I am learning everyday with my young daughters how to a better parent, homemaker and person. I believe in respectful, gentle parenting, being good to the earth, good to yourself, others and family and instilling good values in my child.
Showing posts with label routines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label routines. Show all posts
Sunday, April 1, 2012
6 months is enough
My newborn is no longer a newborn anymore.
In way you look at it 6 months is way out of the newborn stage, yet in many ways I feel I have been slacking like I'm still dealing with a newborn.
I still take naps most days (with Ev) my excuse has been well she is not sleeping through the night.
I am often in sweats, partly because I still need to lose some weight so I have a limited amount of clothes.
Our routine is lacking, the tv is on more then I like, meals are done on the fly and I just feel like a general slacker.
I decided 6 months is enough. Today Eve is 7 months so for about 2 weeks I've changed things up and am slowly starting to get back into a routine.
I'm not jumping in head first, I'm slowing adding things back into our days and week to get us motivated, keep us happy and productive.
The first thing I have done is eliminated my morning tv time.
It just started the day off wrong. When Eve was waking several time I needed to sit and watch some morning news, that would role into some tv time for Liv then aroun 930 10 our day would start. We were still in our pjs and got nothing done. I've got Eve sleeping better and am trying to go to bed earlier so now its breakfast then right upstairs to get dressed. Some days I will let myself be in sweats, but I'm trying to limit that too. Its not possible 100% since I still don't fit in lots of my clothes, but I'm getting there. 10 more lbs and some toning and I will be at pre-baby weight.
That is another reason why I wanted to get back into a routine. To fit in exercise time. On nice mornings I get everyone dressed and we go out for a walk while Eve naps in the Ergo.
For our week we are now doing:
Monday-market, grocery shopping in the morning afternoon-free
Tuesday-storytime in the morning at a local library, then park afterwards if nice afternoons-free
Wednesday-laundry day, outdoors garden day
Thursday- cleaning day/errand day
Friday-playdate, park day
Sat-free
Sunday-church
I am trying to incorporate some more activities in our day so we don't depend on the tv anymore. I would love to get tv time back down to 1/2hour. Some days we are as high as 2 hours, most closer to 1.
Right now Liv is loving birds so its taking up lots of our time.
We bird watch, listen to bird calls in the car, identify birds from books, make sure there is food for them and try to listen to bird calls while outside.
I'm trying to get some of myself back. Dressing nice, doing my hair or make up daily, knitting or reading in the evenings, yoga and pilates some nights to help get back in shape.
I think 6 months is enough time and time to move on out of being all about the new baby. Spring is here so its the perfect time to refresh and get back to living life the way we enjoy.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Daily Rhythm
Ergo Baby Carrier Black with Camel Lining
Wake up-cuddle time. When Liv wakes up we nurse in bed and relax. I am not a morning person so this gives me some time to wake up and gives her some time too.
Breakfast-I need my morning green tea and morning news. This is the only time of the day I usually watch any tv. Liv plays for a little bit while I enjoy my tea. Then after my tea we both sit down to breakfast. This space between wake up is good since nursing first thing seems to fill her up for a bit.
Get dressed- this is not always get dressed for the day for me, but for Liv it is. I dress in sweats at this point most days.
Walk-on every day its not raining or freezing we go for a nice long walk or if I feel up to it a jog/walk. We walk to a farm take a break there and look at the cows.
Free play- After our walk Liv does some free play while I clean up the kitchen and get ready for lunch.
Lunch- we eat an early lunch since she has no morning snack and her nap is usually around noon
Nap- after lunch we go upstairs, get cleaned up and get ready for a nap. She may "read" books for a bit alone if she isn't ready yet while I do some cleaning up upstairs. Then we read some books together, sing a song and its her nap time.
My time- durning her nap is my time. I usually take a 10-20 min catnap then often take a shower and get really if I didn't squeeze that in earlier in the day. I usually try to do something for myself and 1/2 of chores that are hard to do when Liv is around.
Wake up- When Liv wakes up this is our playtime. We might sing songs, do some fingerplays, or just other playtime together.
Afternoon snack
Outside play-after the afternoon snack we try to do some outdoor play if possible. If not we might bake or clean or do other household chores.
Dinner prep-Usually my DH is home and he will play with Liv if not she plays in the kitchen while I get dinner ready.
Dinner- most nights we all eat together.
Bedtime- Right after dinner is bedtime. We go upstairs, some nights she will get a bath. We have a nice nighttime routine that lasts about 20 min of so. If she is not ready for bed right after dinner we still go upstairs and she will do some independent play in her room while I do more upstairs chores.
I try to give Liv a nice balance of free play and playing with me. She has more time set for playing with herself, which I think is very important for her. This is an ideal day, but more often it changes a little or a lot. Liv is a very attached baby (she is still not walking alone yet) so she often wants to be involved in what I am doing, which is very hard at this age. She is heavy so when she I am doing chores that involve going upstairs and down or in and out I put her in my Ergo on my back.
This routine or rhythm helps me get stuff done in my day and brings a sense of consistency for Liv.
Wake up-cuddle time. When Liv wakes up we nurse in bed and relax. I am not a morning person so this gives me some time to wake up and gives her some time too.
Breakfast-I need my morning green tea and morning news. This is the only time of the day I usually watch any tv. Liv plays for a little bit while I enjoy my tea. Then after my tea we both sit down to breakfast. This space between wake up is good since nursing first thing seems to fill her up for a bit.
Get dressed- this is not always get dressed for the day for me, but for Liv it is. I dress in sweats at this point most days.
Walk-on every day its not raining or freezing we go for a nice long walk or if I feel up to it a jog/walk. We walk to a farm take a break there and look at the cows.
