As far as the eat, play, sleep routine goes, I always knew I wanted to attempt to introduce a “schedule” to C as soon as possible without necessarily letting it rule our lives. I understand she’s still quite young and by no means do I expect her to follow a rigid schedule; however, for her own health and happiness (and for my sanity!) I felt like I needed to get a handle on things. And since she basically started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks old, I must say it’s been pretty successful!
So if you’re interested, here’s what we attempt to do and how our days typically go. During the day, C still pretty much eats every two hours on.the.dot. I’m assuming this is because she’s going so long at night without any “milk milk.” So I’m totally fine with feeding her every two hours if it means she’ll sleep through the night! Anyway, after she eats, we “play” anywhere from 30-45 minutes. Now playing with an 8 week old sounds silly… but we’ll hang out on her activity mat, do a little tummy time (which she HATES), I’ll put some hand and foot rattles on her, sing, etc. Or I’ll just “talk” with her while I’m doing chores around the house. Basically anything to keep her awake, stimulated, and happy. When she starts to show signs of being sleepy (starts to fuss, yawns, etc.) I’ll change her diaper and put her in her sleep sack. Then we rock and sing two songs, then I put her down drowsy. Our goal has always been to get her to fall asleep on her own in her crib. Best case scenario is when we put her down and she dozes off to sleep on her own. Sometimes she needs her paci to go to sleep. (Though she’s beginning to find and suck on her thumb/finger, so I’m thinking once she gets coordinated enough, her own hands will replace the paci.) Sometimes it’s a struggle and we have to keep going in her nursery to try to soothe her to sleep. I personally am not a fan of letting her “cry it out” this young, but I also believe there’s a difference between fussing and crying. Sometimes she’ll fuss a little, but then fall asleep. If she’s crying, we go in and soothe her without picking her up. Sometimes it’ll only take one trip to the nursery to calm her down, sometimes it takes ten. It can be frustrating, but I believe it’s totally worth it and that we’re building healthy sleep habits. Patience is definitely a virtue!
Anyway, then she’ll nap anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. I must say that her naps have gotten shorter once she started sleeping through the night. Every now and then we’ll get a two hour nap – though that typically only happens if we’re out and about and she’s in her stroller.
Once she wakes up, we start the cycle all over again. However, after her 5:30pm-ish nap, we don’t do anymore crib naps. She’ll wake up to eat, play, and then we put her in her swing (which she LOVES) where she’ll nap on and off and is perfectly content to hang out while Mom and Dad eat dinner. J I feed her one more time around 8:00ish, then the hub does “bathies,” jammies, cuddle time, and we do prayers altogether. Then hub puts her to bed around 9:00ish or so. Just like with naps, sometimes she’ll go down right away, sometimes she needs some soothing. She’ll typically sleep until about 5:00am… though sometimes she’s hungry a little before then, and sometimes she’ll sleep until 6:30am. After her first morning feed, she immediately goes back to sleep and I put her in her crib where she’ll sleep until 7:30am-8:30am, and that’s when we start our “daytime.”
Anywho, that’s how we try to do things around here. I’m sure no one really cares, and I’m more typing it out so that when Baby Peele #2 comes around, I’ll remember what the heck I did.
But, like I said, there are plenty of times when breaking the routine is a must. Like right now, when she’s preciously sleeping right on top of me. J
I must say that attempting to follow this has helped me interpret C’s moments of fussiness. She is typically a very content little babe. So usually, when she cries, I know if it’s because she’s hungry, or over-stimulated, or tired… or just flat out gassy. For example, before this nap-on-mama’s-chest-bit, she had been crying for over fifteen minutes, which is basically unheard of for her. I knew it wasn’t time for her to eat and not time for her to sleep, and her cry didn’t seem to indicate either of those issues (I swear she hasn't different cries for different needs), so I figured she had to be gassy. Lo and behold, after getting her to calm down and patting her back for almost ten minutes, she let out two of the biggest old man burps I’ve ever heard. Then after a few minutes of being content, she conked out.
Now, I am in no way, shape, or form declaring myself an expert on all things newborn. This is just what has worked for us and could change tomorrow! It has taken weeks for me to feel like I’ve finally gotten the hang of things enough to keep our little girl happy, and fingers are crossed that it continues.
Alright, my sweet girl is starting to stir. It’s time for some milk milk, and then she’ll be ready to play!
She LOVES bathies with Dad!
Happy girl! Hairbows are a must to detract from the baldness.
Big sister Bailey in the leaves!
Pretty girl getting ready for a fall photo shoot
Me and my girl
Laying in the leaves!
Someone loves her tongue!
Yes, it was a HUGE pile of leaves!
Our family!
She LOVES her daddy
Just so you can check out those cheeks
Hi! I found your blog via Alison Hicks blog list. I also just had a baby (September 29th), so it's enjoyable to read about someone elses journey. You seem to be doing a great job :) Good luck with mommyhood. I don't blog as much as you but here is a link to mine www.babyellington.blogspot.com.
ReplyDelete~Sarah Ellington