My baby’s schedule…or lack thereof

I have a confession to make. The only part of our day that’s always the same is Aidan’s bedtime routine. Around 6pm every night we begin our solid foods – bath – nurse – story – sleep plan, and he’s down by 7pm. He knows what to expect, and he goes down easy.

Having such a smooth nightly routine made me want to try to make his entire day like that, but it just doesn’t work that way for us. Here’s why:

1. Our day doesn’t start at the same time each morning.
2. Our day isn’t the same every day.
3. Aidan isn’t hungry and sleepy at the same intervals each day.

For awhile, I felt frustrated and thought we should have it all figured out, but then I considered the following:

1. He’s happy, healthy and thriving.
2. He’s flexible. He can eat/play/nap in my arms, at the beach, in the car, in a restaurant, etc.
3. He isn’t fussy.
4. He’s in such a busy, developmental time in life that the minute we think we have a schedule going, it changes again.

I’ve decided , since I’m home with him, we can just go with the flow for now. If someone else needs to know what to expect, I tell them he needs to eat every 3-4 hours, he eats solids 3x a day – around normal meal times, and he rubs his eyes when he’s tired – typically after he’s been up 2-3 hours. So, I guess we have a loose routine, but I don’t know the exact times until that day, or, occasionally, until it’s happening. I figure, I’m not hungry and sleepy at the exact time each day, and I’d be frustrated if I was hungry but told I wasn’t allowed to eat for another hour because of my schedule.

Funny, I must’ve raised my dog the same way. He goes out when I let him out, and he’s free-fed, so he doesn’t have a schedule either. Although, when he boards or stays with friends, he learns to eat when food is offered, and go to the bathroom when the opportunity is presented. I guess I hope my son turns out as well as my dog has!

Overall, I’m a fan of schedules, lists, and all other manner of planning. (Read: control freak!) As Aidan gets older, I will continue to look for patterns until one sticks, but, for now, I’m going to focus on the fact that he’s happy and healthy, and take a break from trying so hard to get on a schedule.  We have our things we need to work on, such as sleeping through the night and not associating nursing with sleep, but I know we’ll get there…in baby steps.