Schedule for almost 7 month old...

[Anonymous]

For some reason I am really struggling with a schedule for my almost 7 month old daughter. I would love to hear what your day is like (naps, feeding, night sleep...). TIA

[Anonymous]

me too!

[Anonymous]

My DS just turned 7-mths and here's our schedule:
6:30am Wake
6-8oz bottle upon waking
Breakfast of solids about 30 minutes after bottle
1st Nap starts sometime between 8:30 & 9
1st Nap usually lasts about an hour (sometimes longer & sometimes shorter)
6-8oz bottle upon waking
Lunch of solids sometime b/w 11 and 12
2nd Nap starts sometime between 12:30 & 1ish (this depends on how long the first nap was)
2nd Nap should be at least an hour, hopefully longer (and potentially shorter if you have a bad napper)
6-8oz bottle upon waking
Sometimes DS does a 3rd nap (if the previous 2 were both short) this usually starts around 4:30ish and lasts about 30-45min.
If baby does a 3rd nap, 6-8oz bottle upon waking
Dinner of solids is at 5:30pm
Bath at 6:45
Nightime routine (books, 6-8 oz bottle, song)
Into crib between 7 & 7:15

The hardest part about this age is the transition from 3 naps to 2. We seem to be right in the middle of the transition right now as some days are 3 naps and others are 2. I expect in the next 2 weeks he'll be totally on a 2 nap schedule. Also the "rules" for the schedule for this age is that they are usually awake 2.5-3 hours between naps. Awake for 4 hours is usually the max this age can handle before getting overtired. Bottles are given upon waking and also before bedtime. Solids should be given at roughly the same time each day (breakfast, lunch, dinner). Once I learned these rules, I found it easier to adjust DS schedule based on what he'd done earlier in the day versus what the schedule said he should have done!

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

PP here - I just noticed you also asked about night sleep. DS sleeps about 11 hours with no night wakings or feedings. We did Ferber 3 weeks ago and it worked like a charm. I can honestly say that once DS started sleeping through the night, everything got easier and he even started to nap & eat better.

[Anonymous]

Our DS is 7.5 months old. Here's his rough schedule:

7ish wake, nurse, play
9ish nap
10:30ish wake, nurse again
go run errands, pick up an older sib, etc
noon-ish--solids lunch
1ish nurse and go down for a nap
3ish wake, play, run errands, etc
4ish nurse or solids
6:30ish start bathtime/bedtime routine
7ish down for the night

He might wake around 11 if he hadn't eaten well during the day to nurse once more.

[Anonymous]

DS is 7.5 mos and four days a week he's home with me and has a pretty consistent rhythym (exact timing depends on the first nap) a typical day looks like this:
* 7: wake and nurse. If he's still sleepy, we'll go to bed for a snuggle/nap (pure bliss!) Otherwise, it's time for cereal/fruit and getting dressed
* 9: if we napped earlier, we'll get up now and have breakfast, otherwise we'll have played all this time and he'll now be ready for a nap in his crib. (On a good day, he gets 3 1-hour naps, which happen after he's been awake roughly 2 hours. The schedule below assumes he woke from the first nap at 10.)
* 10: nurse
* 12-1: nap
* 1: nurse
* 3-4: nap
* 4: nurse
* 7: nurse, then dinner
* 8: bath, story, bed
* 7: repeat (he sleeps thru the night except when sick or teething)

At daycare he usually takes just two naps, so he will often take his third nap at 6pm. He has a 5 oz bottle of EBM every 2-2.5 hours.

[Anonymous]

OP here....Thank you so much for all of your helpful info. Scheduling has been so difficult for me because we have been dealing with horrible reflux for the longest time. It is just now getting better. One other question...my DD is an early riser 530-6a. I have found that if she is not in bed by 6pm for the night she just 'breaks down' and is difficult to console. Do you think her bedtime is too early? I have tried to keep her busy to extend her waketime at night but sure enough 6 rolls around and she seems exhausted. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Anonymous]

We are dealing with some of the same issues with our DD, who is almost 8 months old. She is an early riser and gets up most mornings around 5-5:30. Most nights she is in bed by 6:30. I've tried earlier and later bedtimes, but it doesn't seem to change her wake-up time, and if we don't start the bedtime routine by about 6 it's a disaster. For what it's worth, here's our schedule:

5-5:30: wake up
6: bottle
7:30ish: first nap (usually lasts about 1 hour)
10: bottle
11:30: lunch of solids
11:45ish: 2nd nap (usually about 1.5 hours)
2: bottle
4: occasional 3rd nap
5: dinner of solids
6: bath, bottle, book then in crib at 6:30.

[Anonymous]

I am transitioning from breast to bottle. I cannot get DS to take more than 4 oz at a time. Any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

For those who replied and have early risers and early bedtimes...this is what worked for DS#1 who was going to bed at 6pm and awake at 5am every day around 7-11 months old...

We slowly adjusted his entire day by 10 minutes at a time over the course of a week until his whole day shifted by an hour- so on day one he woke up at 5am and I pushed his first bottle by 10 minutes and same with all meals, naps and then bedtime that night was 6:10 instead of 6. The next day we pushed everything 20 minutes later and so on and so forth for an entire week. By the time we hit day 7, bedtime was at 7pm and he started waking up at 6am with an occasional wake-up at 6:30! It really worked well for us. I think the thing that made it work for us was doing it very slowly over the course of a week and not just keeping him up an hour later expecting his whole internal clock to just shift.

Hope this helps some of you.