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MrsRebecca
member
When did your baby have a routine?
MrsRebecca
member
So far the only "routine" DS has is that he wakes up about 6:00 and goes to bed about 11:00. I feed on demand so he has no rigid eating schedule but he eats about every 2.5-3 hours. His naps are all over the place and inconsistent.
As he gets older I want to establish a schedule but don't want to push it too soon. What was your baby's schedule like?
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Re: When did your baby have a routine?
Nothing even close to a schedule here yet either.
By the way...I really like the Kirkland wipes... a thousand times better than Up and Up!
he had a routine early.....only awake for 2hours max and a nap, eat about every 3 hours.
now as for a schedule, that's a whole different story. my son is 8months and still doesnt nap the same times and length of time each day!
DD1 - about 2 months when she started daycare.
DD2- about 8 months is when she started napping regularly.
It takes a long time. DD#1 wasn't on a scheduled until she was about 10 months, but she's a whole different kind-a thing.
Rowan is on a pretty decent schedule now, but that is basically because Parker is on one. It'll come eventually. The more consistent you are with your routine (feeding, errand-running, etc) the more consistent he will be eventually. Plus, he's still a little young to fall into a routine. I'm not sure at his age he knows the difference between night and day just yet.
My little guy is just over 6 weeks and a schedule is only this week starting to kind of emerge. Not anything I set up but the pattern he seems to be falling into. He generally takes a nap in the morning from about 9am until 11:30 or noon. A lot of mornings we are running around or I'm in the car to drop DD1 at preschool and the car immediately puts him to sleep. I leave him in the carrier if we get home and he's still sleeping and he'll just take his whole nap in it some days. Then around 2pm or so he goes down for another nap. DD2 takes her nap from 1-4 most days so after I get her settled i swaddle him and feed him which usually leads to sleep. I move him to the crib and most days he'll nap there for 2 hours or so.
Our girls go to bed around 8pm and I always swaddle and feed Aidan while they watch their before bed show and I try to put him down in the crib. Sometimes he'll stay asleep but most of the time he'll fuss and DH will take him down while I take a bath. He leaves him swaddled and Aidan usually goes back to sleep. When I come down around 9pm we'll move him to the crib. He'll usually get up to eat again by 10:30 at the latest and then will eat again between 1-2am and again between 5-6 am.
HTH!
FWIW, I spent too much time stressing out over needing a schedule. Everything and everyone told me that she needed to be on a schedule and I would get obsessed trying to make it work. I charted and graphed and tried to figure out patterns and couldn't. Then I finally relaxed about it and enjoyed it.
By 4, 5, 6, months we begin to get a more predictable schedule and then every few months between then and 12 months we had to revamp the schedule as things are always changing.
If you need a schedule for you, go for it and good luck. If you are doing it because you think DS needs in and you are supposed to be on one, don't sweat it. DS just needs you available when he needs you.
She might have had a routine that early, but it changed every few days so I rarely caught on to it. I wanted her to always fall asleep at the same time everyday, when really I should have been watching her for sleep cues. They're like us - they aren't hungry or sleepy at the same time everyday.
She has had the same routine for a few months now so it gets a little more predictable.
Phew, glad to know my kid is normal! I always feel like everyone on 0-3 talks about their kids eating/napping/sleeping routine and I wonder what I'm doing wrong.
It seems like they all go much longer than 2 hours between feedings, STTN, etc. I'm glad I'm not behind.
Sounds like the typical newborn schedule to me!
I noticed a natural schedule with Emily closer to 3 months and we really nailed it down consistently at 4 1/2 months.
eclaire 9.10.06 diggy 6.2.11
seriously! this is exactly right. I remember thinking, "ok GREAT! I have figured it all out!" and then BOOM the next day everything was completely different.
I also agree with something a pp said - we had routines, like we started working on a nap X hours after she woke up, but those times were never the same day to day.
For us I would say about 3 months. Pretty early on he went with eating every 3 hours but the sleeping was all over the place, "bed" was any where between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. but at about 3 months is switched to 8 p.m. consistently. In terms of running errands I usually just went places right after feeding and a diaper change so I didn't need to worry about that and he'd sleep in the car seat!
I think people get too uptight on the schedule thing. I can understand if you are putting your LO in day care that you want to get more of a routine, but children are unpredictable and you can't stress out over it!
We've finally just gotten a predictible schedule/routine and DS is 8 months.
I spent his earliest days learning his cues and following his lead. I felt like things were ever evolving. A lot of times he fell into a pattern all on his own. However, just when I felt I figured it out, something happened and it all changed again.
He napped in the swing, in the moby, while we were out and about etc. We co-slept 100% of the night.
When DS was 6.5 months I began to make transitions. We transitioned to 80% of nighttime sleep in his crib (in our room) and 100% of at home naps in the crib.
Now at 8 months old he's finally on a really great schedule. While I was shifting things around, I learned that he needed an extra hour of sleep so he started going to bed at 6:30 instead of 7:30. I also learned that we had MUCH better days if he was awake for the day between 6:30-6:45.
This is what our day looks like now.
The only "meal" that is set in stone is dinner. I nurse on demand and I share whatever I'm eating with him (if it's appropriate for him)
6:30 am wake up
6:30- 8:30 awake time. Get dressed, playtime.
8:30-9:15 nap
9:15-11:30 awake time. Typically we're out and about- I go to the gym, we meet friends for brunch, run errands.
12:00 -12:30 nap
12:30 - 3:00 Awake time. Typically we're home. If it's nice out we go for an afternoon walk.
3:00 - 3:30 nap
3:30 - 5:00 witching hour. I prep and get dinner ready while I wear him. I do whatever I can to keep him semi happy.
5:00- 5:30 dinner as a family
5:30-6:00 clean up, bath as needed, play on the floor
6:00- 6:15 nursing and songs with me
6:15-6:30 stories with dad
6:30 Sleeping
10:30 nurse
1:30 nurse. He joins us in bed from here on out.
We've had this schedule for a few weeks now. It's really working for us. It took a long time to establish it, I spent quite a bit of time not going anywhere until it became so predictable.
A Pocket Full Of Dinosaurs