What Works for Us

I am the type of person who can be sucked into certain ways of thinking...not that I'm proud of it. In fact, it's overwhelmingly mentally exhausting. I'm speaking in regards to parenting, of course. I read books (not necessarily on how to parent, but say, what to expect...) and there are these underlying pressures from them that say what you should be feeding them, what milestones they probably have made, etc etc. And that's all good and dandy if you have an 'average' baby. Where are the books about kids who have food allergies and what and how to feed them!? Or the books about soothing the uncomfortable-ness of eczema?! Or where to buy jeans that will fit a 27 pound 10 month old around the belly when he SITS! Cause that is what mine does 3/4 of the time! Seriously, world.... you need to market those better! ;)

I've decided (a while ago, but just now getting around to stating it), that the Barton's are not 'average' folk. We do not follow the 'rules' or 'guidelines'...whichever you want to call them. We just like to wing it. So here is what works for us:

~Having a really loose, flexible schedule (this is more about me, than Roman. I really don't mind doing my things during the day around Roman's naps, or letting him watch a movie, ie. finding nemo, or learn sign language, if he's being a stinker and I need to get some things done.)

~Making sure, at some point, Roman gets 2 naps during the day. Now, he could decide to go down a couple hours after he gets up for the day (which also varies day to day), and go to bed earlier, or, maybe, like today, he'll want to stay up a little longer in the morning and take a late morning nap and a late afternoon nap, and go to bed a little later...all of which are fine by me! Just as long as he is getting ample sleep, I don't care when it is.

~My quiet time (reading my Bible) is during Roman's first nap.

~Shower time varies each day. It could be when Ro is napping after my quiet time, or it could be first thing after breakfast before Jeff goes to work, or before bed...as long as it gets done :)

~Eating mostly formula, and occasionally throwing in some baby food...if I feel like it. His formula is nutritionally complete, soooo technically he doesn't need baby food. It's just practice anyway!

~Not getting out of our p.j.'s unless we're going somewhere, and even then, if I'm feeling lazy, I'll make us look classy in our p.j.'s if we do decide to venture out in them. ;)

~Making sure we see the Dewhurst's as often as possible!

What we're working on:

~ Getting Roman to sleep through the night- the past 2 nights he has slept MORE than 3-4 hours straight.... huuuuge improvement! Hope that keeps up!

~Since Roman is nearing the 1 year mark, and wont be on formula soon, we need to figure out what what to feed him to make sure he will be getting all of his nutritional requirements...since he'll be so limited.

~Making date night a priority!

I'm sure there is more, but my brain is currently unable to think of them because I'm also thinking about how I need to grind up oatmeal for Roman's oatmeal baths...for his skin... and apparently I cannot think 2 things at once!