Little Bug is FINALLY on a set eat/wake/sleep routine and it. is. so. nice.
I’m the type of person that likes to know what is coming. I like order and consistency and fortunately babies thrive on that as well.
Which is why from Day One I have set out to get Little Bug on a consistent routine.
During the month of November, when Little Bug was 5 months old, we FINALLY established a pretty consistent daily routine.
7:30am wake up
9:30am nap
11am eat (bottle + sweet potatoes)
1:30pm nap
3pm eat
5:30pm nap (short nap – only 30-60 mins.)
6:15pm eat
7:45pm bath
8:15pm (tank up bottle before bed…usually only 2 oz.)
8:30pm bedtime
11:30pm eat
4-6am (sometimes Little Bug wakes at this hour – if she does I feed her 1-2oz. and then she goes back to bed until 7:30am)
These times are flexible within 30 minutes. For example, at Little Bug’s 11am feeding she eats anywhere from 10:45am to 11:15am. Little Bug lays down for her 9:30am morning nap between 9:15am and 9:45am. It is usually closer to 9:15am.
I could have gotten Little Bug on this set routine sooner. I had not set a consistent wake time for the morning. I was letting Little Bug sleep till whenever in the morning. She was waking anywhere from 7:30 to 8:30am. I was desiring to have a set eat/wake/sleep routine with her so our days could be more predictable. It wasn’t until I set her morning wake time to 7:30am that we FINALLY established this routine!
At first, I would have to wake Little Bug at 7:30am each morning. But after a few days, she would wake at 7:30am on her own! And now she naps and eats at the same time each day, within 30 minutes.
It is awesome because now I can better plan our days around her eating and sleeping so that she still gets her rest and we are able to go spend time with a friend or run an errand between naps.
From here, it will be very easy to tweak things in her routine as her eating/sleeping needs change over time. Eventually, once Little Bug is eating 3 meals a day (bottle + solids 3 times a day) and is on a 4 hour eat/wake/sleep routine, I hope her morning wake time becomes closer to 8:30am and her morning nap is closer to 10:30am with an afternoon naptime at 2:30pm. By that time, she will have dropped the 3rd evening nap. I will know that Little Bug is ready/capable of sleeping until 8:30am when I have to go back to waking her at 7:30am to start the day. (I sure hope that wake time of 8:30am is in the future for us!!)
For now, this is our day … and I LOVE IT!!
Not only because Little Bug is finally on a set routine but because I LOVE SPENDING EVERY SINGLE DAY WITH HER!!
