The answer is: as soon as you call it a routine.
There is only one routine in The Popsters life. She goes to bed, or I should say the bedtime routine starts at, 6.30pm. Everything else is variable. Just when you think a routine is beginning to establish itself she switches - although she doesn't switch until you say out loud that she seems to have started doing something regularly. Maybe I should stop saying these things out loud? The Popster has had loads of routines since she was born - all lasted long enough for me to recognise them as a routine. Once I classify something as The Popsters usual habit, it disappears. Some have been good, some bad. She has one at the moment where between 10 and 11pm every night she sort of wakes and I have to give her the dummy and hold her hand. She doesn't actually open her eyes during these moments so I don't think she is awake, but it does require my intervention. Now that I have noted this publicly, will it stop?
The last few days The Popster has been all over the place! I haven't had a clue what to expect! On Friday we drove down to Maidstone to spend the weekend with my Mum. Jon was on my brother's stag do, along with my Dad, so a nice weekend with my Mum seemed like a great idea. Friday was pretty usual. Feeds as expected, grumpiness as expected, but afternoon nap was tricky. She really wanted to sleep - she makes it obvious when she's tired. When tired, The Popster yawns and rubs her eyes - the classic, international sign for tiredness. But she would not go for a nap. I had to rock and sing her to sleep in the afternoon! I was determined she would nap as I couldn't stand the grumpiness anymore. But other that a pretty normal day.
On Saturday we had free tickets for Groombridge Place - basically a place to go and walk around gardens and a forest. A lovely day out in the fresh air. She started off fine. We put her in the Baby Bjorn and enjoyed the formal gardens. After a while she started to get grumpy and tired so we transferred her to the push chair. I think basically, it was too difficult for her to drop off in the push chair as it was a very bumpy ride - babies can sleep through a lot, but apparently a bumpy ride across a forest floor is a few bumps too many. This made her very grumpy and I had to carry her back to the car - a about a mile and a half away. My arms were KILLING me!! Jon has to stand up holding The Popster for about 5 mins and he starts complaining he's tired and she's too heavy - I have to carry her every day for maybe half an hour at a time. There is no way women need to exercise after giving birth. They just have to actually look after their baby - that will soon get them strong and fit! Shall I produce a fitness DVD for the massively over crowded fitness DVD market? I'm sure there is space for one where you just put your baby to bed before they are ready and run up and down stairs constantly to see to them and one where you have to carry a baby that cries as soon as you sit down. (something to work on maybe?)
Anyway, back to Saturday. We got back to the car, fed The Popster, changed her nappy and stuck her in the car seat ready for the drive home - that should make her drop off for a nice sleep. What happened? Well, she screamed when I put her in the seat. Not unusual, she'll stop once when we get going. Or, what she'll actually do is scream and scream and then scream a little louder!! We had to stop driving and get her out the seat to calm her down. That bit wasn't so hard, but then what? I had to put her back in the seat - we couldn't stay on the side of the road, miles from home all day. As soon as she was back in the seat, she screamed again. My mum transferred to the back seat and The Popster took a very firm grip on her finger. It worked, she fell asleep - but my Mum couldn't get her finger back - The Popster had a vice like grip. The rest of the day was pretty normal, but The Popster stayed quite grumpy.
Sunday was a great day. The Popster got up at 8.30am and was on good form. She gave me massive smiles, and kicked her legs in excitement. Great fun. Around 9.30am she started to show signs of tiredness. However, I did not get her to go to sleep until I drove home just after 3pm that afternoon, and even then she woke up as soon as I got home! She was awake for the longest period of her whole life!! And what makes it even better was for the majority of the time she wasn't grumpy! Don't get me wrong, she had her moments, but they passed without her actually going for a nap. She was rubbing her eyes and showing signs of tiredness all day but then she would start playing again! She also got plenty of fresh air, watching her cousins help my mum with the gardening. They seemed to be enjoying themselves and my mum was pretty happy, but to me it looked like slave labour! Kids eh! So easily fooled! She napped for about an hour and a half whilst Jon and I ate Roast Lamb, so she did get a nap in eventually.
Tuesday/today, different again. She went down for a nap a couple of hours after waking. This is my window to have a shower and get myself dressed and presentable. I always do this quite quickly as I never know how long I have. It is also my opportunity to clean up a little bit if possible. Today, I managed to do all that and then sat down to watch TV, expecting The Popster to wake at any moment - I even had a little nap myself. But she didn't wake! We got to 1.5 hours, surely she must be waking soon? At 2 hours, I realised that if I'd known, I could have cleaned the house. No point doing anything now though as she is bound to wake up as soon as I start - after all, a 2 hour nap!! Unheard of. I started to do a few little chores and she just kept on sleeping. I even went into her room to check she was still there/alive!?!?! At 2 hours 40 mins she finally woke up! Wow!
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