Colton's 9 month routine

I clicked on a link this morning that took me to a website that gave examples of daily schedules for 9 month olds and not one of the examples they gave resembled Colton’s schedule at all. So for the sake of my remembering what his little life is like at 9 months old, I wrote down the {very flexible and not very consistent} routines that he sometimes follows.

 

For the record, Colton is on the “low-average” side of things when it comes to total ounces per day and total sleep per day, I’m aware, I’m VERY aware. But that’s just who he is and so I wanted to write this down because MAYBE, just maybe, there are other working moms and babies who don’t fit into the perfect normal 9 month schedule!

 

6:45AM – Wake Colton up; normally drinks 3 oz formula

*Since we have to wake Colton up at 6:45am to get ready for work/school throughout the week, we try to keep the same schedule on Sat/Sun, which is KILLER to set your alarm and wake up a sleeping baby when you don’t have to go anywhere. We have to have a bottle ready because he is mad and hungry the minute that you wake him up, but as soon as we swallows a few ounces, he’s as happy as can be.

 

8:15AM – Down for first nap (hopefully 1-2 hour nap)

*Luckily this first nap is the most consistent as to when we falls asleep, but it’s pretty up in the air on how long he actually sleeps. The BEST CASE SCENARIO is a 2 hour nap. Worst case scenario 30 minutes, which throws off the rest of the day’s naps.

 

10:30AM – 4-6 oz formula

11:30AM – baby food

*He’s taking formula about every 4 hours right now and he can usually last that long as long as he got some baby food in between formula feedings. We give him formula first and then wait about an hour or so to offer him baby food, he’s just not ready for it when his tummy is still full right after drinking formula. The only down side is it seems like you’re feeding him a lot of times throughout the day.

 

12:30PM – Down for second nap (20-45 min nap)

*After his longer morning nap, the rest of his naps are all catnaps, most 20-30 minutes, some 45 minutes.

 

2:30PM – 4-6oz formula

3:30PM – baby food

*Repeat of formula/baby food routine, as mentioned above.

 

4:30PM – Down for third nap, (20-45 min nap)

*Our goal is that this third nap happens somewhere between 4-5pm before we pick him up from school. If we have to get him to fall asleep for his third nap after the excitement of us all getting home at like 5:30pm, the whole night is gonna be thrown off. If it’s the weekend and we’re at home, we wake him up if he’s still asleep at 5:30pm or he’ll never go to bed.

 

6:30PM – 4-6oz formula

7:30PM – baby food

*Repeat of formula/baby food routine, as mentioned above.

 

9:30PM – 2-3oz formula

10:15PM – Down for the night (maybe, hopefully!)

*Any formula he takes right before bed is just to cap off his tummy and soothe him before trying to fall asleep. There were several nights that he didn’t fall asleep until 11pm. Then last night he fell asleep at 9:30pm and it was too early, since he woke up after 30 mins and was awake until past midnight. We rock him and snuggle and bounce, but then put him down awake in his crib. Most nights there’s still at least 30 minutes of rolling around and whining and crying, with us going in to soothe him occasionally, before he finally falls asleep… most of the time face down, with his booty in the air. Once he falls asleep, he’s normally down for the night and is rarely waking up in the middle of the night (thank goodness!).