E-A-S-Y

E = EAT
A = ACTIVITY
S = SLEEP
Y = YOU

This is Kents typical routine since he was about 2-3months old

EAT: K is ready to eat when he wakes up from naps. Generally he eats about every 3 hours. On Thursdays Kent is looked after by a friend from 9:30am - 3:15pm. Bottles of milk in fridge are ready to use. Since he was 4.5 months old he has been able to drink my milk - but pumping and worrying about not leaving enough milk for him was kinda stressful for me. Especially once I ran out of my frozen stored milk. So recently he has been drinking formula on Thursday's for basically 2 feedings. This has greatly eased that concern. When he is given a bottle he downs 6 oz. and is content!

ACTIVITY: after burps he is wide eyed and ready to go!

Activity time lasts about 1 to 2 hours from the time he woke up.
- Play mat in living room, he can introduce you to his toys! Of course everything gets stared at with wide excited eyes as he brings it toward his gaping drooly mouth to more thoroughly explore.
- Interacting with him is so FUN! Singing, moving his arms dancing to a beat (Wade is so cute with him), clapping his hands, talking, music, reading books

- He likes sitting up and checking out his surroundings – supported by you, pillows or couch, on your knees
- Bath's are a favourite of his, he has never fussed being in a bath.

- other fav's are going for a walk in stroller, laughing in the mirror in the hall way, being worn in a wrap, he is a social guy, likes to see and be around others.

- We were big on giving him tummy time even if he did this for a minute that’s better than none. It was thrilling for us when he rolled for the first time. First came rolling from belly to back on April 18th the day before he turned 3 months old. Then exactly 2 weeks later he flipped from back to belly! We captured it on video! Wade and I were so happy for little Kent! He rolls but not to repeatedly – it’s not like he is rolling room to room : )
- Lately his new trick is standing – supported with just holding his hands. Wade calls him "swivel hips" hahahaa. We are predicting that by 6 months old he'll be sitting up well. He is well on his way by still topples over if not supported gently while sitting.
When he starts to show drowsy signs it’s time for a nap: limbs moving less, not many sounds, yawning, rubbing his eyes (which is so darling), and of course fussing.

SLEEP: For his first 4 months of life we generally did this to put K down to sleep: doing whatever works to calm him and lull him to sleep. : ) no but really it was nice to figure out a few tricks that repeatedly worked well! We don’t let him cry in his crib to sleep. We hold him and rock him till he is almost asleep and then place him in the crib to completely go to sleep. The methods during the holding and rocking stage that we have been successful with : ) are

-swaddling him in a blanket (except now that he is 5 months old and it's a hot summer we no longer need our sweating baby in a blanket)
- step into the dark bathroom and turn on the bathroom fan for good white noise (once I tried the radio on static but I found that creepy)
- if he was really crying by turning on the blow dryer he would calm right away and he’d take the pasi
- we would even run the pasi under water (I've heard that was a no-no, but it worked for him and us!)
- still in the bathroom keeping him forward facing and then see if he’ll let you cradle him. If he’s not ready to be cradled he’ll squirm, we'd determine if it’s a “last hoorah squirm” or “put me back upright forward facing” now squirm. I’ve at this point gone out to the hallway and used a large bouncy speed walk to calm.
- It’s nice when he gets into the cradling position; . I guard the pasi from falling and stroke my finger down his nose, he’ll close his eyes right away then you can place him directly into the crib or continue holding him a little longer (just to be sure) and enjoy sitting down in the rocking chair
- Our advice to a caregiver is: Lot’s of gentle movement your soft calm voice. Step outside if needed and he’ll calm right down then. Surprisingly he can be squirming and we think we have to hold him – but if we put him down he snuggles up with the blanket and pasi and goes to sleep.

Really he goes to sleep very well! That whole bit in the bathroom is only for a minute or two. We don't even use a blow dryer anymore. (besides it is broken now) Something changed when he hit 5 months old. Now he shows his drowsy signs and we can place him in his crib on his back and cover him with a blanket. by passing the old bathroom routine. He is so cute: he pulls the blanket up to the side of his cheek and then turns onto his side. It's adorable. Certainly there are fussy times but if he is just whimpering we are comfortable leaving him be and letting him whimper and then he falls to sleep. If he is released from our arms and realizes he is in his crib and starts wailing, we scoop him back up and keep loving him for a minute or two and place him back in his crib. Perhaps a whimper - but usually he is just so tired he is happy to be in bed. We feel lucky.

YOU: I slept when he slept until recently as he started adding more hours to his sleep during the night. What a difference that has made for me! Maybe that's why all of a sudden I am taking time to blog! (well and and feeling so guilty for not documenting more of our family lately) During the day he’ll nap for anywhere between 40 min to 2 hours. When he wakes up he is ready to EAT, then Activity Time and then sleep again!

I learned about this EASY BABY routine from my good friend Mandy. It was the best advice ever! It's a pattern that would have probably occured without me "instigating anything" But the difference is that it was something for me to have in my head of "anticipating" what's next. I think I need a routine just as much as Kent thrives on a routine. : )