Schedule: 0-3 Months

My favorite parenting book is the Baby Whisperer. I bought it while I was still pregnate and read it cover to cover twice before she was born. I liked her ideas that babies like to know what is coming next. And when you have your child on a routine it is easier to figure out why they are crying.

This doesn't mean you have to follow this strictly, but if your baby is crying at 9:30 am,  you know her next feeding is soon so she must be hungry.  Of course I wouldn't  let her cry until 10 because that's when the schedule says to eat.  I'd feed her early when she asked. She soon got to know when food and naps were coming, and rarely cried. She was confident that her needs were going to be met, and didn't need to communicate them to me. Below is the schedule I used for the first 3 months.

Schedule: 0 - 3 Months

7am - Feeding.  I'm not a morning person so I would do this feed in bed, and either put her back in her basenette or bring her into bed with me.

10am -  Feeding.  This is when I got up.

11:30 am - Nap.  I picked times so she would be able to sleep an hour and a half before her next feeding. In the very beginning she did, but quickly cut down on how long she slept.

1pm - Feeding. Lunch for me.

2:30 pm - Second nap. I read a book or watched tv.

3pm - Feeding.

5:30 pm - Short nap.  I didnt let her sleep past 6:30 or it would ruin her bedtime.

7 pm - Feeding.  Dinner time.

8 pm - Bedtime.  Our rutine was, pajamas, bottle,  dinner (ours),  then bed.

11pm - Dream feed. I pumped for this feed, otherwise she would fall asleep and not get enough milk to last the night. My bedtime.

2am, 5am - Night Feedings. By 3 months I was able to cut out the 2am feed.

Just because this worked well for me doesn't mean it will for you and your baby.

Eliza: Four Months

Ellie is such a happy baby. She likes when I sing her songs, like Doe a Deer, and the Insie Winsie Spider. I've signed up for a stroller fitness class we go to every Wednesday.  After the moms work out, we sing songs and play with our babies. She enjoys it. She also has discovered her feet this month and likes to hold them. She grabs for everything now and tries to put it in her mouth, feet inluded. For the first time I took her to work last week, and everyone met her. They all wanted to hold her. I had my first mother's day this month. Maureen and Dad came and watched Ellie for the weekend and we went to the cottage. I got a nice card from Darryl and a new Kobo.

Ellie:

Weight: 12 lb

Length: 60cm

Feeding:

At four months we started to think about solids. First thing we tried was pureed banana. Ellie just spit it out and wasn't very impressed.  We've only tried twice so far. We will have to see if she starts to like it more in the coming month.  This week we are transitioning to a four hour schedule. She's easily adapted to the space between bottles.  If she seems a little hungry I let her nurse to make up for the one less bottle she's getting.

Sleeping:

We still do the 11pm dream feed. She sleeps until 5am most nights. Sometimes she wakes at 3 to Eat but not often. Her naps are still short. I'm trying to switch her to 2 naps but it isn't working because she isn't sleeping more then 30mins. I don't know how to get her to sleep longer, expect for letting her sleep on my lap, which I don't want to start again.

Play:

So many new milestones this month. She can grab her toys now and bring them to her mouth. She has discovered her feet and will play with them when she is bored. She just rolled over for the first time. She hasnt mastered it yet. Its only been once so far. Before that she was rolling onto her side a lot. Her favorite toy right now is a frog cloth melissa got her with plastic corners.  

Bookshelf Make-over

As Ellie is beginning to get more active, I realize that it won't be long before she is crawling around our apartment and getting into trouble. This means that i don't have long before our place needs to be baby proofed. In reality I should make sure it's done now before it to late. So this week I started by organizing the bookshelf in our living room. 

This is how messy the shelf was before. Every shelf was overflowing with books and toys.

 I've collected so many books that the shelves have started to warp, and the back had come unattached. It was a major hazard. It needs to be anchored to the wall, but first I had to do a purge.

I went through all books and got rid of more then half of them. I kept my old school texts, cookbooks, parenting books, classics, and a few of my favourites. Then I arranged them by colour. We have a lot of collectables and suvenirs displayed and I put all them back.

The finished product is so much organized and cleaner to look at.