Little C has been on a pretty good schedule lately. Sundays are off-schedule because we have church. But on most weekdays it goes like this:
Between 7 and 8 a.m.: He wakes up and snuggles in bed with Mommy and Daddy. I nurse him. Daddy plays with Little C as much as possible before he leaves for work. Depending on what time my husband has to be at work and how much I need to get done that day, I usually sleep in until he leaves.
Around 8 or so: Breakfast — a cube of fruit mixed with some cereal and formula or half a container of baby yogurt, small chunks of fruit (usually banana), and cereal Os. Then we get dressed and have some playtime. He likes to play with toys on the floor, crawl around the house chewing on anything he finds, jump in the doorway jumper, and have me read him books.
Around 9:30 or 10 a.m.: Nurse and nap. He usually sleeps for about an hour and a half to two hours. If we have time after he wakes up, we'll run errands. Once in a while, we have a playgroup.
Around noon: Lunch — a cube of veggies, a cube or protein and sometimes a cube of fruit.Depending on how hungry he seems, I may mix some cereal and formula to go with it all. Lately I’ve been giving him some peas, corn, or small pieces of carrots or other veggies to feed himself. Sometimes I give him pieces of whatever I'm eating — maybe some cheese or part of my sandwich bread. We'll have to start getting into more finger foods since that's all he wants! After lunch we play some more or run errands...if I'm desperate to get something done or if he's cranky just before his nap, I'll put one of his DVDs in. But I'm going to try reserving those for true desperation. He’s been watching one almost every day, and I've been feeling guilty about that, so I’m trying to back off to a few times a week.
Around 2:30 or 3:00 p.m.: Nurse and nap. This is usually one to two hours. If I'm really tired, I'll sleep with him, but I’m trying to get into a routine where I start dinner during this time because otherwise I'm trying to cook while he's awake and crawling around the kitchen.
Around 4 p.m.: Nurse again, then more playtime inside, or we go for a walk.
Around 6 p.m.: Dinner — he gets a cube or two of veggies, a cube of protein, possibly some grain mixed in, and if he’s still hungry for dessert we’ll give him some fruit, some yogurt, or some puffs. I’ve been trying to give him small pieces of veggies, rice, beans, cheese cubes, cereal Os, chicken...whatever we're having that he can have.
Around 7 p.m.: Bath time. It’s the perfect activity following a messy meal time, and it’s a nice way to start the bedtime routine, but I don’t use soap every night. Some nights it’s really just play-time in the water.
After bath I sing songs to him and put on his lotion and then cortisone on his eczema spots before we put his pj's on. Depending on when my husband will be home from work, I may try to keep Little C awake to see Daddy before bed so we’ll play in the living room for a little while.
7:30 to 8 p.m.: Bedtime. Some nights we nurse, but most nights he’s not interested in nursing just before bed because he just ate dinner. Then we read a story or two, say our prayers and sing some songs, then put him in his crib.He doesn’t always fall asleep right away, and some night we’ll have to go in once or twice to comfort him, but other nights he’ll fall right to sleep. It just depends.
Around 11p.m.: Wakes up to nurse one last time for the day and he goes right back to sleep after.
Since he's been sick, he's reverted to three naps-a-day, and it’s going to be interesting to get him back on track since I’m also trying to wean him right now, but I think it’s a good time to introduce him to a new schedule. I’d like for his nap times to stay the same, but I’m not sure when to offer him the bottle or how much to offer him. He’s still in the habit of eating pretty small meals because I was nursing him so frequently. So my question is this….should I only offer him bottles when he wakes up (which would only be four bottles each day, so they would have to all be 6 oz bottles which I just can’t imagine him eating 6 ounces at one feeding) or keep offering him bottles before and after each sleep period? And if I do that, how much should be in each bottle? 3 ounces? More? I just feel like we're throwing a lot of unused formula away right now.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
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2 comments:
I would probably start to gradually make his bottles bigger. If he is use to eating approximately 3 ounces now then try to get him to eat 4. After he gets used to 4 start giving him 5. I wouldn't stress about it too much though. In just a few short months he won't need formula at all. That is great he sleeps that much! He doesn't wake up from 11-7? I'm envious :-)
Since J is only a few months older than C, I think our "schedule" might be something to shoot for with little C. J has 4 bottles a day. He has a 6oz AM bottle before breakfast around 7. Then we have breakfast between 8-8:30. Nothing before or after AM nap. Lunch at 11:30-12. 6 oz bottle first and then lunch. PM nap around 1:30 and then up around 3 for afternoon bottle which is only 4 oz b/c I don't want him too full for dinner. Dinner at 6 with juice in a sippy. Then he gets a 8oz bedtime bottle before he's out for the night between 7-7:30. I kept the afternoon bottle b/c he couldn't go from 12 to 6 without anything but solid snacks filled him up too much to eat a good dinner. So it evens out to an average 24 oz over the course of the day. Plus, the J-man has never seemed to need as much formula as "they" say he should. In fact, I think he's trying to wean himself from the bottle. He's much more interested in his sippy than the bottle. Our DR also said that he would prefer no bottle by 18mo check up. So, I guess we're almost done with all this. It goes so quickly - what happened? Hope this helps.
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