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 | Breastfeed |
| 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 | Breastfeed |
| 11.30ish | Lunch – mashed veggies, stews, soups etc |
| 12ish | Sleep |
| 2ish | Breastfeed. 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 | Breastfeed. 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?
