Our daily routine at 8 months

Once upon a time I wrote about having a terrible napper as a baby, but, if you read our 7 month baby update then you’ll know that Florence has now amazingly learnt to nap. Florence is now somehow 8 months, in the weaning process and starting to drop her feeds so today’s post is all about our daily routine at 8 months old – our 8 month baby routine.

At 8 months old there is a tonne and a half to fit in, I always find I’m needing to think about when Florence last fed, has she had all three of her meals, does she need any snacks, when will she nap, and how we’re going to fit in everything else around this. It’s a lot, but somehow I think we’re getting there. We’re figuring out our own routine which works for both me, Florence and daddy too.

6.30-7.30am

Our day tends to start around 6.30-7.30am depending on when Florence decides. Over the last month, we’ve definitely had more of the earlier starts, which is probably down to the bright mornings. Once I’ve got over the fact it’s time to get up (I’m not a morning person), I’ll pick Florence up from her cot, have a cuddle and feed her in bed. We’re still breastfeeding so I don’t have to worry about heading to the kitchen to make a bottle. After I’ve fed her we tend to go into the lounge to have a little play before breakfast. On weekdays it used to be just me who got up but now Florence has started weaning, either myself or daddy will do this depending on how the night has played out.

7.45am

At around 7.45 it’s time for Florence to have breakfast, we try to give her her breakfast about 45 minutes after her milk to allow time for her milk to go down. Now we’ve had success with Florence accepting a spoon in the morning, she tends to have porridge made with water for her breakfast. This is something Florence absolutely loves – she thoroughly enjoys her porridge so we do tend to stick with this rather than switching things up these days. It is also something that’s quite easy when I, unfortunately, have to go back to work.

8.00am

8.00am is time for playtime and usually starts with Florence having a little play on her own whilst I have my breakfast and a cup of tea. I will then join her on the floor 10-15 minutes later and we’ll play together, whether that’s building towers together, rolling a ball to each other, having a read or something else.

9.00am

Going with Florence got up at 7.00am, come 9.00am it is generally time for her first nap of the day. It’s always roughly two hours after waking, as this is when the telltale sleep signs start, a key one being Florence rubbing her eyes. About 5-10 minutes before nap time I’ll get her dressed for the day so I don’t have to worry about this if we’re going out straight after. She naps on our bed in the day if we’re at home, and these days after a few minutes of putting her down she is generally asleep after a quick nestling of her head into the bed and/or cover. Her morning nap is usually between an hour and an hour and 15 minutes these days.

10.15am

We’re quite busy on a day-to-day basis whether we’re meeting friends, going to a baby class, or just going for a wander, so once Florence wakes up we have a little play together before I get everything ready to go out.

10.45am

Around 10.45 we tend to be heading out for our adventure for the day, I do like to be out and about and Florence is so nosey she loves having a bit of fresh air and a nose. Lately, Florence has often been having a little snack as we walk to wherever we go. This tends to be rice cakes or veggie sticks a lot of the time, at the moment.

12-1.00pm

I don’t keep too strict a schedule but somewhere between 12-1.00pm is generally when Florence will have her lunch and some water – something she loves too much. Florence goes crazy for her water, enjoying it followed by her shaking it everywhere, literally! Her lunch varies depending on what we’re doing and what I’ve already made or we’ve got in the fridge. If we are at home I do try to give her a hot lunch such as a fritatta with cucumber and fruit, if we’re out and about she’ll often still have something that could be hot, but served chilled.

1.00 – 2.00pm

At some point between 1-2.00pm Florence will tend to have another boob feed. Her feeds have dropped quite drastically where she’s been eating more but this does vary, there are days where she has quite a few more feeds than in this post. If she’s having a day struggling with her teeth she won’t always be interested in her lunch, we always offer it, but if it’s one of those days she’ll make up for it in extra milk feeds.

1.15pm – 2.00pm

Around 3 to 3 1/2 hours after Florence has woken from her first nap she has her second nap of the day. If we’re out and about this is rarely over the half hour mark and can take a lot of work to get her to sleep, but if we’re at home it can be anywhere between half an hour to the hour mark. Where she’s pretty much dropped her third nap it does seem to be getting slightly longer, slowly but surely.

2-230pm

Florence wakes from her nap. Sometimes she’ll have another snack, sometimes she won’t. If we’re back at home we tend to have a couple of hours of both playtime and a bit of tidying, sorting the washing out etc before daddy gets home at 4.15pm.

4-5.00pm

Somewhere between 4 – 5.00pm Florence will have another feed before her dinner. It’s a shame this feed isn’t a bit later really, so I can feed her when I get in from work on workdays, but hey, I’m sure our routine will have to adapt when the time comes so may change.

6.00pm

Come 6.00pm, it’s dinner time. Sometimes it’s a bit earlier than this, but it is generally around about this time. We do try and all eat together, with Florence having the same as us but this definitely doesn’t happen every day. Days where we don’t all eat together, we will still cook Florence something separately, one of her favourite quick dishes is tricolor pasta with some sort of sauce.

7.00pm

At 7.00pm it’s time for the bedtime routine to start. Florence has a bath every other day so if it’s bath day she will get in her bath, followed by having a little Child’s Farm moisturiser popped on, getting dressed and being popped in her sleeping bag. Once this is done it’s time for her to have her bedtime bottle with daddy before settling down for the night.

Once her bottle is finished we put her to bed in her cot with her Percy the Penguin that we’re still loving switched on, and let her settle herself to sleep. Florence is either out within 5 minutes or spends the next half an hour rolling side to side chatting to herself before going to sleep lol. One thing I would like to add to her bedtime routine is a story every single night.

END

And, that’s the end of our daily routine and it’s time for our couple time. As I mentioned in Florence’s 7 month baby update, sleep isn’t great, so once she’s in bed we’re just hoping we don’t have a wakeup every single hour. We’ve had the odd night here and there with one wakeup and one feed so she can do it, just needs to get herself into a proper routine of doing it consistently.

What’s your little one’s daily routine like? Is it similar to Florence’s?