Before I even entered the third trimester, I had received at least 3 hand-me down copies of the "Babywise" book. Each giver said to me, "This is a must-read and do if you are going back to work." Well, I knew even before the baby was born I going back to work. You see we had two major life events occur last year, we bought a house and had a baby - all within a few months of each other. Being house poor and baby poor at the same time isn't the best thing for your savings account.
So I sat down with the books and started reading, it sounded great. Get your baby on a schedule will make your life and the life of your baby a breeze. It made parenthood seem like a dream! Well, I'm now 8 months into parenthood and we've only been on the "Babywise" plan for 2 months. I'm not saying that you can't get your baby on a plan during the first 6 months, I'm just saying that I couldn't.
In my experience, it was impossible to get my son on a eat, play, sleep schedule. Especially since he would fall asleep as soon as he finished a bottle. I was on FMLA for maternity leave so I returned to work exactly 12 weeks after giving birth. Since we had to leave by 7:00 A.M. and I had to get us both ready for work/daycare, I started waking W up at 6:00 A.M. for his first bottle. This was the first time in 3 months that we were on a feeding schedule and it was a great start to "Babywise" plan. While he was at daycare, they continued feeding him every 3 hours.
I got laid-off from my job when he was 5 months old and we stuck with his feeding schedule starting at 6:00 A.M. At our 6 month old appointment with the pediatrician, we got the green light to introduce solid food and a new schedule to follow. We were going to drop a bottle feeding and work to stretch out his eating to every four hours. The first week of the new feeding schedule was rough since he didn't like the baby food, but we were able to get him to eat every 3.5 hours. Once he adjusted to the baby food, we were able to get him to eat every 4 hours.
Around 7 months we were able to get him into a normal nap routine. We put him in the crib for a nap 2 hours after he eats. The more new moms I'm around, I find that every baby has a different routine. Sometimes I resent the schedule if I want to run an errand or meet a friend when they are only free during nap time. But, overall I find comfort in knowing that we have a set routine for the day, that no matter what happens nap time starts at 1:30 P.M. Having said that, there are somedays when I adjust a feeding a few minutes early so we can go out. But I try to just do it for one meal and then we are back on track for the next feeding.
Right now, this is W's daily schedule:
7:00 A.M. - Wake up
7:30 A.M. - Breakfast
9:30 A.M. - Nap
11:30 A.M. - Lunch
1:30 P.M. - Nap
3:30 P.M. - Dinner
5:30 P.M. - Nap (sometimes he will nap but most days he skips this nap)
7:00 P.M. - Bottle
8:00 P.M. - Bedtime routine begins and he is asleep by 8:30 P.M.
I've read other blogs were new moms bragged about how easy and great "Babywise" was for them. And they are right, once you get on the plan it is great. But I felt like a failure because I couldn't get W on the plan. If you are struggling with "Babywise" know that you aren't alone. Just keep at it, it gets easier to do the older your baby is.
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