Well life got very busy over the past few months and it has been awhile since I wrote about Rosie, her routine and life with a baby. Here I am going to tell you all about life with Rosie from age ten weeks to 16 weeks (four months.) If you haven’t already read Rosie’s First Two Weeks and My Postpartum Journey head there first. Also check out Rosie’s Routine at Three to Five Weeks and Life with Baby and Life with Rosie at Six to Ten weeks. These blogs posts are full of tips and tricks for the different ages and stages of newborn life.
Rosie’s routine –
I have used Contented Baby by Gina Ford as a routine guide for all three children, if you have read the other blogs this is something you will already know. A routine is not for everyone, but for me is enables me to plan my day, whether that be looking after the older two or slipping in some work. I also find that it means that Rosie is rarely upset as she isn’t getting overtired or hungry. Routine’s can sometimes get a negative wrap, but I think that you can take it as gently as you like and I think it is more about being aware of time frames like awake times and when you last fed. The particular book I read has some fantastic tips regarding all of this, including increasing your milk supply.
Here is a little look at what Rosie’s routine looks like at six to ten weeks old…
7am – I wake her for the day. I wake myself at 6am and make breakfast, lunch and dinner for the all the family. I also make my bed and do any chores I can. Ari and Chloe wake up between 6am and 7am so I make a breakfast that can be ready and waiting on the table for them. This way if I am feeding they can get straight into eating. I feed Rosie at the table so that I can be with Ari and Chloe, this is also when I will eat my breakfast if I haven’t already. I get Ari and Chloe to dress themselves as soon as they finish breakfast. I lay their clothes out the night before so that it is ready for them. I then brush their teeth for them and help them make their beds. The last thing I do before I leave the house is express.
8.15am – We get in the car to go out for the day or to Kindy drop off. Rosie is now managing to stay awake in the car which is great because I can get her to the gym before she naps.
9am to 9.45am – She has her proper morning nap, most of the time in her bouncer at F45. She sleeps the entire time usually.
9.45am – I wake her.
10.30am – I feed her a full breastfeed.
12am to 2.15pm – She has her biggest nap of the day. I put her down for lunch nap in her cot in her room, everyday if I can.
2.15pm – I wake and feed her.
4pm – She has a very short cat nap in the car on the way to kindy pick up or wherever we are.
5.00pm – No matter how long her afternoon nap was I always wake her at this time so that she goes to sleep by 7pm.
5.45pm – I start her bath.
6.00pm – I make sure she is dressed for bed and I am feeding her. She has her bottle of expressed breast milk first and I find she drinks about 170mls. I do this out in the lounge with Ari and Chloe so that we can be together, though when I only had Ari it was always done in his room (better for relaxing the baby.)
6.30pm – I take her into her room and change her nappy. Then I fully swaddle her before feeding her milk from my breast. Once she has had enough and is relaxed I tuck her in for the night. She is still tightly wrapped at this point as she loves it. she is always asleep by 6.45pm/7pm.
9pm – Before I go to bed I express both breasts fully.
In the night – Rosie sleeps from 7pm to 7am and wakes once for a feed between normally about 4am. If she wakes earlier then that I know that she doesn’t need feeding and just resettle her, (though this doesn’t ever happen in the first half of the night.) Sometimes she will become unsettled at about 5.30 or 6am, she isn’t hungry so this is when I give her the dummy and she goes straight back to sleep.
Her maximum day sleep at this age is 3.5 hours.
I will continue to share Rosie’s routine and the changes I make to it in my next blog post. There really wasn’t a lot that happened over this six weeks that was different to the prior few weeks. I have a lot of information linked on Life with Rosie at Six to Ten weeks.
If you have any questions or want me to cover anything in particular in the next blog update please send me a message on Instagram. Just remember that this is what works for me, it might not work for you. Lets keep it light and not judge each other. If you have any tips that you think would work well for Rosie I would love to hear from you. I think that this is a fantastic platform where we can hopefully all pick up tips that might help each other.
Thank you for reading,
As always please remember that I am not a midwife, lactation consult, nutritionist, doctor or any other medical expert. I am just a Mother expressing her journey and opinions.