Do you have a routine... should i find one...

[kristy J]

wow thanks guys. i have decided that for the next few weeks ill try a few different things.

all your babies/kids sleep so long Isaac gets up at 5.30am every day. dad gets up with him and i get up at 6.30 when dad goes to work. i wish he would sleep longer.

Today we had breakfast at 7.30am
play till 9.30 than a nap till 10.30am
lunch at 12ish
play till 2.30 than a nap till 4ish (it was a broken nap as we had to go shopping)
afternoon tea at 4 (bickie and milk to hold him till dinner)
5.45-6pm Dinner is on the table for the whole family (felt like i was in a nursing home)
Bath strait after dinner (he is such a mess) i have just made this daddy's job everynight not just sometimes.
and i put him to bed at 7.15pm

I'll stick to this for a few days and see if it works out. I just feel so un-organised and today i did get more done than usual, so i'll see how we go. once the twins are born i know it will have to change.

[~Belinda~]

This is Madeleine's routine:

Wake and Feed (Milk) - 7.00
Back to Bed - 7.30-9.30
Solids - 9.30
Play - 10.00-11.00
Feed (Milk) - 11.00
Play - 11.30-12.30
Catnap - 12.30-1.00
Solids - 1.00
Play or Go Out - 1.30-2.00
Feed (Milk) - 2.00
Catnap - 2.30-3.30
Play - 3.30-4.30
Bath - 4.30-5.00
Feed (Milk) - 5.00
Awake - 5.30-6.30
Solids - 6.30
Asleep - 7.00-9.00
Feed (Milk) - 9.00
Bed - 9.30-7.00am next morning

What does everyone think of our routine? Do you think it's normal? Am I overstimulating her do you think? She only catnaps through day...

[fionas]

Hi Kristy

Yes - early wake-ups are a bugger aren't they? My DD went through a phase of waking up between 4-5am and not going back to sleep so I feel your pain.

You've probably tried this but what tends to work for us is if she wakes up that early, I feed her without getting her up and then she nods off again for another hour or so (more if I'm lucky) She's bottle-fed so if I actually brought her down to the kitchen (don't like to leave her in her cot crying) then she would be wide awake by the time the bottle was ready and not want to go back to sleep. So now I put her in with us (often she's in there already anyway), get DP to hold her so she doesn't fall out and then make her bottle and take it back to bed, keeping the lights off.

Even if she only goes back to sleep for another hour afterwards, I feel a whole lot better if I'm getting up for the day when it's light rather than dark.