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Should my baby be on a schedule?
As I approach the end of my maternity leave I’m really starting to freak out about how my husband and I will manage the new schedule. It seems like we just figured out our current routine and now it’s about to change.In preparation for the new routine, I decided to take a look at what other moms of infants are doing. I stumbled across this interesting post. There are a variety of schedules from stay-at-home moms and working moms, breastfed and formula fed.
I decided to put my current schedule on paper to see how it stacked up against other moms.
Our schedule pretty much works like this:
Our son wakes up around 4 a.m. – I feed him a 4 oz. bottle and he’s usually back to sleep within an hour. Around 8 a.m. he’s up again. We hear him crying on the monitor. My hubby goes in his room to get him and brings him back to bed with us. We have a little family time (my favorite part of the day) and then I feed him a bottle while daddy gets ready for work. Baby usually goes back to sleep and wakes up around 11 a.m. When he wakes up I feed him a 4 oz. bottle. We play a little, do some tummy time and get him dressed. After a little house work I run errands. Baby usually sleeps for about 30 minutes in between trips in the car seat. We’re usually home by 4 p.m.when I feed him a 6 oz. bottle. I put him in the Baby Bjorn and we walk the dog. He’s down for a short nap around 5 p.m. and wakes up when dad gets home around 6ish. They play and cuddle for a bit while I finish dinner. Sometimes we put baby in his swing and dad and I catch up over a glass of wine. Between 7 and 9 p.m we eat dinner. At 9 baby gets a bath, story time and a nice 6 oz. bottle with rice in it. He’s asleep by 10ish.
On most days it works out. And then there are times when we all fall asleep at 8:30 and nobody’s taken a bath. And other times where we all stay up until midnight playing.
So what’s your schedule like? How does it differ from mine? Any suggestions about what needs to be tweaked to prepare for me going back to work?
-- Nicole Hutcheson, new Times Mom
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Sharon Kennedy Wynne has sunscreen in her blood. She may have been born in Buffalo but she got here as fast as she could, in time for kindergarten. She grew up in St. Petersburg, graduated from the University of Florida journalism school, and even got married at Sunken Gardens. She's one of the few adults we know who actually loves taking her kids to the beach. She has two sons and with 10 years of parenting under her belt, she's starting to feel a little less out of her league. She comes from a large family and loves to debate, so brace yourself when the hot topics come up.
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Freelance writer Courtney Cairns Pastor wasn’t so sure about having kids and how she would balance child-rearing with her journalism career. It turned out that her journalism training went to good use. As the mom to a funny, active toddler, she learned to handle him like she did her sources. Never ask yes or no questions (the answer will always be no), get him to be specific (are you crying because you’re wet or your tooth hurts?) and be prepared for anything because no two days are the same. When she’s not playing trucks, Courtney crams for her book club, trains for races and occasionally bursts into showtunes. E-mail her at 
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