Routines

I have been thinking lately about how glad I am that we started Devin on a routine early on. Well, our routine for the first 2 weeks of his life was a little abnormal since he lived in the hospital for 4 1/2 days and then in a hotel for a week and a half (ugh...I never want to stay in a hotel again as long as I live!). But since we've been home we've worked pretty hard on establishing and maintaing a routine, but we keep it fairly flexible. It really helps him (and us) to know when it's time to eat, sleep, take medicine, play, get a bath, and go to bed. We've had to adjust his routine several times as he's changed his eating and sleeping habits, obviously, but it's usually consistent and predictable. I know some babies and parents don't do well with routines, but our family seems to!

He has learned the schedule and adjusted to it, too. For example, he knows that in the evenings he gets to eat twice within the 2 hours right before bed (at 7 and 9 to be specific!), and he looks for that second bottle starting around 8:45, whereas during the day he goes 3 hours between feedings. He has started waking himself up right around 7:00 in the morning, which is what time I've been waking him up for the past week or so. He knows that when he gets swaddled in his crib and hears his white noise machine come on, it's time for bed (we don't do those things for naptime). He usually settles right down to sleep, and if anything, requires me to pat his chest a little to help him drift off. It's just amazing how he knows exactly what to expect every day, and therefore so do we! It makes it really nice, too, because I know what time of day is ideal to run errands, when he will nap (so I can get some housework done or take a nap myself...oh, wait, I've literally only been able to do that TWICE since Devin was born!) and what time to give him his medicine so that he'll be hungry by the time he's waited the 30 minutes for it to kick in.

BY THE WAY--I know it looks like he's wrapped up in some sort of torture device in his crib, but I PROMISE you that he refuses to sleep unswaddled! Anyone that doesn't believe me is more than welcome to come and try to get him to sleep unswaddled. I've tried countless times and he just flails his arms around and wakes himself up! He's still just a little too jerky and uncontrolled, at least in his sleep, that if he's not restrained he wakes himself up! Research swaddling, though, if you think I'm being cruel...it's one of the oldest tricks in the books and Devin will tell you how much he hates it when I try to get him to sleep overnight without swaddling him. Napping in the swing unswaddled is one thing, but in his crib?? Forget it. :)