Free play- After our walk Liv does some free play while I clean up the kitchen and get ready for lunch.
Lunch- we eat an early lunch since she has no morning snack and her nap is usually around noon
Nap- after lunch we go upstairs, get cleaned up and get ready for a nap. She may "read" books for a bit alone if she isn't ready yet while I do some cleaning up upstairs. Then we read some books together, sing a song and its her nap time.
My time- durning her nap is my time. I usually take a 10-20 min catnap then often take a shower and get really if I didn't squeeze that in earlier in the day. I usually try to do something for myself and 1/2 of chores that are hard to do when Liv is around.
Wake up- When Liv wakes up this is our playtime. We might sing songs, do some fingerplays, or just other playtime together.
Afternoon snack
Outside play-after the afternoon snack we try to do some outdoor play if possible. If not we might bake or clean or do other household chores.
Dinner prep-Usually my DH is home and he will play with Liv if not she plays in the kitchen while I get dinner ready.
Dinner- most nights we all eat together.
Bedtime- Right after dinner is bedtime. We go upstairs, some nights she will get a bath. We have a nice nighttime routine that lasts about 20 min of so. If she is not ready for bed right after dinner we still go upstairs and she will do some independent play in her room while I do more upstairs chores.
I try to give Liv a nice balance of free play and playing with me. She has more time set for playing with herself, which I think is very important for her. This is an ideal day, but more often it changes a little or a lot. Liv is a very attached baby (she is still not walking alone yet) so she often wants to be involved in what I am doing, which is very hard at this age. She is heavy so when she I am doing chores that involve going upstairs and down or in and out I put her in my Ergo on my back.
This routine or rhythm helps me get stuff done in my day and brings a sense of consistency for Liv.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Sleep essentials
I've posted before about the trials and tribulations of Liv and her bad sleep patterns. Now at almost a year she goes down very easy. She has been doing this for a while and on most nights only wakes once between 2-5.
Liv has a few sleep essentials that help her get to sleep.
Binkies-Liv needs a binkie, this option can be controversal, but she really seemed to need it as a baby, and does not seem to be ready to wean at all.
Snoedel doll-this organic cotton doll is Liv's lovey. This lovey was pushed upon her for a while. Since she was such a poor sleeper, waking often I used this to help. It took a bit for her to want this doll, but it works wonders now. I wore the doll under my shirt so it smells like me and for months this doll was only taken out at sleep time and in the crib. Now when she is tired she reaches for this doll and strokes it against her face.
Seahorse- This little glowworm like doll sits in the corner of her crib. I put her in the crib awake and push its belly. Its lights up and plays 5 min of music. This was key when I was trying to get her to sleep on her own and now its just a nice part to her routine.
I needed to this, this is essential for Liv and I forgot it in my original post. I noise machine. Liv sleeps to the sounds of the ocean. It is so relaxing. I love listening to the noise of it over the monitor all night long. I start the sound machine when we go in her room at the beginning of her routine and leave it on all night. It keeps out noises in the house, and is just another cue for her that its sleep time. The machine I bought Liv is the Homedics one, which is very inexpensive and can operate on batteries or with headphones. So its very portable and can be used in many situations, even when she is older if she still needs it.
We co-slept full-time till 4 months and part-time till a little after 6 months. The transtion was actually very easy and very natural. We still occasionally co-sleep on nights when she is having a rough time, like last week when she was sick. These tips might help you transition out of co-sleeping if you want to or if it wasnt working out for you, which was the case for us. I love love love co-sleeping, but my little Liv is a wild girl in her sleep and would wake DH and me up. And worse I think she gets that from both DH and I so we would wake her up often too. This is when I decided to transition her to her crib and started to use some of these things to make it easy on her.
These are essential to our sleep routine and can help get your LO to sleep in her crib, with out resorting to CIO methods.
Liv has a few sleep essentials that help her get to sleep.
Binkies-Liv needs a binkie, this option can be controversal, but she really seemed to need it as a baby, and does not seem to be ready to wean at all.
Snoedel doll-this organic cotton doll is Liv's lovey. This lovey was pushed upon her for a while. Since she was such a poor sleeper, waking often I used this to help. It took a bit for her to want this doll, but it works wonders now. I wore the doll under my shirt so it smells like me and for months this doll was only taken out at sleep time and in the crib. Now when she is tired she reaches for this doll and strokes it against her face.
Seahorse- This little glowworm like doll sits in the corner of her crib. I put her in the crib awake and push its belly. Its lights up and plays 5 min of music. This was key when I was trying to get her to sleep on her own and now its just a nice part to her routine.
I needed to this, this is essential for Liv and I forgot it in my original post. I noise machine. Liv sleeps to the sounds of the ocean. It is so relaxing. I love listening to the noise of it over the monitor all night long. I start the sound machine when we go in her room at the beginning of her routine and leave it on all night. It keeps out noises in the house, and is just another cue for her that its sleep time. The machine I bought Liv is the Homedics one, which is very inexpensive and can operate on batteries or with headphones. So its very portable and can be used in many situations, even when she is older if she still needs it.
We co-slept full-time till 4 months and part-time till a little after 6 months. The transtion was actually very easy and very natural. We still occasionally co-sleep on nights when she is having a rough time, like last week when she was sick. These tips might help you transition out of co-sleeping if you want to or if it wasnt working out for you, which was the case for us. I love love love co-sleeping, but my little Liv is a wild girl in her sleep and would wake DH and me up. And worse I think she gets that from both DH and I so we would wake her up often too. This is when I decided to transition her to her crib and started to use some of these things to make it easy on her.
These are essential to our sleep routine and can help get your LO to sleep in her crib, with out resorting to CIO methods.
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