Can anyone share their 8 mth olds routines?

[*Liz*]

M is still very milk dependent and is still needing a feed before sleep 

Plus we get a lot of EWs and loooooong NWings that I think are due to the final A to bed.

So can we share so I can have a think about it  ? I also need to remove the BF from the nap and ATM I can't see a way as her A is 3.5 hrs and she can only go 3.5-4 hrs between feeds. She isobar snacking - she is taking full feeds.

Thanks lovely ladies 

[L76]

Hey Liz

By no means is ours perfect but here's roughly what we do. Well actually, we don't have a set routine as such - more wing it each day depending on the night we have had! KWIM!!!!

Wake about 7ish and bottle
Breakfast around 8-8:30ish
Nap around 10ish for min 35mins - max about an hour
Bottle 11ish
Lunch 12:30-1ish
Nap 2:30ish for about 1hr 30 (ideally!)
Bottle around 3:30-4ish
Dinner 5ish
Bottle and bed 6:30-7ish

However, quite often he has nws which means he doesn't wake til nearer 8. When he does, I put him down for his nap around 10:30 and wake him at 11:30 if he goes past the 35min wake mark that haunts him! And then he wills till go down around 2:30ish and I always wake him by 4.

Does that help?

[mmom]

When we have good (rare) days, our routine looks like this:
wake 6:3/7
E 7
solids 8:30
S- 10-11:30
E 11:30
solids 1
S 2:30 - 4
E 4
solids 5:30
top off and bed 7

Yet, most of the time we get 30 minute naps for at least one of the naps.  He does about a 2 hour A after that, so we tweak it.  C can handle a long A to bed most of the time without too much OT, so if a cat nap is needed, we normally push the last A to 3.5-4 hours. 

Or we get days like today where he took 2 - 30 minute naps and now is taking a longer nap later in the day.

Megan likes long A's though right?  C is pretty average with A times. 

[~inbalance~]

I will share, although we are probably of no help because we still get loads of NWings and things are crap again!  But recently, before things went south again, we had a decent enough routine going I think, and the NWings were prop and habit issues.  (now...who knows! ).
7am wake
8am BF with solids within the hour afterwards
10am nap, anywhere from 35mins-1hr but no more
12pm BF followed by solids within the hour again
2pm nap for 1.5hrs
4pm BF
6pm solids
7pm BF and asleep by 7:15 at the latest
This was the best for us yet.  Now we are a mess again. 

But good to see what everyone else is doing.  Makes me feel more normal knowing other 8mos are napping similarly to mine! 

[ctk134]

My DS just turn 8 mos last week. He is formula fed and eats 3 solid meals a day. He's a textbook/angel baby, so most days (except when he was teething last week) go just like this. 
Awake time between naps throughout day is 2 hr 45 min - 3 hrs.
His schedule looks like this:

7am - wakes, plays in crib
730 am - eats 6 oz bottle
8:30 - 9 am eats 3.5 oz of baby food
930 - 10 am - down for a nap. Usually sleeps about 1 hr 20 min - 1 hr 30 min
1130 am - eats 6 oz bottle
1230 - 1 pm - eats 1/2 jar of baby food (approx 2 oz)
130 - 2 pm - back down for afternoon nap. Again, nap is about 1 hr 30 mins
330 pm - eats 6 oz bottle
5-6 pm eats cereal (3oz fomula, 3 scoops cereal)
*May take a cat nap either before, or after the cereal, or may not take on at all if seems in a good mood.
7 pm - bath started, 6 oz bottle, then in crib by 730, asleep usually by 745.
He then sleeps until the next morning

Hope this helps

[*Liz*]

Hmmm... Thanks ladies.

All pretty similar really, I guess.

I must admit I don't have a big short napping issue. Megan is a babe who won't go to sleep unless she is tired enough to take a long nap - so I end up waking her a lot to preserve the next nap or bedtime.

We are something like
Awake 6am and BF
Solids 7.30 am
BF before nap  
Nap 9.30 - 11am ish (Needs 3.5 hrs from wake unless a really bad night, I wake at 11 to keep the pm nap in line with J's)
Solids 12 pm
BF ~1.30pm
Nap 2ish until 4 ish
.... And this is where is goes wrong really as she won't BF after her nap so gets solids at 5pm, then is starving my 6.30pm and ends up falling asleep on the breast at 6.45 or so.

Then I get NWings and short nights  . If I BF her to sleep I can get her down at 3 hrs A, but if it is independent it is 3.5-4hrs now. So I'm sure that final A is the issue but it is hard to fix as she just gets too hungry.

Plus M was doing really good nights when she was a lot younger and was hardly sleeping in the day. Makes me wonder about UT. J always robbed his nights for his naps as well and it took me ages to realise that.

