Thursday, March 5, 2009

Baby Schedule

The past two days have been pretty horrible during the day. The boys won't take naps, then they fuss all day and night. When Dad comes home, he gets to deal with my bad parenting skills :) because I didn't make the boys take very good naps. Plus, they are so overtired at night that they get all worked up right before bath time, which isn't that lovely to begin with and then they just can't settle down. Their new night trick is to wake up screaming and crying to eat and by the time we get downstairs, they are sound asleep again. We try to wake them up to feed them, and they have a hard time finishing a bottle because they are so tired so they fall asleep and are hungry in 2 hours. AHHH! Therefore, today I started a new plan. I have decided that I need to help these guys get on a schedule. Especially since I have to go back to work in about 3 weeks :( and they will be at home with Grandma Judy who might go back on her daycare offer if she has to deal with crabby pants' all day long! Here's our new schedule:
6:00 wake up to eat (ok, this did NOT happen today - instead they were up with me from 4:00-6:15 in varying states of conciousness trying to eat, but not really doing a good job and I was so frustrated that I needed to go back to sleep once they were done).
9:15 - 10:15 eat (each boy takes roughly 30 min. start to finish including burps and diaper changes)
10:15-10:30 play (technically Luke played for 40 min. and Drew for 20 or so)
10:30 nap in cribs (big step for me to put them upstairs during the day - I like hanging out with them - bad mom)
12:15-1:15 eat again (right now it's 11:15 and I heard someone cry, but it was only 2 crys and they are sleeping again so I'll wait to check on them)
1:15-2:00 play again
2:00-4:00ish nap upstairs again
4:00ish to 5:00 play with Dad when he gets home
5:15-5:45 eat (this is shorter because Dad helps!)
5:45-7?? play
7:30 bath
8:00 bottle
8:30 bed
Oh, I hope this works! I'll let you know how it goes... wish us luck!
P.S. I hope you all realize that I will be flexible and not force them to starve if they're hungry - this is just a general guideline to make my life (and those who care for my guys) easier. And hopefully, they will be less tired when Dad comes home so that he can actually get some good face time in instead of dealing with crying babies all evening.

2 comments:

Anne said...

Sounds like you've got your little duckies in a row! The boys will probably fight you on this "schedule" idea right away, but then learn to love it :)

Anonymous said...

Yep, just keep going with it. Kids thrive for a schedule and it'll most likely make your life A LOT easier. Good luck!