always going to be like this? How can we still go out and do things without having to be home with the kids in bed by 6:30pm?
Well, the answer to the first question is no. Once your children have developed a healthy schedule and sleep through the night, you can stray from it every now and again and it shouldn’t affect their healthy sleep habits. My best suggestion is when you have late nights out, or poor naps, you just want to make up for the missed sleep somewhere else. For instance, try for a longer nap or put down for an earlier bedtime the next day.
As for the next question, you can most definitely keep a healthy schedule and still hang out with friends.
– The most obvious answer would be to get a babysitter, but sometimes that isn’t an option. When that is the case for us, we tend to take the kids with us and then just go home early that night.
– The thing my husband and I love to do most is have people over at our house instead of having to go out. It’s easier for us because we have twins, so if friends come over that have kids/babies, we have a pack n play or a bassinet that they can use so their children can stay on a healthy schedule also. It’s the best of both worlds because we can have people stay over late, but our kids still go to bed by 8pm.
– Last suggestion is to not be afraid to bring a pack n play to somebody’s house if they don’t have that option; Especially with a younger child. They are more resilient so when you wake them up to go home, it shouldn’t be too hard to get them back to sleep.
If you have any questions about schedules, I’d love to help! Hope everybody has a safe and fun Super Bowl Weekend!
