Happy Late Valentines Day/Abigail's Schedule

Of course, this was Abigail's first Valentine's Day and her Sunday School teacher sent her a Valentine's Day card and she was able to hold it (it is the little things that mean so much). The people serving at First Baptist are wonderful.

So, I was looking back at my blog when Jackson was Abigail's age and this is what schedule we are moving to. In a perfect world, this would be her schedule till she turns 5 or 6 months old but of course since she has an older sibling her schedule has to be more flexible than Jackson's was at this age. It is good to have goals so here it is:

11 weeks

8-8:30 am Wake Up, Diaper Change and Eat 6 ozs
8:30-10am Wake Time (in her chair and on her matt)
10-11:30 Nap Time (wrapping Abigail very tight in a swaddle---learned it from the dvd Happiest Baby)
11:30 am Diaper Change, Eat 6 ozs
11:30-1 pm Wake Time
1pm-3pm Nap Time
3 pm Diaper Change, Eat 6 ozs
3-4:30 Wake Time
4:30-6:30 Nap Time
6:30 Diaper Change, Eat 6 ozs Wake Time
6:30 on no more naps unless she is fussy
Bath time 7:30pm
9:00 Diaper Change, Eat 6 ozs
10:15 Bed Time

We would love her to eat at 8 am, 11:30am, 3:00pm, 6:30pm, 9pm roughly. If she cries before her feeding I try others things like giving her passy, but if that does not work I feed her as long as it has been 2 1/2 hours from the start of his last feeding. Also, we try our best to keep her awake for an hour and half from the beginning of her feeding. This is getting easier and easier.

Basically we try to let her have 3 big naps at 1 hour and 30 min minimum. If your baby does not sleep for at least 1 hour and 30 min times he will be fussy (swaddling her tight is crucial...we use the swaddleme kidd. swaddle) She can get 32 ozs of milk a day but usually only takes 27 ozs during the day. The doctor said for the first year they need 24 ozs of formula minimum and no more than 32 ozs in one day. Since Abigail is now probably 12 pounds he can take half of his body weight each feeding (6 ozs). Also, during the day I do not let her go more than 4 hours without eating so she does not get her days and nights mixed up.

According to Baby Wise, we are on Phase Two: Extended Night and will try to do this schedule until she is 5 or 6 months old.

However, the earliest we have gotten her to go down is 10:45 pm and then she actually slept till 7:30 or 8 am in the next morning. Sometimes she eats at 8:30 pm and then has to have more ozs at 10:30 pm to get enough ozs in for the day. Therefore some nights it is 11:45 or 12 pm before she gets to sleep which is crazy. However she sleeps a good bit in the morning (especially in her swing) which I do not mind because we have therapy Tuesday and Thursday morning with Jackson. I would just rather her go to bed latter and get all her formula in for the day then wake up at 4 am. Also, we have started to put her in the bumbo seat for short periods of time because it instantly makes her burp. She is already watching Dora with Jackson....poor baby.

It is always good to have goals for your children even as young as Abigail is. Babies thrive on schedule and routine. Do you try to put your baby on a schedule? Does it work?

With Jackson, Tuesday morning and Thursday morning he has therapy. I have started to try to have "circle time" with him before we do any activities. We pray and read a quick story (most of the time from our Puggles hand out or our hand out from Sunday School.) I actually have ordered him a new toddler bible and the One Year Children's Bible we are going to try to read out of everyday. Tuesday night, Friday morning, and Saturday morning we try to go to the gym, just us, while Charlie is at home with Abigail. I try to cook Monday night, Thursday night, and Saturday night, Wednesday night and Sunday night are church so we are staying busy. This upcoming weekend Charlie has something every night for 4 nights straight so it will be a little crazy around here and I need to plan stuff so Jackson does not get so bored that he starts climbing on everything. Lastly, I am trying to play with Jackson everyday. Monday we play with blocks and cars, Tuesdays-bubbles, Wednesday-puzzles, Thursdays-animals, Friday- coloring. I will post more about Jackson's schedule and an update on him soon.

This schedule works best for our family since three nights out of the week we are out late with church activities and we do not have to get up at 5:30 or 6 am for school yet.

Added later: This was her schedule and I am so crazy I got her on this schedule in the hospital. This was her schedule till about 8 or 9 weeks old and now some days she does eat again at 10:30 am which I am fine with.

7 am morning feeding time (diaper change before each feeding...she smiles during diaper changes because she knows bottle is coming up next) usually she will drink 4 ozs each feeding

10 am mid-morning feeding (try to have wake time from 10am-11:30ish and then nap time in the swing in the morning)
1 pm lunch time feeding (wake time, nap time)
4 pm another feeding (same)
7 pm dinner (same)
10 pm last feeding

*Note at first babies sleep like 20 hours a day so I did not worry about "wake time" and the first 3 or 4 weeks she would wake up at 3 or 4 am to eat. Because our babies are small the first 2 weeks we would wake her up to eat at 3 or 4 am and she usually would go right back to sleep.