Routines?

[naxi_d]

Can anyone offer me some advice on finding a routine for my kids (2 1/2 and 3 months)?

All the stuff that I have read is either way too militant to work for me, or focussed on sleeping through the night. Night wakings aren't our biggest issue - I just want to survive the day times! They really need to be more predictable. (That's why I posted it here and not in sleeping...)

I have been recommended "The No-Cry Sleep Solution", but when I checked it out in the bookshop it looked like it was night focussed, too. Maybe I am wrong about that.

Thanks!

[Marguerite]

Hi there.

Having a predictable rhythm to their day is really important to my daughters. They have a similar gap in age to your children.

At those ages we had a regular daily as well as weekly rhythm focused not so much on the clock, but doing things in the same order each time. Even now at almost 5, DD1 could not fathom having her evening bath BEFORE dinner. We do it occasionally and I need to give her plenty of warning that we will be doing it differently and remind her a few times over the course of the day.

When they were 2 and <1 each day we would wake, have breaky / breastfeeds. I would do a little house clean then hang out the washing while DD2 was in the sling or bouncer nearby and DD1 would peg some things on a clothes horse. From there we would get dressed and most days head out. We would do things like grocery shopping, playgroup, friends house, library or ABA meetings. Only one thing per day. For example going shopping and then to a friends house would have been too overwhelming for them.

Usually home for lunch then we would spend the afternoons either playing at home or walking to the park followed by an early dinner, bath and bed. The exception was our Steiner playgroup which ran in the early afternoon, but again that was predictable in that it happened each week during the school term.

[Jamie]

We have a great night routine (not that it helps us get more sleep!) but could really do with a better day routine.
I will tell you about our evening routine, incase it helps you.
Our kids are used to dinner, bath, teeth, dressed, books, snuggles until they go to sleep. Then it's musical beds for the whole night (all three of ours still wake at night, our 1yo wakes about 6 times a night, the others less).
We don't have a set bed time, or a set dinner time, just whenever it happens, but they love knowing the order that things are going to happen in. It helps even more because by this time of night they are tired and difficult, but they know what to expect and just go through the motions.
HTH

[lcorteen]

Hi

Yes, what Lisa & Jamie said

I found when DD2 was 3 months it was still hard to 'get it together' every day, but we had a similar pattern to life as Lisa's described. I was normally pretty proud just to get us all dressed, bags packed and out the door!

I think DD2 would normally have a little sleep after breakfast (say at about 9-9.30am) then we'd go out when she woke up. I used that sleep time to do chores or spend time with DD1. Then we'd come home, have lunch, read a story and they'd have a sleep at the same time. I can't remember exactly what age I managed to coordinate this, but it was around 4-5 months from memory. And it gave me a great respite in the day to recharge. DD2 wouldn't really sleep in the sling, so we were quite reliant on bed and home for sleeping.

I also found that ensuring both got a good night's sleep made the days much easier as they were more relaxed (in fact I still find that!). For us, this meant making sure they went to bed early (DD1 would wake at about 5am when DD2 was a tiny bub), so she used to go to bed at about 6.30pm - we actually found earlier to bed = later to rise.

Anyway... it'll get easier...
xx