Nakey Time Nap

I went to change Ayden's diaper this morning and noticed he had some redness so I decided to give him some nakey time to allow some fresh air on his diaper area. He, of course piddled on the carpet almost immediately, we always tell him he's like a little puppy, and then he proceeded to happily play while I tended to some emails and such. After a few minutes he came up to me and quietly signed that he would like to nurse. I picked him up, bare butt and all, to nurse him and he went right to sleep. I had accepted the fact that he had officially transitioned to one afternoon nap a day but it seems as though he is switching back.

Glad he censored himself :)

Before we had Ayden, especially when I was in school, I had assumed that I would keep my children on a pretty strict napping schedule. Not necessarily by the clock but "x amount of naps per day for x amount of time." "I will have good sleepers!" I said (as if I had ANY control in the matter...) Fast forward to today and so much has changed. I have ended up taking on more of a "guide" role rather than the dictatorship role I always thought I'd assume. When it comes to his basic needs, eating, sleeping and such, I have found that things run much more smoothly and we are all happier when we take his lead. I've talked about this before but it is something I am noticing and reflecting on a lot as we find our way through this parenthood journey.

Other big changes that we have made post-baby, or even relaxed about over this first year are:

-Sleep Training. There was once a time when I did not think it was a big deal but when it was time I just could not, and will not do it. Ayden will move to his own bed when he is old enough to either understand where we will be and why he'll be by himself or when he just wants to because kids do grow to want and appreciate their own space.

-Co-Sleeping. This was more David than me but our goal was to have Ayden in his own room by the time he was 6 months old. We wanted to keep our relationship #1 and thought it would be important to keep our bed as OUR bed. Honestly? We don't always have much energy in the evenings and when we do find some, Ayden is in his crib from 8-11 most nights anyway. It has not been a problem and there's always nap time ;). We actually made the decision to co-sleep for my health and it was the best thing we could have done. Ayden sleeps better and therefore we all sleep better. We have grown to really love and cherish it. We wish we had done it from the start and most certainly will with our next baby.

- Television. For the first 8 or 9 months of Ayden's little life, we were strict about this but since have eased up a little. We still never put Ayden down in front of the television on purpose, encouraging him to watch and it is not on at all at our house during the week. If, however, we go to our parents houses or something we don't actively keep him from looking. The reason we aren't quite is strict was because it felt wrong that we wouldn't get a good visit in with our parents sometimes. We did not want them to turn their TVs off in their own homes, especially if a big game was on or something, so we'd just keep Ayden away from it therefore away from them too. Visiting and building a relationship with his grandparents is definitely worth a little screen time. Another reason is that David and I were craving more cuddle time. Now if we have a weekend with some downtime we'll put in a movie and snuggle up to watch while Ayden plays. We like that there aren't any commercials and honestly he stops even looking at it by 10 minutes in (unless it has a good sound track. He LOVES good music!)

So only a few changes but I suppose they are pretty big ones. For the most part though, we had a pretty good idea about the kind of parents we wanted to be going in.

What were some big changes you made once your little one arrived? Please share in the comments below!

~Sarah