Help with 8mo routine (slightly GF-y)

[NellyBluth]

I'm trying to work out a routine for 8mo DD as she starts with her childminder properly soon. Our slight issue is that she will be there at different times due to our shift work, so we need something that will work with the CM's schedule too. I wondered if I could pick the collective MN brain and see what other people thought of this, or ask what your 8mo does?

(Also, weaning is still in the early stages as she has only recently taken to food, so some advice on when other people give their babies solids would be great too!)

6.45/7 - wake. Might not want breakfast bottle until 8am, can take a while to finish it. Haven't started solid breakfasts yet.
9.30ish - nap for 30, 45 mins
10.30 - I think the CM goes to a baby group or activity most mornings, or if at home with us try to do something quite exciting and tiring
12ish - lunch? Followed by bottle?
12.30ish - nap for 1.5 or 2 hours. She's still learning to sleep for a longer time so not sure if she will manage a full 2 hours, though its looking promising
2.45 - school pick up if with CM
4 - bottle
5, 5.30 - catnap? This is what I'm not sure on. I don't think DD could make it through to bedtime without a quick nap, but I know that its recommended you drop these by this age
7 - bath
7.30 - bottle, bedtime

Now I really don't know what time to fit dinner in. She currently has it at about 5.30-6, but that is because we currently do the afternoon naps slightly differently (and in a way that won't work with the CM because of the school run, as DD won't sleep for long in the pushchair), but I don't know whether to do it at 5 before the catnap, or at 6.30 when she will be back home with us.

We can't really push wake-up any later as some mornings she will have to get up then with me to get to the CM, and I don't really want to change bedtime much as some days I will pick her up from the CM at 6, getting home at 6.15, so I would like to see her a bit...

Because DD will be doing such odd hours between us and the CM I'm really keen to get a familiar routine going that we can all use, to keep some consistency for her. She's generally been quite a routine baby herself anyway.

Any advice very gratefully received - especially on the late catnap and when to have solids!

My DD is a bit older now, but at 8 mo was having 3 naps like you describe. She dropped to two around 10-11mo, but really needed a late afternoon nap until then.

Also, does your CM give dinner to other charges? Because soon your DD might start to notice these things and prefer to eat when others are eating.

Our DD is 8.5 months and our "routine" is pretty similar to what you've got, but with solid foods
6.30/7.00 Wake up and bf
8.30 breakfast
9.30 nap
10.00 baby group or activity of some sort
12.30 nap
1.00 lunch
3.30 bf
4.00 nap
5.30 tea
6.45 start bedtime routine (bath, massage, book, bf)
7.30 bed

DD will be going to nursery soon and they give breakfast at 8am; lunch at 12 noon; and tea at 4pm (but I think the 4pm tea is partly to get it out of the way and cleared up before parents start appearing to pick up and the early shift staff leave for the day).

If I were you I'd probably do tea at 5pm, so that your DD will be hungry enough to take the bottle at bedtime.

Hope you find something that works for you.

Good luck!

Don't worry about dinner until she drops the nap. Or switch her 4pm bottle to a smaller bottle and tea as finger foods?

My ds didn't get into three meals until 9/10 months. Dd was similar.

Thanks everyone. Good to hear that other babies still have the late nap! Tbh she can get through on two naps, but only if she can have a long sleep in the cot mornings and afternoons at exactly the times the CM will want to be doing things...

Not sure what time other mindees have dinner as DD has only done some settling in days so far, but hopefully they might be eating when she has her late nap. But thanks for the suggestion, Iggly, I might move to her having her main meal in the late morning and then finger foods at about half six. So far she still takes her bedtime bottle but it is a small one because we still do a df at 10.30 (to combat the 4am wake). She can always have a solid snack mid-afternoon as well, I suppose, to keep her solid uptake up, and maybe start thinking about breakfast too.

I really wish I knew someone with a slightly older baby who was back at work already so I could pick their brains! (I would pick the CM's brain but she is reasonably new to this and so I think this is the first time she has had a young-ish baby.)

Hi, my 8mo old's routine looks like this:

7.15am - wake up, breastfeed
8.30am - breakfast
9.30am - nap for 45 mins
11am - snack
12pm - lunch
12.30pm - nap for 2 hours
3pm - breastfeed
4.30pm - snack
5.30pm - dinner
6.15pm - bath and bottle
7pm - bed

Sorry, clicked post too soon.

My DC is only just down to 2 naps a day. She can get quite grizzly the last hour or so she is awake but it's not too bad.

I go back to work in a few months so will need to make quite a few tweaks to the routine but for the moment it is working and I shall stick to it!

WRT solids I would offer her a milk feed about an hour before a mealtime. My DD is reasonably well established on solids now but in the beginning it felt like all I did was feed her milk and solids but it's better now. Good luck!

Well my DD is 9.5 months and I go back in three weeks. She doesn't have an afternoon nap just two - one morning one at 9am, a post lunch one at 12.30/1 for two hours then bedtime at 6.30/7. She eats solids at 7am, 12pm and tea at 5pm. Milk at 6am, 10.30am, before naps and at bedtime. Sometimes has snacks too. When I go back to work, she'll have milk mid morning and mid afternoon when I'm not there plus snacks as well.

She's my second DC - I did similar with DS.