I believe that all parents of young children have a few family routines that they don't shout from the mountain tops. For us it is that Maisie drinks A LOT of apple juice. You see at age one, she proudly spit out her whole milk in my face and never again let her lips touch it's healthy countenance. Instead she has grown up on watered down 100% (mind you) apple juice. But when the American Pediatric Counsel suggests 4 oz a day of fruit juice, I know that we far exceed the recommendation.
Oh well, right. Maybe I would have done it different...but probably not????!!!! When a child is an early riser and a little sweetness in a cup allows me 1 more hour of delicious (no pun intended) sleep...who wouldn't have made that decision?
Now, however she is four. The "routine" probably needs to be changed. At present she gets a small sippy of her drink of choice at bedtime. Then when Mike and I are ready to go to bed, we fill another sippy of juice and place it by her bedside with a fresh pull-up. If and when she wakes up in the very early hours of the morning, she drinks her juice, changes her pull-up, and goes back to sleep. This tactic has kept her from waking us up in the am.
For lots of reasons I think she probably needs to be weaned a bit. One, I would like her to start sleeping in panties and two, sometimes she drinks her extra cup in the middle of the night and still wakes us up for MORE juice. (writing this down makes me realize the absurdity even more)
Last night at 3:45am was one of those lucky moments for me. She came aknockin at my bedside demanding more juice. I said no and then she went to her room crying loudly. I finally got out of bed and explained to her why she couldn't have more....laid with her for awhile hoping she would fall asleep again...didn't...I went and got her more juice...
BEST PART of POST:
When I handed her the cup, she said,
"Thank you mommy, this is the healthy drink in my world. Since it is made out of apples and all...And you know apple juice and apple pie are made out of apples."
Needless to say, I returned to bed with a smile on my face, knowing I had some work cut out for me, and began composing this blogpost right then and there.
Can you laugh with me now?
2 comments:
You deserve the extra sleep! I'm glad you figured something out to help sweet Maisie sleep in a bit more!
Hey Stephanie! I love your blog and have to laugh because my youngest, Allison, does not like Milk either. She will drink one or two of Dannon's drinkable yogurts a day and I have her drinking Minute Maid Orange Juice Plus for Kids in the morning (35% calcium) and Motts Light plus Apple Juice (includes vitamins and calcium) once a day and when out traveling she gets a Kirkland brand juice box that has vitamins and minerals in it. I feel your pain! Take care!
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