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Thursday, February 4, 2010

Baby Stella's Routine

My daughter is about 2 months now and I feel that she should have some form of a routine. Some of you might think this is a bit overwhelming for a 2 month old, but I am an analytical person and I think we all succeed better in life with some structure so a 2 month old is no exception.

It is so hard because she has had no consistency for the last 2 months and going through different growth spurts can make for different needs. Sometimes she would get baths in the daytime sometimes at night, her eating patterns are anywhere from 1-4 hours in between, she sleeps at all different times during the days and nights.

So while trying to make for some normalcy and not wanting to hinder her own clock I have decided to regulate the evening routine:

-6pm bath time!!
-Read 2 books
-Last bedtime feeding
-put to bed in crib w/ her pacifier


Now this is the first night we are trying this routine, and the first night she is going to sleep in her own crib instead of the cradle in our room... cross your fingers that it goes alright, we have the monitors in our living room and bedroom so we can hear her no matter where we are. She was waking up in the night every 2-3 hours and occasionally will go a whole 4 and I LOVE IT. I hear of some moms that say their son/daughter at this age will pretty much go the whole night without a feeding (about 7-8 hours)... I really hope this new routine will help bring that on!

My hopes is that by her going to bed between 6-7 she will wake up for a feeding around 1am, go back to bed right away after the feeding and then wake up for the day (morning feeding) between 7-8am! But, of course this is a long shot, but the ultimate goal.

I was reading something online about the "E.A.S.Y" method for during the day, and this is the routine I started following today and it is going well. I don't want to push it this early on with a routine during the day so I just follow the E.A.S.Y steps....

E- EAT (NURSE)
A-ACTIVITY (swing, story time, toys, dance w/ her in my arms, put her in the carrier and walk around, and other interaction)
S- SLEEP (during the activity time when I see she is getting drowsy I put her down in her bassinet in the living room)
Y- YOU (me time while she is resting to get stuff done around the house)

and diaper changes... let me tell you there will never be a routine for those! lol
I will change her diaper whenever I can smell a dirty diaper or HEAR that she has dirtied her diaper (which are EXPLOSIONS that you can hear in all rooms of the house) and also just to freshen one up before or after a feeding, but most of the time I will change her and then two seconds later I will hear the explosion AGAIN and have to go change it.... THANK GOD FOR COSTCO!!!!! :)





UPDATE FROM LAST NIGHT (FIRST NIGHT ON ROUTINE)
Well, last night didn't go so well, but it can only get better from repitition..
BED AT 6:00PM
SHE WOKE UP FUSSING AT 6:45PM
ROCKED HER BACK TO SLEEP BY 6:55PM
FUSSED AT 7:05PM
ROCKED BACK TO SLEEP BY 7:10PM
FUSSED AT 7:15PM
LET HER COMFORT NURSE ON ONE BREAST FOR 5 MIN. UNTIL SHE FELL ASLEEP (consumed enough for a light snack) - she was back to sleep by 7:25pm
10:15PM FUSSING - DISCOVERED SHE NEEDED TO BE BURPED AGAIN, FELL BACK ASLEEP
1:00AM FUSSY - ROCKED BACK TO SLEEP BY 1:05AM
2:15AM FUSSY- FIGURED IT WAS FROM HUNGER, NURSED HER & CHANGED HER DIAPER AND ROCKED BACK TO SLEEP BY 2:40AM
10 MIN LATER FUSSED AGAIN, PUT PACIFIER BACK IN HER MOUTH AND SHE FELL BACK ASLEEP.
5:30AM FUSSY- NURSED HER THEN ROCKED HER BACK TO SLEEP BY 5:45AM
(6:15AM ALEXA, MY DAYCARE KID ARRIVES, STELLA IS STILL SLEEPING ;)
7:00AM STELLA IS UP FOR THE DAY!!!

---THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER RIGHT??---

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