This week was our first "normal" week--no days off, no holidays, and no holiday preparations.
James was at work and I was at home, trying to pick up after Christmas and get Little James and myself into a routine.
I recorded what James was doing so that I could pick up any patterns. I already knew:
-That James usually naturally fell asleep "for the night" between 11 and 1 (usually closer to 11 or 12), and that he would sleep usually for 5-7 hours after that.
-Then he would wake up between 7 and 9, eat, get changed, we'd both "get dressed", come downstairs, settle in (have tea, start fire, do a couple chores)
-Then he would want to be changed again, eat again, and go down for his first nap about two hours after he woke up. I put him in his cradle swing downstairs for his naps.
-He will sleep for 1-2 hours, then wake up and want to eat and be changed again.
After that I wasn't quite sure what happened. The evenings are a little unpredictable--he sometimes will eat for a long time and then just sleep for a few mins and then be up again . . .
But during this week I recorded what he was doing, and basically the rest of the day follows a similar pattern:
--Sleep for 1-2 hours
--awake for 1-2 hours: eat, change, "play", change, eat
--back to sleep for 1-2 hours.
So normally if he gets up at 8, he'll take his first nap at 10, his second nap around 1:30, and his third nap between 3-4. He'll sleep each time for at least 45 mins, usually an hour, sometimes longer.
The evening is still really unpredictable, but I'm glad that the whole morning and afternoon are becoming a little more predictable.
The only problem I'm having now is trying to establish an earlier bedtime. The times I have gotten him to fall asleep around 7-8, he'll wake up many times throughout the night, or else wake up again and not go back to sleep until 11/12 anyway . . . I have some ideas for improving that, though.
My goal is to have a pretty good schedule by 12 weeks. So, 5 weeks to go!
Anyway, it was really nice just being home with him and doing chores and starting to establish what our normal life will be now together!
2 comments:
His bedtime will evolve naturally (with *some* guidance) as he gets older. Baby would not go to bed any earlier than 9pm until he was about 4 months old...and then gradually he started going to bed earlier and earlier. Now he's in bed by 8pm at the very latest and usually in between 7 and 7:30 and sleeps thru (with one quick feed at 4am) until 7:30-8am. Good luck getting to an earlier bedtime, its soooo nice to have evenings back to yourself :)
we had the same thing with Eirik at first... bedtime started really late, 11, and then slowly we moved it up and now he goes to bed between 630 and 7! It took a lot of tweaking and figuring out what worked well. Good luck!
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