alright moms,
i'm asking for your advice. what is your nighttime schedule for your wee one(s)?
i worry i'm feeding liam too much at one time before bedtime.
he has a bottle around 5:00 when we get home and we play and hangout until usually 7:15-7:30. we do a container of baby food, sometimes half of another one if he is still going strong after the first. so like 5 oz of baby food mixed with rice cereal. then we give liam a bath for maybe 5-10 minutes. we get him out and dress him and either play a game or read a few books then give him a 4 oz bottle usually by 7:45-8:00. then he's out.
sometimes he'll sleep until 5:00 in the morning, sometimes he'll sleep until 2 and will go back to sleep after we turn his turtle light back on, turn his sleep sheep back on and i put his pacifier back in, sometimes he wont and i'll hold him until he's back to sleep and sometimes he'll only go back to sleep with a bottle.
i'm not concerned with him not sleeping through the night consistently yet. but i want to know what you do for bedtime. do you feed baby food earlier in the evenings and then give a full bottle (he usually has 6-8 oz during the day) before laying them down? it just makes sense to bath him right after he eats cause he can make a mess. and his bath time makes him calm so it makes sense to put him down right after that.
what's your schedule? what works for your babies?
and while you think about it, enjoy some more pictures of sleeping liam.
sometimes when i look in on him while he's sleeping, i just want to pick him up and hold him. and when i say sometimes, i mean every night this happens.
14 comments:
When our kids were young like that we used to give them dinner at around 6pm which usually was two containers of baby food without the cereal and then bathtime between 7-7:30 and then around 8pm we would read and rock and give bottles. I cannot remember how old you said Liam is now but we would give our kids a full bottle at night. Now, we got lucky with both of our babies. They have been sleeping through the night since about 1 month old. You can always check with your ped to see what they suggest on feeding habits. You don't want to over feed.
Oh my.... does he love that taggie blanket? I see it in a lot of your pictures, I am so honored haha.
Honestly, you have pretty much the same schedule as us minus the baby food:)
He wakes up from naptime around 4ish, plays a little bit, has a 6 oz bottle
Between 630-730 is dinner (It's tax season so it varies when danny gets home)and he gets his fair share, when it was baby food he would have 2 jars at Liam's age... hungry boys gotta eat
Then bath for both Ava and Cole
Then he gets a full 8 ounces bottle, it used to be 4 then 6 and now it's 8.
Then I wrap him up, and he puts himself to sleep now.
Our pediatrician was fine with that schedule. Is Liam satisfied? Does he seem likes he's drunk from food or is he content? If he's content, good for him and you :)
I can't remember exact amounts but James always ate at least 2 jars at every meal and nursed on demand. He didn't sleep through the night until he was 9 months old-aye! With Savannah she did table food starting at 7 months and so we would just offer her food at dinner (normally around 6:30) and then she would get a bottle before bed (about 6-8 oz). She normally slept through till 5/6 but sometimes she'd wake up in the middle of the night. The schedule you have seems fine to me but I agree to just mention to your ped and see what they say. Kids appetites change, somedays James eats a ton and then other days he just picks. I've come to learn that they know when they are hungry. As long as he isn't turning away from the bottle (and you force him to finish it) he is prolly just a hungry boy!
let's see I usually feed Chris around 6:30-7:00p.m. and no bath time because he would just fall asleep in the tub which means I have to sit and watch him the whole time. so after dinner we'll just watch some t.v. and i'll let him play candy crush on facebook for awhile. I usually fall asleep before him though... which means he actually puts me to bed. Hope this helps! ;)
I obviously know nothing about feeding kids.
But oh my goodness he's so dang cute, I need to get over there and see him!
We had a very flexible bedtime routine(and still do) with Raelee. Our weeks are so crazy with my random work schedule, and our sports that there is absolutely no way we could have a set bedtime. So we focused more on the routine before bed, then the actual time itself. Dinner, bath, then a book, song,and prayers. As long as we do the checklist in order, Raelee goes right to bed, pretty much regardless of if it's 7:30 or 11pm. Hopefully our next little one will be as easy going as Rae has been:)
Enjoy this random tangent of sleep training thoughts. I take sleep very seriously!
