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Hello, Everyone! Baby girl will be 8 months in just a few weeks, so I don't want to miss giving you guys her seventh month routine! Although Aki started nursery school April First, she's still not that settled there. While on the surface, she seems to be doing well. My husband and I think, under the facade, she's having a hard time. So, her schedule is still being tweaked daily, but here is typical what tends to happen!
5:00-6:00 | GOOD MORNING
Baby girl has been waking up earlier and earlier each day! This has been a problem since she was six months old. We've tried putting her to bed later, capping her naps, letting her sleep more, etc. We just think she's an early bird now! We would love for her to sleep until 7:00, but she hasn't slept that long since she was about 5 and a half months old. Sometimes we can get her to go back to sleep, but she's up, babbling and playing in her crib, for the day. We let her lay in her crib until 6:45 before we get her out.
6:45-7:00 | MORNING ROUTINE
We sing her morning song, change her diaper, take her temperature, and then let her do some solo play. During this time, I'll set out her clothes for nursery school and my husband will write in her renraku-cho (nursery school communication book) about her evening and night. after that, I'll make our breakfast. At seven months, Aki drinks 180ML in the morning after her solids. Right now, she's eating about two table spoons of homemade, semi-puree'd food. We give her a carb, protein, and veg/fruit. We introduce new foods every three days. She just had chicken and eggplant for the first time yesterday!
7:00-7:30 | BREAKFAST
We all eat breakfast together. I might change that because she seems to be a little distracted, but it's kind of hard because I leave for work at 7:30. So, I'm not sure if she can wait to eat until after I leave. She does pretty well, as she won't refuse anything we give her, but sometimes it is a struggle since she tends to talk a lot and like to blow raspberries with a mouthful of food!
7:30:8:00 | PLAYTIME
I leave for work at 7:30, which is my least favorite time of the day! She doesn't cry, which helps the process, but it's still sad for me. My husband tells me she plays until it's time to get ready for nursery school, and that they leave around 8:10. If it is a non-nursery school day, then she will just play and then we'll go on a short morning walk around 8:45, with her first nap being around 9 or 9:15.
8:30-4:30 | NURSERY SCHOOL
We've worked up to her staying at nursery school until 4:30. She does amazingly well at school. She doesn't cry, she plays a lot, eats a lot, and she's so energetic! Unfortunately, her naps are still hit or miss. At home, we aim for 3hr of daytime sleep, but she only gets about 2 at the nursery school...and they are broken naps, like in the carrier on a walk. But, recently, at least she has been sleeping in the crib at school, but it's super noisy and loud because the crib is in the main play room, so it's a struggle for her still.
4:30-5:00 | WELCOME HOME
My husband picks her up from nursery school and she's super energetic and excited to go home! Unfortunately, we also sometimes get a call that she has a fever. We don't know why, but usually around 3:45-4:00, she gets a fever. It's usually down by the time we get home, but we don't know if it's the overstimulation, the lack of solid naps, or what. We used to try and give her a catnap when she got home, but she fully rejects the third nap now, and is entirely on two naps a day.
5:00-5:30 | BATHTIME
I'm pretty sure I mentioned before that my daughter loves bath time. It's not relaxing to her at all. If she has a fever, we'll skip the bath because it's very stimulating. If she doesn't have a fever, we'll give her the bath first instead of right before bedtime. Also, we have now moved her into the big tub because she sit's unsupported and she loves all the space to play now!
5:30-6:15 | DADDY WIND DOWN TIME
My husband and I have decided that maybe she's having a hard time with fevers and bed-time because of her budding separation anxiety. We think she gaman (endures) during the day and explodes/releases the tension when she gets home. So, we have decided not to cook, do chores, etc. during this time because we think it's so stimulating for her and that she missed us a lot at school, so we should instead focus solely on her until she goes to bed.
So, my husband will just sit with her on the floor while she plays.
6:15-7:00 | MOMMY WIND DOWN TIME
I get home around this time and we all rushing about. I also missed Aki a lot so I'm usually loud and all in her face, and we're making her last bottle and playing around, etc, which I guess is also so stimulating.
A night-time routine is so important for babies, but it's so hard to implement now because sometimes we have to rush things or skip aspect of it because she woke up early from a nap at school. Her wake windows are only about 3 hours and 15 minutes, so if she woke up from her last nap at 2pm...she needs to be in bed by 5:30, so she never really gets a chance to wind down. We can't boss around the nursery school about her naps since she isn't the only child, so we also have been enduring and trying to be flexible. but the end of the day is so hard. We are still tweaking this part.
I'll try to get a solid night time routine for busy families, and I'll share it with you in a future post!
7:00PM-6:00AM | GOOD NIGHT
Recently, she's been going to bed around 6:30 because of the whole early nap at nursery school, but Ideally we'd love for her to go bed at 7:00 since that will give us enough time to let her unwind. Recently, she's been screaming and crying before going to bed. It's heartbreaking. She's clearly tired and exhausted, but she won't settle. When she does settle, she'll sometimes wake up after the first sleep cycle and cry. She'll only settle if we kind of "reset" her, and do the night time routine again 15 minutes later.
It's so stressful, which is why we are going to tweak her schedule again. Once she's settled for the night, she sleeps through it, so we don't have to worry, but the beginning is so tough! She's growing so fast, so we can't quite get a grasp on her, but we are trying our best. So, stay tuned for her 8 month update. :)
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