Everyone is always in shock that we take the baby everywhere. We are blessed with what everyone describes as “a good baby.” I’ve read the articles. People don’t like the “good baby” “bad baby” labeling. I don’t either, honestly. They are all good. They are just fussy or uncomfortable or just unhappy with the current situation. I don’t blame them. They have to be carried around, sometimes in a wet diaper for longer than they would like. At times we parents feed them late, because we are getting to where ever it is that they will get to enjoy their meal. Possibly with an audience. Possibly in an outfit and he/she is not as comfortable in as he/she would like but that mommy thought was cute and whoever bought it for baby would be there and should see the baby wear it. Can you truly blame baby for being fussy?
Back to my post… so we take baby everywhere. We are blessed. He is all about routine. Wakes, changes, eats, sleeps.
The schedule is as follows:
Wakes at 6:00-6:15am.We change his diaper and his outfit.
He drinks bottle 1. Finishes by 6:40(ish)
We put him in the crib. He rolls around a bit until he falls asleep, usually around 7:00ish. He either wakes up or I wake him up at 8:05.
I get him in the car seat, drive him to our sitter’s home. Go in, drop him off in his pack and play and I go to work.
He may nap again for a bit… and then he wakes to drink/eat between 9:30-10am.
He stays awake for about 40-45 minutes, playing with toys,. sitting on the baby swing or just playing and then he sleeps again.
He wakes up around 1:30pm for bottle 3.
More play time and fun, then he takes another nappy and then he is awake. Daddy picks him up around 3:30pm and then he goes home for a little more play time in our home pack and play. A little jumparoo (or brinca, brinca as we call it) and now that hes been crawling a little crawling action.
Around 4:30-5:00pm he has his bottle number 4.
At 6:30pm he usually starts a little whimpering. Mostly because of boredom so its bath time. We bathe him and we put him in his PJ’s and then he gets his last bottle. Immediately after burping he goes to his crib with sweet music and off to dreaming after roaming in the crib for a bit,
That is the schedule. Every day. Youmay think, sure you can do that now with a 7 month old, but we did it when he was 2 and a half month old. The difference between then and now is that there was more sleep time and less play time. But the bottles remained the same. We have not incorporated solids into the 9:30am and 4:30pm bottles and that is it. The times have not changed.
So we have been blessed to be able to take him everywhere. We go to restaurants, plays, cafes, dinner out, the grocery store, the baby store, my parents house or down the street for a walk. Its important to get him out and used to noise and people.
I am not a fan of the pass the baby around. I do everything I can to keep him in his chair as much as possible when we are in a group. No matter how much I love you, there is no reason to have a 3-4 month old passed around like a hot potato. People need to be ok with this. Its not because we don’t love you, its because babies don’t need the extra germs of being touched, kissed, etc. But of course some germs are good for baby and I make sure that he gets some dirt on him too.
Taking baby out can be difficult, but its good to get him used to it at an early age. Its also good to adapt the schedules, his and yours so that you can definitely have the flexibility needed. I am not saying he can wait hours.. because the crying will drive us mad, but you can bring your bottles in your lunch box and still have lunch out. Being stuck in our home is not an option, so we must be nimble.