Michelle - Zoey has been fine in the past in her carseat inside the stroller system. I do have a baby bjorn that I take with me if I'm going to be out shopping for hours, but I haven't had to use it yet (she slept for hours in the stroller system in the past). It's been a few weeks since I went anywhere for an extended time with her (that wasn't someone's house) so it's hard to say what would happen.
I certainly don't mean to sound like everything is so difficult or anything. Zoey is just a joy and I love being a mom, I just found that she slept so much better and thus was easier to take out, etc. a few weeks ago. She frequently slept in the car, but I have no idea now if she ever would fall asleep in the car. I will find out tomorrow because I have to take her to pick up my mother. Wish me luck!!!
It's very hard to say what our "schedule" is because every day is so different with my sweet little girl. We used to have a pretty consistant schedule but once the 40 minute naps started, I can honestly say each day is different.
- Normally she wakes between 7 and 8:30am (depends what time she wakes in the night, lately this has been very inconsistent) and I feed her.
- Then we have some light activity for about 45 minutes to one hour or until she starts crying, whichever comes first.
- Then I swaddle her and do wind down stuff... and she goes to sleep. If I can extend this nap past 40 minutes she will often sleep for 2 hours...otherwise it is 40 minutes.
- The rest of the day kind of goes the same with me feeding her every 2.5 - 3 hours and putting her to sleep after about an hour of activity, sometimes less. I try to get her winding down when she starts to yawn or her eyes get red, etc. If I miss that she will fuss and if I miss that she will cry (overtired).
- Around evening time she naps from about 6:30-7:00, wakes and then I try to get her in bed by 8:30pm (she has to take medication around 8:30 so I feed her before bed) but she normally won't go to sleep until almost 9pm. If I try to get her to sleep any earlier she wakes up as though it was a nap and then ends up going to bed much later (usually 10pm or later). Last night I had her in bed asleep at 8:35pm but she woke 40 minutes later and then woke every 10 minutes until 10:30pm!
Today went like this (it's currently 5:30pm)...
E: 5am (and went right back to sleep)
E: 8am
A: 8:15-9:00 (in her swing while the family ate breakfast)
S (40 min): 9:10 -9:50 (she went hysterical at 9:00 so obviously needed to go down, I had my 3 year old step daughter here and she was in the tub and DH was watching Zoey)
9:50-10:15 Spent most of this time trying to get her back to sleep
S (30 min): 10:15 - 10:45
E: 10:45
A: 11:00-11:30 (tummy time and then some time with a rattle on her back but then got very cranky again)
S (1 hour 45 min): 11:30 - 1:15 I put her back to sleep in bed next to me and went for a nap myself. I applied pressure when she stirred at 12:10 and she didn't wake until 1:15pm.
E: 1:15
A: 1:30 - 2:30 Activity time
S (50 min total): 2:30pm - 3:45 She woke at 40 minutes... I sat and watched her on the video monitor for 15 minutes as she struggled and kept drifting off to sleep and waking back up again. She then fell asleep for about 10 minutes before she woke and started to cry.
E: 4:00
A: 4:10-5:00
S (40 min): 5:00 - 5:40 - if she manages to sleep longer then the rest will change
A: 5:45 - 6:00
E: 6:00 (try to get her to cluster feed here and again at 8:30 when she has to take her medicine)
A: 6:15-6:45
S (30 min): 6:45 cat nap until 7:15 or so if she is tired/cranky
A: 7:15 - 8:00 bedtime routine, quiet time
E: 8:15pm and right to bed
Again this is not necessarily typical...how the morning naps go usually ends up dictating how the rest of the day will work.
Shannon