Schedule? Routine? Schedule? Routine?

As the days drew closer to my due date, I had very little idea of what a typical day was going to look like once Ajay really did arrive. I didn't know and looking back there isn't any amount of research or reading that could have prepared me for just how demanding the first few weeks with a newborn and subsequent months with an infant could be. We went from no schedule at all, to a schedule, to a period of "I don't know what the hell is going on", to now with what I would describe as more of a routine than anything else.

I delivered via C-section on a Wednesday afternoon and checked out on Sunday. I stayed in the hospital the maximum time allotted. I could have checked out on Saturday, but Ajay and I were having a rocky start with breastfeeding, so I want to focus ALL day on Saturday working with the lactation consultants to help make sure we could figure it out once we were on our own. So anyway, the first four days in the hospital you are broken in baby boot camp style. You are feeding every 2.5 hours and a good feed takes about an hour, because the baby is learning and mommy is learning and these things just take time. In short, mommy does not get any sleep for about 72 hours.

Then, we came home on Sunday and for the next week it is more of the same. Feed the baby every 2.5-3 hours. Feeds take about an hour. Then, the baby usually sleeps for the next 2 hours and is up to feed again. Ajay was jaundiced, so we couldn't let him wake on his own to eat. Basically, jaundice secretes a poison in the body and makes the baby very drowsy. It is very common, but can be very dangerous if not managed properly.  So, that was us for the first 2-5 weeks. Eat, sleep, poop, repeat. By week 3, the pediatrician gave the go ahead to put ajay on a feeding schedule, per se. He said every 3 hours during the day and let him go as long as 5 in the night. By week 4, I was thinking, "heh, easy as cake. I got this." Then, by week 5, hell broke loose.

Week 5, Ajay was going through a rough time. We didn't really have any kind of routine for the nighttime, so Ajay was up all the time. It was tough because daddy works long hours and gets home late most nights. I was trying to make it so that Ajay could be up for when daddy gets home, but it was just messing things up. Ajay had no idea what to expect and couldn't comprehend the idea of night=sleep. He was starting to learn how to break out of the swaddleme blankets and that was only making things worse. So, I got my Moms On Call  seminar password out and watched the 0-3 month online baby seminar. And watched it again. And watched it again. And again. And again.You get the point? And so a schedule was born. My good friend, Stacy, who introduced me to Moms on Call, also gave me her swaddle blankets and I learned to swaddle nice and snug so that he could get a good night's rest and nap really well.

Our schedule from about Week 5 to 12 weeks went something like this. Ajay wakes about 6 or 7 am, I am feed him and we play. Then he may go back down for a cat nap. Up again to eat at 9am and then every 3 hours from there on out. So he would be eating 9a, 12p, 3p, 6p, and last night feed @ 9p. Then, he would usually sleep for about 5 hours and then be up to eat at 2a, and sleep another 5 hours for the feeding cycle to start over again. After he would eat he would stay up for another 30 minutes, then nap for about an hour and half, then up to eat and repeat.

Then, I am not sure what happened from 3 to 4 months, but he was pretty much nursing all the time and playing and maybe taking 3-4 30-45 minute naps and sleeping about 8 hours at night. It was chaotic and I didn't like not knowing what to expect. So, then I got out my moms on call book, Guide To Basic Baby Care to see what it said for routines for 4 month+...and I think I am going to have to write that in another post...this one is too long and the baby needs to be fed!