Wow we have made it to four months! When I think about the first year timeline, I had been tuning out anything beyond three months, because that was the stage we were in, and things are pretty similar up to three months. But at four months, we are out of our newborn phase and a real baby.
Like a walking, talking baby. Well close.
I did a similar post at 6 weeks. Neat to see how things change.
In some ways, our daily schedule is very similar, but other things have changed. His feedings are surprisingly at the same time now as they were when he was three weeks old. Three cheers for Babywise! The eat-wake-sleep pattern really does work for us. He eats within about 30 minutes of each feeding every day.
His naps are a big change. Right at three months, we tried really hard to get him to nap for a long stretch in the morning and afternoon. We did the whole sleep routine–swaddle, shhh, paci, rock, etc. It sometimes takes longer to get him to sleep than the actual nap, but we are getting better. We also moved all naps to the crib around the same time.
Here is what our day looks like:
6-7 a.m.: wake up, talk in crib, finally cry for some food. We try to make it closer to 7.
7-730: Feedings are much shorter with a bottle. More time for activities!
730-8: Logan plays on the floor, he rolls over now and enjoys doing that with a toy in his hand.
8-9 am: This is a big change from before. Logan gets cranky much sooner and I go put him down for a nap before he gets cranky. For some reason, this nap used to be 9-11 a.m. and is now 8-9/930 a.m. Luckily, he wakes up happy and not hungry yet, so we play some more, walk Lily, get dressed, then eat.
10 a.m.: Bottle time.
10:30-1 p.m.: Sometimes we run errands, we play more, etc. He used to take a short cat nap in his car seat or stroller, but we are trying to do a real nap in the crib in this window. I probably should have been doing this nap all along. This nap is around 11/11:30 a.m. for about 30 minutes.
1 p.m. Bottle.
1:30 p.m.-2 p.m.: Similar to mornings, we play, walk Lily, talk.
2 p.m.-4 p.m.: This is also a change from before. It used to be I would get a great morning nap and nothing great in the afternoon. He gets cranky around 2 and I go put him down for a nap. Sometimes it’s not long enough (or absent), but 90 minutes to 2 hours is ideal. He is still swaddled for this nap too.
4 p.m.: Bottle.
4:30-7 p.m.: Also known as “what else can we play with to waste time til bed?” We sometimes have a playdate around now, play on the floor with toys, etc. Playdates make the time pass nicely! Sometimes we get an extra nap here too.
6:45ish: If I can make it until 6:45, we do a bath.
7 p.m.: Bedtime routine is still the same. We do bath, quiet lullabye music, bottle, swaddle, rock, down for bed by 7:30. Difference from before is this is earlier because bottles are quicker for us.
Sometime between 2-5 a.m.: He wakes for a bottle. We are cutting the ounces in this feeding because it’s more out of habit than hunger. Then sleeps until 6-7 a.m. and it starts over!
We have plenty of days where this is not the norm, but on average, our days look like this. For a predictable person like me, it works well!
A few things we are working on are getting better daytime naps, putting him down awake (not working well), working toward breaking the swaddle, and eliminating the middle of the night feeding. No big deal, right?
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