Ellie nurses for the last time before bed around 6pm. and now that we're doing rice cereal, we do that before/after bath just depending on the day. I've read a bit about sleep schedules and helping babies sleep through the night. A few things that have really helped me/us. No glow toys. Apparently, when babies are about 4.5-5 months, something changes in their eyes and the light can keep them up and distracted. Since I read that, we have taken our glow worm out of the crib, and I really think that helps Ellie fall back asleep much quicker in the middle of the night. I've also read that bedtime schedules should be between 20-45 minutes. Shorter than 20 minutes, babies feel rushed. longer than 45 minutes, they get too tired. So with that in mind.
Ellie is usually in bed and asleep around 8, (bath, book, bed) she wakes up around 10-11 to nurse, and then usually sleeps until 4-5 to nurse again, and then wakes up completely for the day around 8am. It sounds like Liam is an easy going baby like Ellie, so doing any crying it out or major sleep training doesn't seem like an issue. Ellie just likes consistency. I remember Brinley's pediatrician when she was 6 months old told us she is old enough to go the night without nursing, so we kind of just plugged our ears for a few nights and let her work it out. After that week, she barely woke up and slept 12-14 hours straight. She has always been a good sleeper, and I hope Ellie follows suit. Okay, one more thing, I've read (I read a lot...lol), that babies should get 4-6 hours of sleep during the day. Ellie is right around 5-6 and seems to be transitioning to 2 naps a day.
I've learned, that as long as Ellie is rested, she is happy. So many parents forget that babies are born knowing how to sleep. They need to be taught. Ellie naps everyday 10-12, 2-4, and then usually a little cat nap before dinnertime. She knows when its nap time and bedtime. I appreciate that. I might be too strict with our routine, but dang, the days when we are off our routine shows and we are all crazy town over here with lots of tears. My girls thrive on a good routine, and I've found that if they are well rested, they are happy.
Okay. Done. :-)
So many parents forget that babies are *NOT born knowing how to sleep.
We start Nathaniel's routine about 8-8:30. We give him his oatmeal. After the first serving he screams, so I usually give him some more, but after that I feel like I would be overfeeding him, so we quickly get him in the tub to calm him down. Then we get him all ready in his jammies and sometimes read a book. If he's cooperative. Otherwise I just start nursing him and he usually starts to fall asleep, so that's when I put him in the Woombie and put him into his crib. He's gotten so much better lately, and even if he's wide awake when I put him down, he doesn't fuss for very long before falling asleep. He's been sleeping from 10-3 and sometimes 10-6, so I think the routine is helping.
Also, I looove the way Liam sleeps. Especially that last picture with his hands behind his head. Hilarious!
Ah man, I'm at work and I just laughed so loud at Kendall's comment.
-Lance
does anyone look back for comments to their own comments...?
anyways,
i love our ped. she's been my family doctor for as long as i can remember. but i dont agree with her when it comes to feeding liam. she has mentioned restricting how much he eats. sure he's big and 100% for height and weight but he's porportional which tells me that he's just a big guy. and big guys needs to eat. so she's not the first places i'd go for advice.
joanna- he loves tag blankets and that's the perfect size to keep in his crib so i dont freak out that he'll suffacate himself. but yes, he loves it!
kendal-you are hilarious! great laugh!!
shelley and meagan- the routine is def a good thing for liam to have. i'm glad we started it when he was real young. and i'll keep in mind not to make it too long.
I check back to see what others have said....haha!
Kendal, hilarious!
Kristen- that stinks that you can't go to your ped about eating. As long as Liam is in the high percentile for height as well I wouldn't worry. Also, you should talk to Lori-Elliott was a big baby/toddler so she may be able to offer some advice.
Okay I LOVE this post in entirely! He's SO stinkin' cute sleeping! And I love his foofy hair! So our schedule since 6 months has been:
Dinner at 6 (this was baby food and when he was nursing I'd nurse him before this because he normally would fall asleep nursing so I didn't want to do that right at bedtime.) So he'd eat maybe 2 jars after nursing
Bathtime was around 6:45 to 7:00
Jammies and then I'd read 2-3 books to him. I would then turn of the light and sing to him. When he was little like Liam he would usually get really drowzy at this point or fall asleep and in his bed he'd go. Now...We did the "cry it out" which was SO hard for me but it helped Robby learn to soothe himself and it only took 1 night for him to learn it'd be ok. If you're interested in what we did exactly you can message me.
After books and singing he was usually in bed by 7:30. I hope you find something that works or helps things run more smoothly.
I have to say I'm glad I'm past this but interesting to read everyone's comment. Kendal your comment cracked me up! Just wanted to say how happy I am my children have such awesome friends!
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