1yr old Baby Schedule

Technically, J hasn't turned 1 yet but this has been a pretty standard schedule for him for the last 3 months and he's doing pretty well, really it's his 9-12 month old schedule.

5:30 - wake up and BF on both sides - immediately goes back to sleep

7:00 - official wake up time, diaper change

7:30 - breakfast which consists of a combination of Oats, fruits, yoghurt and or cheese.  J isn't the best eater he and he likes to chew things up and spit them back out so I always need to have a couple of things on hand, and if nothing else works, bread is always a winner (so far)

8:00 - play time which consists of hi, chasing the dog, chasing his brother or chasing a ball, he's pretty independent so he doesn't need a lot looking after during play time and I usually just make sure he's safe and not touching anything dangerous or breaking anything of his brothers

9:00 - nap time, I hold him and together we shut the blinds and as I am doing so, I will say to him gently that it's sleep time and he needs to go to sleep, so that he would recognize the word sleep.  He will usually nap for 1-1.5 hours.  I will change his diaper so he would be comfortable during his nap.

10:30 - I will always wake him up by this time regardless of how much he has slept.  He will get some water, I used to breast feed but it would make him not hungry enough for lunch so I've cut it out.

10:30-11:30 I will try and take him out for a walk, if I have time otherwise its playtime at home so back to chasing the dog or chasing a ball (brother will be at school by now)

12:00 - lunch time for mummy and baby, I will always feed him first then give him some finger foods while I eat my lunch.

12:30-1:30 - play time again, sometimes we will sing some songs and J loves to dance and wiggle his butt ^^ I will also give him a fresh change of diapers.

3:30 - blinds open and its time for some boobies, he would usually brink for up to 10 minutes on each breast and a change of diapers before we head out to pick up his brother.

4:00 - we try to leave the house and pick up older brother R by now and usually we would stop by the park and let R play for 30-45 minutes before heading home.

5:30 - last minute dinner preparations while R and J get some play time together.

6:00 - dinner time and as per lunch time J would get his dinner and then some finger foods while we eat.

6:45-7:30 - play time with R as I finish with the housework

7:30 - bath time

8:00 - diapers changed and jammies on, its time for some lullabies and last minute kisses from R and dad and its time for bed, J will get some BF and then go to sleep

J can now sleep from 8 till around 5:30 am for his first BF, sometimes he wakes up earlier and sometimes even later, but it's been pretty predictable for the last few months, mind you he is a very light sleeper so sometime noises in the night will wake him (unlike R who can probably sleep through a rave party) and I try not to use BF to put him back to sleep rather just using my voice to sooth him and again telling him to go to sleep and that it's sleep time, so far it's worked like a charm.

Sleeping Arrangements

One of the biggest challenges of having two kids is putting them to bed.  Though my 5 year old is old enough to sleep in his own room, he still requires some companionship and tbh it is something that I cherish every night.  However, enter a baby into this equation and you've got yourself some serious pythagorean doozy of a problem.  I'm not sure how other mums do it, but here is a rough schedule of how I've been putting my boys to bed, every night.  It's not perfect but it does allow for some one on one time for big boy baby number 1.

7:00 Shower/bath time for kids - I wash both kids together in the shower with baby in a stand alone tub, I was older brother and myself and we both take turns in entertaining the baby while the other one is washing.

7:30 After our shower and bath, we are all dried off and older brother is asked to wait for me in his room while kept entertained with his story CDs, while I breastfeed baby and sing him a lullaby.

8:00 I put the baby in his cot and say good night, turn off the lights and leave the room.  Sometimes he coos and talks to himself but most nights he will be out by 8:15 (more on his sleep training later).

8:00-8:45/9:00 I spend about 45 minutes to an hour reading and playing with older brother and try to put him in his bed before 9pm.  We cuddle and sometimes both of us will doze off by then.

This is roughly how I put both of my kids to bed every night, and I know on screen it looks really put together but there are nights when it's chaos and all hell breaks loose.  No matter what, I have found that the key is always persistence, in the beginning older brother will definitely be not happy about leaving me and baby to sleep and would often disrupt baby's feeding and sleeping but after while (I think it was about a month for my boy) he understood that letting me do this, will allow for more mummy time when I am done.  I think in any case that deals with putting both kids to bed/getting both kids to eat etc, the key is always to make sure the older one doesn't feel like he is being neglected, make sure he is kept entertained and is happy during the time when you have to tend to the little one.  

Two Kids Later...

Wow, I haven't realized how long it's been since I last posted.  Thats not to say that I have forgotten about my precious baby blog, its just that well, I have been rather lazy (and lets be fair, also very tired).

Since my last post, I have gone on to have another baby boy (now almost 1 years old) and have found ,what many mums will also tell you, that 1. Even though they come from the same womb with the same care and love, they will turn out very different or in my case an absolute 180 in difference, and 2. However much you wanted things to be exactly the way it was for your firstborn, once their baby sibling comes, it can never be the same, ever again (dun dun duuuuuuuuuun) - but of course I mean that in the best way possible =P.

These days I have been trying feverishly to get back to my old self, now that the baby is almost a toddler (like, seriously?) and his baby schedule is no longer so jam packed (later on that subject) I can finally have some time to myself and write, and most importantly write honestly, because motherhood can be a real mother-effer and there are times when you have no idea what the heck you are doing and those days are not even a tiny bit hard as those times when your kids give you the griefs - by that I mean the I don't want to a) eat b) sleep c) do things that you ask me to do or d) all of the above.  There have been times when I just wish I can run away from these messy, angry and snotty little people and just go downstairs to my cafe and have a coffee like a normal human being... but of course my coffee is always iced or was hot then didn't have the time to drink it so it got cold, then after I reheated it the baby spat up so I had to clean him and thus it's cold again.

Argh, Eff it, I've always preffered iced anyway.

Welcome (back) into my world!