Schedule Writing – Evil or Good?

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “The Golden Hour.”

I’m trying to work out a schedule for our transitioning household.  Wee One is four months now and I’ve heard that everything will be easier for her if we have a schedule. I’ve tried to come up with one but I hate schedules! I hate being trapped or confined. I think schedules are lame.

But they really are good for people, especially small ones. Especially when we’re moving and so much is changing. I’m also finding they’re good for new moms and their heightened anxiety. So I’m trying to do this schedule.

For the  past four months, I’ve been a sort of attachment mommy who just nurses when daughter “asks,” which meant every hour or hour and a half, and in the early weeks, that was all the time. Now that she’s a little older, her tummy can hold a little more at each feeding and we give her formula more often.

We were sort of organically coming up with a schedule, or at least a routine. I was swaddling her and reading to her at nighttime, and then would place her in her swing where she would drift off around 8-10ish. Then she would eat again around 12-1 am and 3-4 am, and if I was lucky, she would go back to sleep until 7 or so.  Then she was up and alert, and I would be alert with her for several hours before a feeding/fussing/napping schedule.

Five weekends of a Renaissance Fair and then a move across the country threw this off, and my scheduling efforts have begun anew and with more vigor.

7:30-8:00 am – Eat and get up. I changed her, wiped her face and body with a warm cloth, read a story, then played with her and had some tummy time.

8:30ish – I put her in her car seat (the only thing with have for her to sit in right now) and she can watch me eat and do some household things as I talk to her and we listen to NPR podcasts or music.

10:00ish – Take a walk outside and look at things

10:30ish – We come back in so she could eat, then she took a nap on me. Actually, we usually both nap at this point.

12:00 or 1:00 – Wake up. Changed her diaper and I made lunch, then we ate together.

The afternoon is still formless; we’re just winging it. But lately Cohiba and I have been trying something new: to get her to bed by 8:00ish. It’s been working really well, and that means we have several hours to ourselves!

So maybe I don’t hate schedules so much. 🙂