routine, good or bad, how flexible?

[frogslegs]

Hi Ladies, can I just ask what was your daily routine regarding naps when your babies were 6 months old. At the moment we follow the baby whisperer loosely and his routine is as follows:

7am bottle
8.30/9am nap 1.5 - 2hrs
11am bottle
12.30/1pm nap 1.5 - 2hrs
3pm bottle
45min nap between 4.30 and 6 depends on how tired he is
bath, dressing and play 6pm
6.45pm bottle
7pm bed
10.30pm dream feed or earlier if he wakes and won't go back to sleep

Naps are much better than they used to be but sometimes we still can't get past the 45 minute mark!

At the moment we are weaning so I am trying to fit in his solids into the schedule too, which at the moment is around 8am and 3pm before or after his bottle.

 

[Vickie]

Hannah's routine (roughly)

7:30 up and bottle & cereal which takes us to 8:30 most days

get dressed

playtime sitting on the floor until 9:15/30 than down for a nap (does vary day to day though)

usually up with in 30 minutes of putting her down--playtime on floor or in exersaucer/watch mickey mouse clubhouse

10:30 snack

11 downtime in her bouncer (sometimes she sleeps sometimes she doesn't but she always needs a little break around this time of day)

12 bottle and lunch which usually takes us until almost 1

diaper change/put clothes back on/more playtime

between 1-2 she'll have her last nap of the day

playtime when she gets up

2:30 snack

3ish she gets more down time in her bouncer

4 bottle than playtime with daddy

5-5:30 dinner

5:30-6 bath

book/playtime after bath

6:30 bottle and bed

We stopped her dream feed after she was weaned. Now we give her the top up bottle right before bed and she does rather well with it. I do think she's slept better because she doesn't have us disturbing her at night for the dream feed. And she eats better during the day

For Hannah it never mattered when we put her to bed she's always gotten up (with a few rare exceptions) between 7-7:45

For the dummy have you tried putting a few in his crib, that way if he loses one he can find a replacement?

 

[Chel]

Jasper is only 3 months old and has a pretty good routine in place. I can tell you about todays routine, as its a fairly typical day. The TIME changes daily, but the timing is about the same. (as in, the awake/sleep ratio and he ALWAYS has a feed when he FIRST wakes up, even if he's not due, or he screams the house down!)

He woke up at 6am, fed and snoozed till 7:30 (he sleeps on the breast in my bed or on the couch if he wakes up before 7 - otherwise he has a proper alert feed and is finished in 30minues)

After a play for an hour he went back down at 8:30 and went straight to sleep.

He got back up at 9:30 as we were going out, I hated waked him so soon!

We went to the shops and got home at 11, he had a feed and played for about half an hour, and was asleep at 11:30

He slept until 1:30. Had a short feed and a really active play time.

Its 2:30 now and he's JUST gone to sleep.

I'm predicting he'll sleep until 3:30 - 4:00 have a play until 5-5:30, then get grumpy and tired, but he probably wont go down, if he does it would only be for 30 minutes, or he'd just 'rest' in his cot until 6-6:30, when he'll have his bath, then boob and then *usually* in bed asleep by 7:30.

Jasper has never had a 'dream feed', but he does often wake on his own around 9-10pm and has a feed and then he'll often sleep till 4am, then to 6-7am (and then it all starts over.... yay!)

I find Jasper can be quite tired and cranky in the mornings, but he often goes down so soon after waking, that when he wakes up from his first and second nap he's full of energy!

I think for me, the thing that has helped me with Jasper the most is to put him down if he seems tired, no matter what time it is, or where he is 'up to'. Sometimes he's only up for 30 minutes and he seems tired, so I pop him to bed. SOMETIMES I end up in a snacking/nappying cycle because of putting him down too early, BUT more often than not, if I just let him sleep when he's tired and eat when he's hungry, we have a really lovely day.

When I was working with 6 month olds, we pretty much did the same thing, just followed their signs.... around 12 months we'd start encouraging a routine, but until then, I'd be open and flexible.

 

[marley2580]

I agree with Chel, put him down any time he's tired, it's a fact that the more they sleep the more they sleep. I've got a bit of a routine with Kaya but she's 15 months and it still needs to be flexible. I read that when they go down for a nap within two hours of getting up in the morning they are actually finishing off their night time sleep, and the way to change this is to try and push the first nap later (ie 10/15 mins at a time).

 

[ryder]

Yep, I agree, anytime Jasmine is getting tired or cranky she goes down for a nap. At her age she is still doing alot of short cat naps to recharge.

Her routine:

6:30-7:00- Wake up and bottle

About 1.5-2 hours after waking she has a nap
9:30-10:00-bottle

About 1.5-2 hours after waking from the last nap she has a nap
12:30-1:00 bottle

About 1.5-2 hours has another nap
3:30-4:00- bottle

6:00- cereal with veggie

8:00 last bottle and then to bed.