Many baby books will have suggested routines for what a baby aged 6 – 9 months of age should be doing. They tend to have the routine look a little something like this:
| Time | Activity |
| 6.30ish | Breast or bottle feed |
| 8am | Breakfast – Cereal or fruit and yoghurt etc |
| 9ish | Sleep |
| 11.00ish | Breast or bottle feed |
| 12ish | Lunch – mashed veggies, stews, soups etc |
| 2ish | Sleep |
| 4ish | Breast or bottle feed |
| 5.30ish | Dinner – mashed veggies, stews, soups etc |
| 7ish | Breast or bottle feed |
With the exception of aiming to have the baby’s bath and last feed of the day at the same time, I have never tried to force a routine onto my babies. Baby number 1 fell into a beautiful routine of his own from 3 months and did follow the text book routines for his age. And as he was the only baby, I could easily work around his sleep and feed times to do all the I needed to.
Baby number 2 took a little longer to have a regular pattern through out his day, but by six months of his own accord, he was following something pretty close to the above. He did however have a few regular interruptions caused by playgroups, kindy gym etc.
By the time baby number 3 was 3 months old, our first child was in prep at school and she learnt to sleep when she could grab it. It was closer to 9 months before she had any regular schedule for her sleeping. The situation for baby number 4 was similar, with school and kinder drop offs required. He too didn’t fall into any routine of his own until about 9 months.
Now our divine little baby number 5, has to be taken around to the activities of his 4 siblings. He has no routine, except for the end of the day bath and feed time at the moment. On a day when we only have the school runs to do his day looks a little something like this:
| Time | Activity |
| 5ish | Breast or bottle feed |
| 7am | Breakfast – Cereal |
| 9ish | Starts showing signs of needed to sleep at about 8am when we are about to leave for school. Falls asleep on the way home from school for about 45 – 60 mins. |
| 10.00ish | Breast or bottle feed |
| 11.30ish | Lunch – mashed veggies, stews, soups etc |
| 12ish | Sleep |
| 2ish | Breast or bottle feed. Will be awake for way too long now for a baby his age. But with school pickups and after school activities there is no chance for him to sleep again in his cot. |
| 5ish | Dinner – mashed veggies, stews, soups etc |
| 6.30ish | Breast or bottle feed. If I am organised and can feed him earlier I will as he is really over tired by this stage. |
Three week days we go out in the morning and he will catch what sleep he can on the run. On the weekend when we don’t have any commitments, I can follow his lead and he manages much more sleep. So what his “routine” is, really depends on what day of the week it is!
As he gets older, the natural pattern of his day, will fit more easily into the activities that we do. But our beautiful baby number 5 is very happy and he rarely complains. He adores being around his siblings and even though a little tired, he seems to love the life he has – routine or not. 
What is your little one up to? Does he/she have a routine?
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{ 4 comments }
Oh goodness, I could have written this post (almost!)
My Honeybee, at 7 months, has managed some aspects of routine. For instance, she goes in for her morning nap as soon as we get home from school drop-off, around 9:05am, and always sleeps until between 10:30 and 11:15 (typically 11am). In the ideal world she’d like to start this nap at 8:30, but I can string her out until 9:05 without any dramas. This is possible because we don’t have any committments that mean we have to be out in this timezone, and I steadfastly guard this time for her nap, not scheduling appointments, shopping or playdates (unless they are at our house). On Tuesdays my 4-y-o has ballet but we don’t need to leave until 11am for that, and the morning she has kinder, drop-off is actually just before school and pick-up is 11:15.
Afternoons, however, are a whole other kettle of fish. Honeybee eats solids at 11:30 and breastfeeds at 12:30, but what happens with afternoon sleep is just anyone’s guess and is thrown for a loop by two afternoons of kinder, school pick-ups, after-school sports and after-school dancing, playdates for the older kids, the need to fit in appointments, shopping and errands, etc. Sometimes I’m fortunate enough to be able to arrange lifts to or from kinder or home from school, and Honeybee can sleep in bed from 1pm until 3pm (which she will actually sometimes do, if given the chance). Usually, though, her sleep is topsy turvy and frankly inadequate. She usually squeezes in a brief third nap around 4:30-5:00 for half an hour, but that one never happens in bed – in arms, in the car, in the pram, but not in bed!
She goes down for the night around 8pm (give or take 15 mins) and then will night-wake anywhere from once to four times (most typical these days is twice, as last night when she woke at 10pm and 12:30, then up for the day & feeding at 5:45). If she wakes less than 4 hours after bedtime,I or my husband resettle her with pats and cuddles; if it’s more than 4 hours, I feed her. (She had a breastfeed at 12:30 last night, for instance). I feel that as she’s still not a great solids eater in terms of quantity, and is still so little, I am quite happy to feed her once overnight. With all three of mine, I felt that in the first year, one night feed was fair cop and I didn’t mind doing it. (I don’t like the 4-feed nights much though!!)
Apart from the fact that #3 is 5 months, and so still exclusively breastfeeding, he’s the same – fitting sleep around school drop offs and pick ups (he slept *before* drop off this morning, since he was up at an ungodly hour which I do NOT call morning) and the 3yo’s various activities (library/playgroup/creche), and catching up on weekends. I’m not looking forward to when we start solids, it’s going to add to the general chaos around here.
Kathy – I had written this post and then I read your post where you noted about how things would have been different if you had chosen homeschooling. I could totally relate to that!
Melanie – I have to keep reminding myself that the baby needs solids, it is so easy to forget it in the hustle and bustle.
Funnily enough my first baby who I tried SO hard to get into a routine stubbornly refused to, and my second baby has just fallen into the textbook routine with no effort from me whatsover. You can plan a lot around kids, but you can’t actually plan ‘them’ IYKWIM!!!!
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