The rule of three

Sitting!

Whenever we’ve tried to change some aspect of Little O’s routine (and now Baby E’s), we’ve found that the rule of three applies: you need to persist for three days or three nights.

All the changes that we have made – changing nap times and mealtimes, changing from baby sleeping bags to a duvet, drinking välling before bedtime instead of milk, dropping the dummy during the day – all of them have worked out after we kept going at them for three nights or three days. The problem is that during day two (and even more so during night two) is when you come close to breaking point, the point where you just start thinking that this is not working, that you should just give up, that there must be an easier way to do this.

Luckily, my mother-in-law told us about the rule of three during the early days with Little O and so both Husband and I can help each other when we’re in the middle of any change, reminding the other that we only need three days or nights, that that is all it takes, and that it will be solved.

And the times when we have stopped after only two days or nights? Urgh, disastrous. Because then when you get your courage back to start making the change again, you’ve already gone through two nights of pain, but they don’t count for anything; you have to start from scratch all over again.

Now, someone please remind me of this when we start Baby E on välling in the next few weeks!