Considering that Tayo is now 9 months (and 3 weeks to be exact) this post may not speak to everyone. Some moms have been there done that, and some of you reading this probably feel like 9 months is SO far into the future. But if you’re anything like me, you want to know what to expect. And although every child can be very different, they follow the same general patterns from what I’ve gathered. Note that this is a rough outline of our day, its never exactly the same…
07:00 Wake up.
This is a pretty decent wake up time I reckon. Maybe it’ll get earlier when he gets older, who knows. Although there has been some mornings lately that he wakes us up at 5am. But to be honest I leave him until 7am, unless he's really heartsore or unhappy for some reason. Some days we get super lucky if he’s really tired and lets us rest until 08:00. It is heaven! Usually we’ll let him chill in his bed for a bit before we go in. Also gives us time to wake up properly.
08:00 Get Tayo dressed & breakfast
Generally I’m too busy starting my day and seeing to Tayo to organise my breakfast at this time. But sometimes I’ll have a bowl of porridge with him, otherwise It’s just a cup of coffee while I feed him. There was greek yoghurt and fruit on the menu this morning. He also loves his Pronutro (just like mom), Weetbix and Tastee Wheat.
08:30 Play Time
I am so blessed to have a child that is pretty good with independent play. Honestly, I think its purely because he had no choice from a young age. I refuse to entertain him 24/7 #sorrynotsorry. May sound harsh to some but it’s the way I’ve chosen to do things, and he is genuinely happy to play with all his toys in his play pen. He can easily play in there for 45mins to an hour before he needs a bit of attention or someone to play with. This gives me time to get myself ready for the day, make a cup of coffee, maybe start a bit of work, do an instagram post or something. The latest thing is throwing all his toys out of his play plan. So that's a fun cleanup for me at least 4 times a day...
10:00 Bottle & nap time
There are way too many things online that say ‘don’t feed your baby before they go sleep’. Honestly, Tayo has never been reliant on his milk before a nap, but it definitely helps to have a full tummy when its time to sleep. More often than not he’ll have his bottle and then start yawning/ rubbing his eyes, which makes nap time much easier for Mommy. Also, we decided to go the sleep training route at 5 months old and that was such a game changer for us! His room is pretty dark, lullaby playlist goes on and then I rock him for a bit before putting him down half awake to fall asleep.
While he’s asleep I use the time that I use to clean the kitchen, make my breakfast, tidy up the house. Then I try and get as much work done as possible. Film reels, catch up on instagram, do my posts and any other content creation/ admin stuff that time allows.
11:30 Tayo wakes up
This is when he is most active. It’s like he wakes up ready to get into everything and anything that he can! So I generally try to finish up whatever work I started while he was asleep but it does prove pretty difficult. Generally I will now try and continue working while entertaining him or keeping an eye n whatever he’s doing. This is a s tiring as you are imagining it to be.
13:00 Lunch time
I’ll just throw together whatever is quickest for my lunch, if I’m lucky enough to get time to prepare myself a proper meal. Otherwise it’s whipping up something for Tayo and another 30min session of feeding. Lunch is usually the more experimental meal of the day where I try and encourage him to eat new things or feed himself. He used to be so good with BLW (baby led weaning) until about 7 months. All of sudden he was less interested in his food if it needed to be broken down too much or bitten off. One would think he’d be more interested now that he has teeth. Nope. I need to break things into bite size pieces for him to eat properly - such a mission!!! But we are pretty blessed to have a child that eats just about anything you give him.
13:40 — 17:00 Afternoon open time
The rest of the afternoon consists of more playing for Tayo. What a life!
If errands need to be done, this is usually the time I will do them.More often than not with Tayo in tow. A quick grocery or pharmacy run turns into Mission Impossible when you have to take a baby in and out of the car multiple times. Also, I used the baby seat in the shopping cart in Woolworths for the first time ever today. That was an experience for both me and Tayo I’m sure. Gone are the days when you just plonked your kids in there without havig to worry about deadly diseases. Crazy how life is for us nowadays.
Our outings are always easiest to do during this time frame too. Meeting friends for coffee, walks by the duck pond/ dam, visiting Granny & Grandpa.
NOTE that 14:30 is bottle time again.
Most days Tayo will do a 1hr - 1hr30min nap in the morning and then another quick nap in the afternoon at around 3pm. On the odd day he may sleep closer to 2 hours or more for this first nap, in which case he will then not need a second nap. Wether this means he is transitioning to 1 nap a day, I have no idea, I honestly just follow his lead with most things. I realised pretty early on that forcing a baby into a routine that is unnatural for them just brings more stress for your as a parent.
17:00 Tayo’s Dinner
His last meal I make sure is one he’ll finish no problem, and one which will fill his little tummy nicely before the long stretch through the night. It’s a little early for Daddy & Mommy to eat dinner with him, but I do see that changing naturally as he gets older.
After dinner there is usually a little more playtime/ winding down before we start his bedtime routine. Hone the weather has been really nice & warm, I’ve taken him down to the park to play for 30mins or so. He loves playing outside!
18:30 Bath & bedtime
We try and keep the timing around 30mins from the time he gets into the bath to the time he is having his bottle just before he sleeps. We learnt this while sleep training and t has something to do with the time that it takes them to wind down before bed and the “awake hormone” to calm down and get you ready to sleep.
So Tayo has his bath, then we dress him and it’s bottle and lights out immediately. Again, completely dark room with him white noise at night. I figured that using lullabies during the day and white noise at night would help him differentiate between day & night. I know that some babies do get their day & nights mixed up and sometimes stay awake all night because of it.
My heart goes out to the moms who deal with that! And again, he is put down half awake and he drifts off no problem most nights.
19:00 Sleeping
He’s been sleeping through the night since roughly 7 months old. With the exception of a week when he hit 8 months, which I reckon as just a growth spurt. But that is bound to happen from time to time. He really is very good now with sleeping through. The only time he’ll need us to go in and soothe him is if he isn’t feeling well, if he’s teething or if he’s getting too hot/ too cold. There hasn’t been a time in the last month I would say that he cries for us to go in just to get attention (**touch wood).
Then we see him again anytime between 06:30 and 08:00 the next morning!
Honestly even sitting down and trying to structurally outline my day seems a bit crazy. At times while writing this I sat thinking “what on earth do I do with all this time?” Or “What do I have to show for my day”. But honestly if you’re a mom you’ll know that you can quite easily get to the end of a day and feel exhausted and yet still feel like you got nothing accomplished. Its the weirdest thing. And often somewhat disheartening if I’m being honest.
If you have any questions about how I do things or my choices when it comes to our routine, please feel free to ask. I’m an open book and happy to share my experiences!
More momsplaining next week,
Important note: I am not a qualified doctor, nor am I a professional in any of the topics discussed on this blog. The topics above are purely opinions based on my own real life experiences.
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