7 Months Old Baby Summary Schedule {baby #4}

I cannot believe my baby is 7 months old. I am really not certain where the time has gone- I guess just in every day life.

Baby C 7 months Summary

In trying to be present for all the moments, I have been journaling more of our days than I have been blogging them. But I am trying to put some of that on the screen.

Our schedule for now is a typical 2-3-4 schedule. We will stay here until she drops to one nap. To transition to one nap, she will naturally begin shorten one of her naps between 11-14 months old. To make sure it is the morning nap, I will start capping that nap when she shows signs that she is ready to shorten a nap, then eventually we will drop the morning nap and move the afternoon nap to 12:00 noon.

We moved to the 2-3-4 around 6 months, but it was still messy and uncertain. The day after she turned 7 months I decided we were sticking to the 2-3-4 schedule and not looking back. It has been a *dream* since.

I know scheduling babies is not for everyone. But I can tell you that while hard at first, sticking to it pays off. It gives me a life outside of babies, it gives my marriage freedom outside of babies, it gives my babies independence to sleep, be happy, and healthy on their own. I can give my baby and their schedule to anyone in the case of an emergency, and any of them would probably do pretty well as long as their caretaker kept to the schedule- it is all in the consistency.

Routine creates confidence, confidence creates happy babies.

Today, Coralie’s schedule looks like this:

  • 7am wake, bottle, snuggles, mommy baby time, then get the older 3 up
  • 7:30/8 solids
  • read books, activities with everyone on the floor
  • 9:00 Baby down for first nap
  • 11:00 Baby up from nap, bottle, snuggles
  • make lunch for all, feed solids
  • 12:15 2 year old’s nap
  • 12:50 4 year old’s nap
  • 1:30 Baby 2nd nap
  • 3:00 everyone up from naps, baby bottle
  • play outside, errands, activities, mama prep dinner
  • 5:30 solids for baby, dinner for all
  • bath time
  • 6:40 baby botttle
  • 6:50 baby bed, right to sleep

She LOVES:

  • drinking kombucha from a sippy cup
  • bouncing in her bouncer
  • eating
  • snuggles, just being held
  • warm days outside
  • sitting up high so she can see everything
  • being tickled
  • being talked to
  • chewing on anything
  • her swaddle blanket- she has one arm out, but does NOT want the other arm out. She likes to suck on the cloth
  • sleeping on her side
  • sleep- she loves her naps and bedtime sleep. If i get sidetracked she is super quick to let me know it is time to get ready for bed!
  • being in the car- maybe she doesn’t love this, but she doesn’t mind it, which makes me life easier
  • holding her firefly and her skwish
  • chewing on things with her 2 bottom teeth

She really doesn’t enjoy:

  • cold days outside, or cool and windy days
  • the dog in her face (can’t say I blamer her…)
  • being alone
  • having a wet diaper
  • hiccups
  • people invading her space
  • the exersaucer outside- it is the same exersaucer all my other babies have used. She hates it. She prefers her bouncer or rocker
  • loud noises
  • bright lights
  • being woken up (did I mention she likes her sleep?)
  • teething

She has been such a joy for us. Everyone needs “baby time” in the house, and we all delight in her new developments. She is a sweet girl; we are pretty sure she is teething her top teeth now, so there is lots of drool, lots of fussiness, and a little clinginess. But this too will pass, and probably all too quickly!

baby C 7 month summary {2-3-4 BW schedule}

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4 comments

  1. Eva says:

    Hi Meghan. I was wondering how you handled the 2-3-4 when the baby suddenly catnaps for the first nap? My son usually naps for 1.5 hours for the first and second nap. I was thinking about putting him on the 2-3-4 (he is 7.5 months old) but today he suddenly catnapped for 45 min instead of his usual 1.5 hours and so his bedtime would be ultra early if we did the 2-3-4.

    Also- now that is 2 months later, is your child sticking with the 2-3-4? I hear a lot of people say they couldn’t stick with the schedule because their child started staying up past the 2 hour wake time in the morning when they got older.

    Thanks!

    • Meghan says:

      Hi Eva!
      There is a sleep regression coming up for you (actually, I think you might be right at the beginning of it? Check out the Wonder Weeks App if you don’t have it.) That wonder week/ leap could be causing your cat nap!
      Coralie is now 8.5 months old, we JUST finished up that wonder week, and she is back to napping beautifully. She did go through the cat napping some days, but when she did, I stuck to the 2-3-4 schedule, just for consistency sake. She was SUPER cranky and fussy before nap #2, but I thought it would be best to stay consistent so when she came out of the WW/leap, things were normal.
      WIth that WW came crying at bedtime, waking on and off after bedtime, and short first nap. But, like I said, I stuck with our 2-3-4 schedule and things were fine. Oh- also, during this leap we had to move bedtime up to 6:30 instead of 7, most nights. We are out of the leap, but she is still enjoying the 6:30 bedtime … So I guess we did a 2-3-3.5 really, not a 2-3-4. =/

      At 8.5 months, she does not yet need a longer wake time before her first nap, but that will usually come around 9.5 months I think? We will stick to that for a few months.

      Then around 12-13 months, the natural transition is to shorten first nap gradually (I turn this into Independent Play in their crib with low lights and soft music and toys), while moving up the second nap until we get rid of first nap all together and move to one nap at 11:45/12.

      Hope that helps some! Let me know if you have more questions or if I confused you more. haha =)

      • Eva says:

        Thanks Meghan! I don’t think he hit the sleep regression yet. He recently started fighting his third nap so I thought it might be time to transition him to 2 naps. He usually naps 1.5 hours for the first nap but does occasionally wake at the 45 min mark rather than the 1.5.

        So hypothetically if your daughter goes to nap at 9 and wakes up at 945, you put her down again at 12:45PM. But if she wakes up at the 1 hour mark (1:45PM), does that mean you would put her down at 545PM? That just seems too early? This seems to work great if both naps go on to 1.5-2 hours?

        Thank you so much for your quick response 🙂

        • Meghan says:

          So, when on 2 naps, if she woke at 9:45 instead of 10:30, I would try to push her to at least 1, to try to stay on track. (once theyre ready for 2 naps that is more doable than it sounds) If baby is SUPER sensitive to being over tired, and that backfires, then YES you end up with a 5:54/6pm bedtime. but typically the early bedtime isn’t the rule, it is the exception. My oldest was on a 5:45, sometimes 5:30pm bedtime for a LONG time because she refused naps. My second we only had to do it occassionally because he was a great napper (and still is at almost 5yo!). Baby #3 always napped perfectly it seemed, so has never needed a super early bedtime.

          If baby is on 3 naps, and is shortening one, I would drop third nap for sure. This will help her consolidate that sleep into two naps. Chances are you will get short, messy naps for a week or so, (needing early bedtime) but don’t give up! Because then babe will fall into naps perfectly, it just takes time to adjust. Then you won’t have to worry about those short cat-naps, because you will get 2 good naps until you hit a regression or baby is ready for longer wake time. make sense?

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