Before I had Mole…

The word routine had a very different meaning to me.

I would wake up for work, eat, head to the gym and sleep. Anything else added into my day would be another self orientated activity like nails or my tan.

And then I had Mole.

it was impossible to get her into a routine

As Mole was a reflux baby, it was impossible to get her into a routine the first few months of her life as she was constantly being sick and having to be bathed 10 times a day. She couldn’t lie flat on her back without screaming in pain, so at night we rarely got any sleep. Thats no exaggeration. I would see every hour of the clock go by whilst comforting her. If you would like more advice on how we got through her reflux read this blog post here.

baby fashion

Introducing a routine

I’d say I started to introduce a strict routine when Mole was around 4 months old, when her reflux stopped.

We stayed in for a few weeks to really nail everything in the head and make sure we were following a consistent pattern. Not only for her, but myself too. As I wasn’t use to living by a strict time frame, I would slack with the routine and wonder why it wouldn’t work. So yes, staying in for a few weeks till everything became set in stone in both our little brains did wonders.

Our Routine

7:30am Wake up

Mole wakes me up with her chirping and sound practicing. I always enter her room shouting “Good Morning!” and she gets the biggest smile on her face. We have cuddles and move on to getting ready.

I always enter her room shouting “Good Morning!”

7:47am Getting dressed

I change Moles nappy straight away as its always stinky first thing in the morning. Most of the time I will get her changed into her outfit for the day now. But, if we are going somewhere really nice, or I need to capture photos for a brand, I will get her dressed after breakfast.

8:00am My turn

I’ll take Mole into the bathroom with me whilst I have a wash and clean my teeth etc and then she comes with my whilst I get dressed. If I want to do nice makeup for the day then I leave this part out and complete it whilst she has her nap.

8:15am Breakfast?

Mole has her breakfast, usually pancakes, croissant or fruit. I also have mine at the same time. I then make her a bottle and for some reason even though she eats loads for her breakfast she will still smash a bottle in.

9:00am Free time

This hour is spent playing with Mole and she gets all of her toys out. The main purpose of this hour is to really tire her out. Sometimes we even do crawling races around the house together. I’d say this hour is the best time of the day with her.

We do crawling races around the house

10:00am Nap

Bang on the dot every day I take her up for a nap in her cot. Her bedroom is pitch black and I believe this helps her get to sleep. I place her down with her favourite teddy and walk straight out of the room. I have learnt that if I fuss over her, she gets excited and will not nap.

At the start of implementing this routine, Mole would cry after I put her down. As horrible as this sounds, I would ignore it (obviously if it went on for a long period of time e.g. 10 minutes i’d go and reassure her) but, mainly I wouldn’t make a fuss of her. This was really hard to do and make me feel very guilty.

1:00pm Wakey wakey?

Mole wakes up from her nap around this time. The length of her nap can vary, sometimes its short and sometimes I have had to go and wake her up at 2:30pm.

Nappy and then we both get dinner straight away. She also has a sippy cup of water with her meal, nappy after meal.

3:00pm bottle

Mole has another bottle of milk around this time or a snack. sometimes both if she is hungry and a nappy change if needed.

4:30pm Prepare Tea

I prepare tea usually at this time however, recently Jay has been home at this time and offers to make the tea. Win!

5:00pm

Mole has her tea with another sippy cup of water.

6:00pm Bath time

I bathe Mole every single night as she gets so dirty through out the day. I try not to wash her hair every single day but she always ends up with so much food in it I shampoo her hair too.

6:30pm Bed time

Mole goes to bed in a sleeping bag with her teddy. We give her a warm bottle of milk and turn her humidifier on. I give her a cuddle and kiss and leave the room straight away. She falls asleep within 10 minutes and we don’t have to see to her until the next morning.

If she does wakeup, we leave a fresh bottle in her cot and leave the room again.

What works for us

As you can see there is no fussing around her sleep times. That is something that works for us but not everyone. Even nursery have said that when they sit in the room waiting for her to fall asleep she just doesn’t sleep. I think it is because she is so nosey haha.

You may have also noticed that she only has one nap. Thats something that works for us too and has helped with her sleeping through the night for longer.

If we spend the day out we always try to give her a nap at home first at the same time or we plan the journey so her nap time is whilst we are in the car so she can sleep then.

 

I hope you found this useful, I’d love to know your routines.

 

Thank you

Zoe

xx

 

Zoe
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