My Toddler Routine

Before kids, I was never a routine person. I always just went with the flow of my day. I have learned that kids and babies NEED a routine and love being on a schedule. It helps them know what to expect and results in them being more cooperative because they already know the drill. I'm not saying that routines and schedules make your child cooperate all the time.... I'm saying that it helps.

Becoming a first time mom had a lot of challenges the first year. You are learning everything for the first time. I had so much support from my friends and family, I don't know how I would have gotten through that first year without them. I googled (and still do) EVERY SINGLE THING. I never realized how much mom advice is contradicting. I learned really fast that I had to take everything with a grain of salt and know that every child is different. I also learned that my mother instinct was better then any answers google can give. I encourage all moms and new moms to trust the instinct that you have for your child! My instinct has never been wrong.

Since I was so bad at following a consistent routine, I had to always google some ideas of what other moms' schedule's looked like for their babies. That was so helpful as a first time mom! I would look at many different schedules and just combine different things until I figured out what worked best for Joshua. Now that we have a good consistent system, it makes our days less stressful! There are still the days that Joshua is teething or didn't sleep well the night before so it throws us off a little but, we are able to pick things right back up the next day. I know I have a few momma friends with kids just a few months younger then Joshua and I wanted to post this as an inspiration of what you can do with your energetic toddler.

Joshua is 18 months old. We have officially stopped the pacifier and the bottle! He goes down no problem for bed and nap time without either! Yay! He does have a blankey and little bunny stuffed animal that he LOVES to cuddle with. Also, I do give him a sippy cup with 3-4 oz of water for his nap time and bed time. All I do to put him down his read a book or 2 and give him a hug and kiss, tell him night night, put on his humidifier, close his curtains so its dark in his room and lay him down and tuck him in. Its so great! He goes down no problem most of the time. Maybe 1 night a week on average it takes him a little longer to fall asleep. He sleeps through the night 12-14 hours. I strongly believe that he does so well because we established sleep training at an early age (4-6 months old) and we have always stuck to a schedule on a day to day basis.

So with that information, here is a little sample of what our schedule looks like :)

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7:00-8:00 Wake up & play in his room for about 15-20 min.

8:00 Eat breakfast then play in the house for about an hour

9:30 Get dressed for the day and have some outside time if the weather allows

10:30 Snack time (Usually fruit or crackers, something light)

12 Lunch then play inside for a little depending on how tired he is

1-1:30 Clean up his toys downstairs and in his room then nap time (he loves to clean!)

3:30-4:30 Wakes up then plays inside or outside (whichever he is in the mood for)

6 Dinner then play time for about 30 min then cleans up his toys

7 Bath time! He looks forward to this everyday!

7:15ish Lotion and Jammies on. We usually play calmly in his room or read books

8 Bed time. Sometimes he goes to sleep around 7:30, it all depends on the day.

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On a day to day basis, this is typically what it looks like. There are days where it gets shifted a little bit or thrown off, but because he is so used to this schedule he adjusts well. We recently switched to 1 nap a day. He was doing 2 naps from about 12 months to 17 months. He started to not go down for an afternoon nap and showed more interest in wanting to stay awake longer. So, when we switched to 1 nap a day he did much better!

Like I said, every child is different and this is just to give you an idea that you can try with your little one and see if it works for them. Joshua is a happy, healthy toddler and he is learning so much! Next thing is potty training!

If you would like to see a toddler eating schedule/what he eats, leave me a comment and I would be more then happy to post that :)