I'm Going There Someday: Schedule

Grace has always thrived being on a set schedule. From the time she was a tiny baby she has had a predictable schedule, which has been so good for her.

I've been trying really hard to get Hunter on a schedule and for the most part I've been doing okay with it.

When babies are brand new all bets are off with schedules. They eat and sleep constantly and there isn't really a way to stop that. There's no such thing as morning and afternoon nap, pretty much just their entire life is a nap!

Now that Hunter is over 3 months, though, I figured he could get on a schedule.

He sleeps from 10:00 PM - 7:30 AM every night! Usually 9 1/2 hours!

A lot of nights he'll sleep straight through. Some nights he'll wake up and fuss a tiny bit so we'll rock him back to sleep. I know he's not hungry, because when he is hungry he let's us know it! He refuses a binky and screams when it's hunger and not tiredness.

Most of the time I don't think he even wakes up all the way, he just gets uncomfortable so he cries sporadically. It really is more for us so we can sleep than anything else.

As far as 2 naps a day.....I've been trying really hard with this! Hunter doesn't sleep on the go very much. He hates his carseat (he does okay with it not in a car now as long as someone is right by him.....Jeff says it's PTSD from the NICU, haha. But when you think about it, that's really sad!). So he really only sleeps good during the day if I'm holding him in a blanket, or he's wrapped up in his swaddle sleeper and is in his bed.

Yesterday for example, he had to be rocked 4 times for his morning nap. So pretty much naps are still a work in progress.

He eats 6 times a day and is very consistent with those times now. I figure he'll probably stay at 6 till he starts eating solids.
He still has to have 2 bottles of fortified formula a day. I mostly hate that right now, haha. I'd do much rather just feed him. He eats better breastfeeding, he never spits up after, he's always more full. With the bottle he for sure spits up at least a little bit (or a lot. Ask my brother in law and sister in law's couch....), he cries when he's done eating cause he's not as satisfied, and he just chugs the bottle weird a lot of the time. And another weird thing which is frustrating that he still acts hungry after bottles, is we're already giving him 6 ounces in his bottles. I remember not giving Grace 6 ounces till she was quite a bit older than 3 months? Who knows.

I dunno.

Pros and cons. It is nice to be able to give him a bottle really fast if we are somewhere in public or need to go somewhere. But when I'm just home with him, which I usually am, I'd rather just feed him.

I never understood why breastfeeding moms were so......what's the word......defensive? I feel like there is a better word for it?

Insistent?

About breastfeeding, but now I totally get it.

I guess I'm in that club now.

Having been an exclusive bottle feeder with my first and an ALMOST exclusive breastfeeder with my second I can see both sides of the mommy wars on feeding.

I totally get it from both angles.

Fed is best!

And for whatever reason my daughter needed bottles and my son is better at breastfeeding. Every baby is different!

So morale of the story.....I don't love doing the bottles and I'm planning on asking his doctor if I can stop doing them at his 4 month appointment in a couple weeks.

We are supposed to do them till he's 6 months old, but we'll see what happens.

Something fun that really started happening yesterday was Hunter started really playing with toys on purpose! It was really cute.

He's the sweetest boy. I can already see so much of his personality shining through and it's do different from Grace.

Grace has always been a diva, even at 3 months old. Hunter is just really peaceful and tender. He has the most precious smiles. I love it!

I think getting on a good schedule has been harder this time cause Grace has her own day going on.

That girl is silly!

She is what I would call potty trained at this point.

She has an accident maybe once a week, twice at the very most. I consider that really good for a 2 1/2 year old. Maybe having very occasional accidents is considered not fully potty trained? Who knows. She does really well though.

She has decided nap time is not for her.

We tried switching it up and started calling it "quiet time". This has included letting her get toys and books and putting them in her crib during her normal naptime.

This has worked fine for the past couple weeks. She'll usually play in the crib for a half hour and then fall asleep for 2 hours.

The last two days though.....

Ugh.

She'll start crying for me after 1 hour. And when I go in there after letting her call out for 5 minutes, she'll say "all done, I wake up. No quiet time. All done!" Hahahahaha.

Sigh.

I feel like naptime might be over for her soon.

I'm going to keep trying though. She is tired enough for a nap, I know that. She'll rub her eyes and is definitely more grumpy without a nap.

We shall see.

I love being home with my kids. I love being able to see them grow and do new things.

Jeff sacrifices so much for me to be able to stay home. He works so hard for us. He's so selfless and thinks of our happiness way more than his. I'll be grateful forever that he has done that for me, given me he gift of being home with my babies.

I know it's not for everyone, but I love it....

Figuring and reconfiguring out routines and all!