our schedule

Now that Luke is a month old I am going to try and start to get us on a little schedule. Now I'm not going to be one of those crazy mamas who schedules every minute of every day. I understand that my child is a month old, not one year old, so flexibility will still be our mantra. However, I do think it is good to start a schedule of sorts that will continue with the child as he/she grows. Here's what I have started to do:

1. Wake up. The time we wake up varies from day to day and depends on Luke's night. We will often wake up early in the morning (5:00 or 6:00), Luke will nurse, I'll change his diaper and we will both go back to sleep. However I try to have us both up by 9:00 to start our little schedule. *I should mention that Luke is NOT sleeping through the night. I don't want my statement about our early morning feeding to be misleading; we have multiple feedings throughout the night/early morning.*
2. Get dressed. Even though Luke wears the same thing (short-sleeved onesies) for both nighttime and daytime, I'm trying to dress him in a new outfit each morning. Just like you and I get dressed for the day, the little man does to! 
3. Eat. Luke nurses. I eat. Everyone's happy. :)
4. Playtime upstairs. Luke isn't sleeping in his room yet (he still sleeps in the basinet next to our bed) but I still want him to have time in his bedroom each day. After waking up, having a diaper change, eating some breakfast & getting dressed, we have playtime in Luke's bedroom. We both lay down on his Eric Carle quilt (lovingly made by Nana!) and play. I read him at least one book and we pull out different toys. I try to talk to Luke about all of the toys. I often describe the toys that we're playing with (Look at the moose! He has a hard ear and a soft foot.) and try to let Luke feel each of the books/toys. He loves to kick around and look at all the bright colors on the books and toys. We finish our playtime by jamming to a few tracks of a Praise Baby cd.
5. Eat/Sleep/Play downstairs. The rest of our morning, afternoon and early evening is spent downstairs. I let Luke lead for the majority of his day. If he's hungry, I nurse him. When he's tired, I let him sleep. When he's awake, we play on his activity mat, go for a walk around the yard or just hang out on the floor and talk.  We also do errands, visit friends and go out-and-about during this time. Because, let's be honest, mama gets cabin fever.
6. Bathtime. After his evening feeding (anywhere between 6:00-9:00) we give Luke a bath. Ever since his second day at home he has LOVED his baths. We have had to do sponge baths for the first four weeks since his stubborn umbilical cord won't fall off. However, the little guy loves to lay on his changing pad and get a nice, warm sponge bath. 
7. Feed and Sing. After getting slathered in lotion and dressed in his pjs, I will nurse Luke and rock him in his bedroom. I put on some music and sing to him while I'm rocking him. This combination of a warm bath + fresh pjs + a full belly + snuggling with mama in the rocker will (hopefully) produce a sleeping baby. 

So that's it, our first little schedule. Like I said, we are ultra flexible with this and I let Luke determine much of the day. However, these few little parts of our day remain consistent and will hopefully transition Luke into more of a schedule as he grows up.