Jake Ryan
0645-0730 (0800, if I'm lucky) But let's go by the 0700 schedule-- wake up babbling. Let him talk to himself for 10-15 minutes while I muster up the ability to crawl out of bed, for I am NOT, nor have I even been... a morning person.
0715-- Get into J's room, that usually wreaks of poo. I do not know what it is about sleepy time, but he always... I mean always poos when he sleeps. He does it during one of his naps, too, usually. Weird. Anyway, continuing on. Morning greeting goes like this, "Hiiiiii, Jakey!" "iiiiii!!" he will say. He definitely does NOT get morning cheer from me, but I can't help but cheer right up when I get in there to that happy kid. He's usually standing up, facing the door, peeking over the rail, or pressing his face up against the mesh (he sleeps in a pack-n-play while we stay at my parents). When I get in there, he usually starts shaking himself back and forth while holding onto the side of the crib. We usually chat back and forth for a little bit, then we get up, change the stinky diap, and head into the kitchen.
0800-0900-- play time in the living room. At first I let him play on his own. He is very good to play on his own. He roams around the room from one thing to the next preoccupying himself. But the closer we get to the 2 hour mark (2 hours after he wakes up it is usually time for a nap) the less he is able to play alone. I think it's necessary for him to explore and play on his own for a little bit anyway. After about 30 minutes of exploring, he comes over to me and starts wallering all over me, so we play around in the floor until he all he wants to do waller and pull my hair. Then he goes into his jumperoo, which I've figured out this is the time when he gets sensory-overloaded due to being tired and it is like a place for him to kind of cool off and un-wind until 0900. He doesn't do a lot of jumping in it. Well, not as much as he used to. He just kinda babbles and plays with the toys on it. I usually keep the TV off during these 2 hours. Not only because I read that background noise from the TV is starting to be blamed for ADHD, but because Jake actually plays better when it isn't on. I can't keep other people from having the TV on when they're around, and I'm certainly not going to shield him from it his whole life!!! That would be impossible seeing that I am a TV junkie. But, if I can resist, I do try to keep the TV off.
0900-- naptime. aaahhhh.... I get Jake out of the jumper, offer the bott if he didn't finish it. Then I say, "let's put the dogs outside" Emphasis on the outside so that the dogs get the memo. The dogs run to the back door, we let them out. We wave at them. (they have to go out because they like to bark at the wind and this spurs a huge barking fiasco which usually wakes up Jake) Then J & I go back to the bedroom, change a diap if it's wet; but these days he's not wetting between waking up and naptime. Diapers are starting to get much heavier and less frequent, these days. I pick up his blanket and hand it to him, then I lay him and his blanket down together. He usually babbles for a few minutes. Sometimes cries, (especially during teething) but it lasts no longer 5-10 minutes - which can feel like an eternity when your baby's upset!! But he always at least babbles before he falls asleep at nap. Aahhh, peace and quiet. I usually catch up on a show or two, catch up on facebook or blog, whatever, clean up whatever mess he's made since he's been awake. Try to catch up on household stuff, laundry, etc... And just about the time I sit down to relax...
1130-- Babbling. Go to bedroom. We chat for a couple minutes. He usually has a very wet diaper for me. Change that. Let the dogs in.
1135-- Fix lunch while he sits in his eat-seat and munches on something, Mum Mums, cheerios, animal crackers, saltines... Lunch is pretty random. He likes tuna-fish sandwiches, that's the newest regular addition to his palate. He eats pasta somedays, ravioli (the gerber kind), basically he just eats whatever is relatively soft. After we both have our lunches, it's time to play again!
1205-- back to the living room to entertain himself for a bit. This one doesn't usually last as long. I like to try to use this time to get out of the house. Errands, park, meeting someone for lunch, etc... this is when we like to go. If we don't go somewhere, then we'll go outside and play around. He loves to explore the outside. When he starts to fuss, we come back inside and get a bott. Come back inside and play around and cuddle a little and read a book or two.
