The Four Hour Fight

I'm in the process of moving Maggie to her 4 hour schedule. She's ready...I know she is. I say that with 100% confidence. But, she's fighting me on it.

Surprisingly, the big fight comes with the sleeping not the eating. She's a sleeper, nothing to complain about there. But, when you make the shift to 4 feeds a day, there also has to be a shift with wake time and naps. We are going from 4 naps a day...3 full naps with a pretty long catnap in the evening to 2 full naps and 1 catnap. She doesn't like it.

But, that's where I come in. When I made the decision to start this endeavor, I knew she wouldn't take easily to the shift and consolidation in sleeping. So that's why I've made a very gradual attempt at the change. We are talking very gradual. Like 15 minutes added to her wake time every 4 days.

The first 2 days of that four day stretch are rough. She fusses, whines, won't even let me put her down during that extra 15 minutes. It's a side of her I've never seen before and I really don't care to see after this is over. So you can imagine when time is up, I throw her in her crib, not really, but let's just say I'm extremely ready to put her down. The third day of the stretch is better and by the fourth day, she's pretty much got it. Then we start all over with another four days of adding 15 more minutes...exhausting I tell you, for both her and me.

I'm hoping we are fully there right around the time she turns 5 months, maybe even a short bit before. Even with the sleep fight on her part, I know this is the right thing for her. I know my baby and I know it's time. She just needs a little coaxing and guidance, or maybe it's considered more of a push. Regardless, I haven't questioned myself on the timing. I just remind myself that she is a different baby than Jack, so we have to go about this transformation, well differently,... and much... much... slower.