Schedule baby

Rian has always been a schedule baby. During the first two weeks of Rian's life, we had a 2 hr alarm clock to feed him, since he had some jaundice. After that, Rian fell into a very predictable feeding/sleeping pattern right away. I could tell within a 5 min period when his next feed would be. Planning our chores/visits outdoors was easy since I just had to stick to his schedule.

Ever since Rian started school, Amit and me had to get into a schedule too. It was a much bigger commitment required from us, to keep to a specific wake up time. Only then can we get Rian into school by 8:45am. To meet this time, everything else has to fall into place, starting with his sleep the night before. Slowly, we moved Rian's bedtime from before-school days 10pm to the current 8:45pm. He falls asleep by 9 on most days.

To do this, we need to start his night milk at 8:15pm on week nights, and follow it with a rigid sleep routine. Even a single day slip in skipping his brushing results in major battles the next day. If there's even a single battle in the morning, Rian remains cranky throughout and it carries over into his lunch, where he simply refuses to eat.

As long as we were feeding Rian ourselves, Rian was a healthy 65-75 percentile weight and height baby. In the last 9 months long winter, Rian has not gained even a single pound. He remains 32.2 pounds :-( He has grown 2 inches taller. With his school and pediatrician insisting that we let him feed himself, the quantity of food that goes into his tummy is decreasing daily. We've been trying this for 2 weeks now, and we're starting to feel Rian's bones now. We are still hoping he will come back to his regular meals, which weren't much in quantity to begin with, but double of what he's eating now. For now, the resolve is to stick to his schedule/routine and offer him regular good choices.