Schedules

As I got closer to my due date, I started worrying about losing sleep once Kayden got here. If you know me, you know that I LOVE my sleep, I mean LOVE. Once Kayden was here I noticed that he LOVED his sleep too. Praise the good Lord!! He consistently sleeps at least 3 hours at night and he had not continuously cry or just want to be awake in the middle of the night. He feeds, and then is usually back to sleep within 20 minutes of feeding. We didn't really start a bedtime routine when we first brought him home because I had read that babies under 6 weeks can not comprehend a 24 hour period. For that reason, I decided to wait until he was 6 weeks to really start a routine, so we started a bedtime routine on Sunday night. We start off with a bath (which usually only lasts about 5 minutes because he's not a fan of the bath yet!) then we go back into his room and I put on his lavender lotion and put his pajamas on. I then rock him in the rocking chair while I feed him. When he is finished eating I read him a short little story out of a children's bible that a friend gave us and then I sing Jesus Loves Me (twice... why twice I don't know :) ). Then, since he still sleeps in our room, I put him in his cradle and turn on the sound machine to the heartbeat sound and give him his paci and his little bear blanket. We have been doing this for 3 nights and we only have to go back in the room a couple times to put his paci back in his mouth. Usually after the second or third time of putting his paci back in he falls to sleep. He seems to be really getting the hang of this routine thing and I am so happy!

I had noticed with my other experiences with children that those with a routine were much happier and were easier babies than those who do not have a routine so I wanted to try and make specific things geared toward night time, and just night time. That is why I have been so specific with the type of lotion we use at night time (we use the normal baby lotion in the morning and the lavender at night) and then I only sing Jesus Loves Me to him right now before he goes to sleep). I want him to really differentiate night and day so that he will realize that night time is when you sleep the longest.

Within the next couple weeks we are going to really start working on nap times. I want to start trying to have a pretty consistent nap time routine and start putting him in his crib to take naps. I don't want to have a strict schedule, but I just want to be consistent with him. In my education classes, consistency is always a big issue and we are taught how to keep our students on schedules and stay consistent with them. I know that if we have a consistent schedule for Kayden he will hopefully be a happy baby and will know what to expect. I know that the schedule will always be changing as he grows and develops so it will be a "flexible schedule".

Right now he seems to be on a 3.5-4.5 eating schedule at night and then during the day it's usually 2.5-3.5 hours. He usually stays awake for about 30-45 minutes after eating and then once he starts yawning or showing signs of being sleepy we put him in his swing or bouncy seat to take a nap.. which is usually around an hour to two hours. Right now we are having trouble with him being able to fall asleep on his own like he does at night. Usually during the day he fights going to sleep really bad and will scream for a while until he finally falls asleep. I am thinking that a lot of that might have to do with where he is sleeping and not really being on a consistent nap schedule so hopefully once we get our bedtime routine down really good we can start working on a nap time routine and he will not fight it as much.

During his wake time we try to do tummy time/ play mat time in the late morning and early evening. He does not like to be on his tummy very long at all so we try to do a lot of tummy time when he is laying on our chests too. He is really good at holding his head up so I'm not too concerned about him just doing it on the floor. He is much happier doing it on our chest so as long as we get a couple minutes of him doing it on the floor a day I'm happy. He is starting to really like his play mat though and will lay on his back and watch the toys. He swats at the toys also but I think a lot of that is just sporadic and not really him trying to actually grab at the toys.

So that's pretty much our day in a nut shell for right now :) He does seem to have a fussy time in the evenings but it doesn't last long. A lot of times I notice that he is fussy because I don't realize he is hungry since it will only be about an hour after he feeds but I eventually feed him and he eats his normal length of time so I guess his fussy time is really my fault... I just don't think that he would be hungry an hour after he had just eaten! But overall he is an easy baby and does like to sleep :) I know his nap times will become fewer and far between so I'm trying to enjoy his sleepiness for as long as it will last :) I just hope this means that he will be a good napper even as he gets older!