2:15-- since we are staying with my parents while we're between houses, this is when Jake's Pop (my dad) gets home. J gets so dang excited when people come home. He says hi to his Pop, gives him a hug. We go let the dogs out, if they aren't already out from our playing outside earlier. Then we go change a diap, grab the blankie, he hugs it and I lay them down together. Babbling or crying.
2:30-- Quiet. I am usually exhausted by this point. I do a little more straightening. I go to the kitchen to figure out what's for dinner. Lay that all out. Chat with my dad for a little bit. Return phone calls, emails, etc...
4:00-- Babbling. Get up. Chat a little. Change a diap. Most the time it's a pooper. :) Fix a bott, drink it up, play time. During this play time we go outside for a little bit and then he usually follows me around and entertains himself as I fix dinner or do whatever I'm doing.
5:45-- Nena (my mom) gets home. Jake is always the most excited to see his Nena come through the door. He squeals and jumps up and down. He loves that Neen.
6:00-- take a walk with Nena and Quincy.
6:45-- Daddy is home when we get back from the walk. Phew! A break for mommy!!!!
7:00-- Eat dinner. Jake will either have the other half of what he had for lunch or he'll have whatever we're having. Or, like last night, we were having tacos, which he obviously can't have... so I fixed him some rigatoni and cheese and some fruit. Whatever works and he's not picky!! He starts to get very restless in this 7-8 hour. It usually calls for a lot of entertaining on the adult's part. Be it food that entertains, or being thrown around by Daddy or Pop... this hour usually requires entertainment.
8:10-- Bath time. Daddy is in charge of bath. I lay out J's pj's, lotion, diaper rash cream and diaper, and fix his bedtime bott. The bedtime bott we have nicknamed "lento". This is the only bottle of the day that requires a slow nipple. On the nipple it says, "slow, lent, lento" thus the name... lento.
8:30-- Daddy dresses J for bed, brushes teeth. Nena comes in to say good night and give him "chugars". She hands me the babe, the blanket and lento. J snuggles his blank while he has lento. Most nights he drifts off while in my arms. Which, as a mommy I love. But it was something we did NOT allow until he was able to soothe himself back to sleep in the middle of the night. If he's super fidgety and doesn't fall asleep, he has absolutely no problem just lying down and putting himself to sleep. I am positive it is because we have never (with the exception of fever present and not feeling well) rocked to sleep. It makes total sense that they would need a parent in the middle of the night to come rock them if they were helped to sleep by a rocking motion. This was also advice from Baby Wise. It worked for us. For sure. Jake was sttn (sleeping through the night) by 1 month and 9 days. We haven't looked back, either. There is the occasional, like once a month maybe, wake up that calls for a parent to go in there. We started Baby Wise at 4 weeks, and in less than 2 weeks he was sleeping 6+ hours. By 1 month and 20 days, it was 8-9 hours at a time. Holla! Baby Wise rocks!! I totally understand that each baby is different and I could have like the most opposed to sleeping child on the planet born to me with our next child... but for now, I'm gonna say it is an awesome thing. :)
9-10-- Mom and I watch a show or two.
11-- my bedtime.
0700-- do it all over again.
All of the times above are within 30 minutes either way... nothing is ever exact!
1 comments:
It's so funny how personalities end up dictating how you schedule your child's day. Gillian was a _terror_ and required holding almost all the time or she would scream for hours. Since I was home and breastfeeding we sort of did a "on demand" sort of thing, which about killed me but ended up working out pretty well for Gillian. While she ate and napped around the same times of the day as she got a little older, she showed herself to be a child that needed a pretty rigid schedule and so we made one up as we went. She woke up to eat at night for a while since she was BrFed, but for the last year plus has slept for about 12-14 hours straight at night and down to 1 or no naps a day. I have no idea what we're going to do for these kiddos once they get out of the "crazy tiny baby times 2" stage. You're right, each kid is _so_ different. It's nuts. :)
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