routine for newborn and 14 month old
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Topic: routine for newborn and 14 month old
Posted By: hayley1
Subject: routine for newborn and 14 month old
Date Posted: 08 January 2012 at 3:10pm
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Hi everyone,
I am due in june and will have a 14 month age gap berween my babies. Needless to say, im scared and excited! One piece of advice i have been given is to have a good routine for both children. This sounds like a good idea but im not sure what the routine should be like? My ds doesnt have a routine as such at the moment and i thought it would be good to get this in place before the new baby arrives. So if anyone has a similar age gap and would be able to post their routines i would very much appreciate it! |
Replies:
Posted By: MammieB
Date Posted: 08 January 2012 at 5:39pm
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Hi there,
I would suggest just having "almost" set times for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then bath/shower and bed could work, if you introduce them to him now by the time baby comes he is used to them and knows what to expect and you could try and stick to those times and maybe baby will "fall in" as well - as much a newborns will off course. But the most important thing for toddlers are that they know what "is coming"  ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://daisypath.com"> 
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Posted By: Hopes
Date Posted: 08 January 2012 at 5:41pm
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Well, your 14-month old shouldn't be too hard to get into a routine. I imagine he's pretty much in one already even if it's not strict as such? Just make a consistant bedtime and start making his sleep (or sleeps?) around the same time each day.
I'm expecting a new baby soon, and for the first while I'm not planning on having any actual routine as such. When she's about six weeks or so I imagine things will have stabilised a little and we'll have at least a semblance of a routine. I don't have any anticipation of what it will look like, though, I kind of figure I'll work with what seems to work for her. -------------   
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Posted By: mummymonster
Date Posted: 08 January 2012 at 6:25pm
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I agree, try to set up a routine (ish) for the 14mth old and do the best you can when the new born shows up.
Start with setting bed time, and meal times. See if you can get nap times within in say a 1hr window, then a 1/2 hr window. I don't know how random your days are, but if you start thinking about it you'll probably find you've already got a bit of a routine, or at least an ordering. It shouldn't be too hard to get from there to a routine. My DS1 is older, but we have 6am awake & breakfast 9.30am morning tea 11.30am lunch 1pm bed awake afternoon tea (2.30 - 3.30) 5.30 dinner 6.30 bed routine starts for a bed time of 7ish ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Hopes
Date Posted: 08 January 2012 at 6:56pm
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Good idea to comapare routines - my 16-month-old's day goes vaugely along the lines of:
- Up between 6 - 7 - Breakfast at 7, no matter when he wakes up (I like to make him wait in case I encourage earlier waking by giving it earlier!!) - Morning tea at 9 - Nap at 11 (I give him a snack just beforehand to tide him through) - Up at around 12.30 / 1pm - Lunch at 2 - Snack at 4 - Tea at 5.30ish - Bath at 6.30 - Bed at 7 Most things are flexible, but most of the time we pretty much go with that. -------------
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Posted By: hayley1
Date Posted: 08 January 2012 at 7:07pm
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Thanks for the advice, i guess we dk have a roundabout routine, he hust doesnt have his napsxand meals at the exact same time each day. But is always in bed for the night by 7.
So around 14/16 months do tney only have one day nap? When do tney usually go down to one? Currently he has 2 (9 months old) |
Posted By: SnuggleBear
Date Posted: 08 January 2012 at 8:36pm
I was just gonna ask the same hopes, when did Jacob go to one nap? We re really struggling with two at the moment as he is 15 months old now and although he still has a nap from 830-10, the arvo nap is becoming later and later which means some nights like tonight he didn't get to sleep till 820!!! Even though I put him down just before 7! ------------- Ds1 - 20 months old Ds2 - 4 months old |
Posted By: Hopes
Date Posted: 08 January 2012 at 8:55pm
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Jacob went down to one nap at about 11 months. It felt like WAY too early to me, and I was dreading it, but he was just such hard work to put down. It was the best thing ever when I did change it - not only did he go back to going straight to sleep again, he started having a longer day nap too.
I know some babies who still have two naps a day at his age, though, I think it really depends on the baby. -------------
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Posted By: maya22
Date Posted: 08 January 2012 at 9:19pm
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one nap here at 13 months, but some days he has a top up in the car mid-morning on our way somewhere.
I think you have no hope of a routine with a newborn until around 3 months old if then, but your older child should be in one fairly well. It will be more luck than management if you can get them sleeping at the same time during the day  ------------- DS1 July 2007 DS2 Nov 2010 http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: fadeless
Date Posted: 08 January 2012 at 10:57pm
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My DD1 was 13mths when i had DD2 and DD1 was still having 2 naps a day. I totally agree with having a set routine, it makes life so much easier and if you can get both babies to sleep at the same time its a bonus! I was pretty strict in keeping to the routine that DD1 had but she pretty much made the routine herself. ------------- DD 9 ~ DD 8 ~ DS 7 ~ DS 5 ~ DS 2 ~ DS 14mths ~ DD 3mths |
Posted By: KH25
Date Posted: 09 January 2012 at 4:27am
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This is interesting reading for me. My DS1 is 14 mths and DS2 is 9 days old. He is still in NICU for a few weeks yet so I haven't had to manage both together. DS1 is still having 2 sleeps and doesn't look like dropping one anytime soon. Each child is pretty different when it comes to that I guess. He is also in a pretty good routine so I'm hoping to stick to it when DS2 comes home. The main thing I am worried about is getting DD to and from school on time after the holidays finish ------------- Kelly, mum to DD, 19Jun06 (26wks 1lb15oz) DS1, 24Oct10 (32wks 4lb11oz) and DS2, 31Dec11 (32wks, 4lb11) http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: KH25
Date Posted: 09 January 2012 at 4:28am
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Whoops, need to change my ticker lol ------------- Kelly, mum to DD, 19Jun06 (26wks 1lb15oz) DS1, 24Oct10 (32wks 4lb11oz) and DS2, 31Dec11 (32wks, 4lb11) http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: squoggs
Date Posted: 09 January 2012 at 9:59am
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I agree, we have a 16 month gap, routine for the older one needs to be established to make it easier when the next arrives. Set get up/nap/bed times etc, I like the Tizzie Hall Save our Sleep routines, although I just follow it loosely. Be prepared for your older child to go a bit out-of-routine for a while, just while they adjust to having a younger sib that takes up a lot of mums time. Its damn hard work having two young ones, so make things as easy as possible by being as prepared as you can - think of some activities the older one can do while you are feeding etc, even DVDs just for keep them still for a bit & you sane! Good luck, its lots of fun despite hard work!
------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: mummymonster
Date Posted: 10 January 2012 at 9:17am
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I think the number and times of naps is individual. Mine dropped his afternoon nap first (think it was about 18mths), then his morning nap slowly moved into the afternoon. While that was going on the lunchtime had to be flexible.
And now that other come to mention it, yeah while the morning nap was there his lunch would be a lot later. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> http://lilypie.com">
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