[EloysH]

Yep both my boys rob their nights and prefer to sleep better in the day.  We had 5am wakings with DS1 for months and months at this age and I just didn't click that I needed to cut his naps.  I am forever waking Kai from his naps and he still has short nights sometimes, I as probably am not cutting his naps enough.  He will sleep 2 hours + for both naps if I let him!  Then have an 8-9 hour night 

Liz, I fixed the feed to sleep at about 9.5 months by calling the feed before the first nap "morning tea" in my mind that was his morning tea to tie him over, and still is.....   he has that about 9am, then nap at 9:30am.   

As for hunger at dinner we have that problem too. I always give the solids first otherwise he won't eat enough.  At dinner though, he usually gets furstrated at the end of his meal and wants boob, so I feed straight after, at  About 6pm. I just do one side.  Then I do the other side close to bedtime, so he's still getting a feed closer to bedtime.  Then I send DH in to put him to do story and put him to sleep 

[Mrs Coops]

Hey, it's interesting seeing all the routines. Here's what happened today:

0645 wake up
0715 solids with DH (a pear and prunes) while I sleep!
0750 BF
0930 Sleep
1100 Often wakes naturally at 1.5hrs otherwise I wake him up.
1215 solids (later today as we were out)
1330 BF
1410 Sleep
1540 Woken up by me
1600 BF
1700 Solids
1815 BF
1830 Bath
1900-1915 BF to sleep

Bring on the NW'ing lottery!

We have started waking him at 0730 (if he should sleep that long) regardless of his nw'ings! J definitely feeds better after he's been up a while. He usually has his lunch BF about 12ish, it didn't bother him having it later today, that also made no difference to his next feeds!

Liz I give J a BF at 1815 as I know he would fall asleep too. So he has one boob before his bath and snuggles down to sleep on the second one after.

This routine started last week, out of nowhere everything settled! I struggle to keep him up for 3hrs A time though, I managed it this afternoon as he'd had a good feed just before and a poop (hooray) so needed changing!

HTH. x

[~inbalance~]

I wish F would sleep better during the day.  He is a horrendous napper, but still marginally better than T was.  I just don't get good nappers!  But at least T's nights were better by this age!!  

Liz, when it comes to feeding issues, what about just sticking to feeding her, either solids or breast, when YOU want her to eat and not just because she is starving?  I mean, she won't starve and would hopefully get used to being hungry at those times instead?  Just a thought.  The worst thing I guess is a cranky baby for the first little while, but then she should adapt to the new routine.

[Edesanja]

Liz, we've had the same routine since 6.5months

Wake 645ish
Nap 1 1015-1100 (set nap - it started as a nap window but we're still at the same place (I like it like this!) and so it's more of a set nap now).
Nap 2 1400-1530 or 1545
Bed 1900 sometimes he takes up till 1930 to go to sleep if his 2nd nap didn't finish till 1600

I think you've got a lot of day sleep going on... I think I'd start capping it a bit more. We don't BF anymore but J won't take any milk straight after his nap either. He wants to wait about half an hour and then will drink a very small amount but enough so that he can last till dinner time.

So we have:
Milk 1615
Dinner 1715
Milk 1830

[EloysH]

Liz another thing to note: we had long NW for about 6 weeks nearly every night.  As soon as we were about 3 days into sleep training, they magically stopped. Its been about 10 days now and no LONG NW!   Currently he's going to sleep either being patted till sleepy or on his own.

[sensfan]

Here's the ideal day, with NWs of course.

7:30 wake up, BF
9:00 solids
10:40 nap
12:10 wake up, BF
1:10 solids
3:20 nap
4:45 wake up, BF
5:45 solids
7:30 Bottle
8:00 bed

Naps generally last anywhere from 1-1.5 hours. I don't let her go past 1.5 anymore.

[*Liz*]

She is getting a bit better with independent sleep now, and I could do a split feed now really to stop her getting too hungry (I was scared that she wouldn't feed and settle before but I could leave her to roll around and nod off now).

Looks like M is getting way too heavy on day sleep doesn't it?

That is what I suspected but it is alway nice when others agree  .

I'm reluctant to force M into a feeding routine that she isn't happy with as her solids diet is so limited, and she has to have those on J's schedule anyway, so I kind of feel that I need to listen to her about something iyswim? Plus things will likely change when I go back to work in a few weeks now anyway.

[L76]

I do wonder about the amount of daytime sleep but if DS wakes at night he guzzles the bottle so I think he must be hungry and not satisfied during the day. And it's usually the wind that stops his milk or solids intake increasing and M suffers with wind too doesn't she. So perhaps she needs those night time calories still? Well that's what I keep telling myself!

Our daytime sleep tends to be about 2-2.5hrs so less than you and we still get nws!!!!!

[*Liz*]

I'm happy with her 1-2 NFs for now really - as long as she isn't up for 2 hrs at each time! But you are right - she does get windy  .

I'm going to lengthen that final A first and see if it helps