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William’s 8 Month Schedule

William is 8 months old already! He turned 8 months old 3 days ago, and this is a look back at his eighth month of life. So much has changed.

William went from eating purees, to bite sized pieces of everything we eat this month.

He is currently perfecting his pincher grasp skills, and rocking it. He is so focused and so precise. It’s very impressive.

He also dropped a nap this month!

8 Month Old Babywise Schedule

William’s schedule has changed a bunch during month 8.

His wake time is now much longer, and he is down to two naps.

8 month old babywise schedule

Feeding Schedule for Month 8

William gets 4 bottles throughout the day at scheduled times:

7 am wake and bottle, solids with breakfast (time can vary), 11:30 am bottle, solids with lunch (time can vary), 4:30 pm bottle, solids with dinner (time can vary), 6:30 pm bottle

Sleep Schedule for Month 8

Nap 1: 9:30 am – 11:30 am

Nap 2: 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Bed: 6:30 pm starts bedtime routine with bottle, then book, diaper change, and down.

Putting the schedule together

Ok so this schedule is not as straight forward as the others he’s previously had. His wake times vary throughout the day. So, I just want to walk through that with everyone really quickly.

  • 7 am he wakes up for the day. He is up for a 2.5 hour wake time.
  • At 9:30 he goes down and sleeps for 2 hours for nap #1.
  • At 11:30 am, he gets up and is awake for a total of 3 hours.
  • At 2:30 pm he goes down for nap #2. He also takes a 2 hour nap here.
  • He wakes up at 4:30 pm. He then has 2 hours of awake time before we start his bedtime routine. The routine is quick.
  • We feed him a bottle at 6:30, change his diaper, read him a couple of books, get a burp out of him, turn his sound on, and lay him down. All of that happens before 7 pm easily.

Eat

William is doing great with his bottles and with solid foods.

His reflux goes through horrible cycles. He’ll spit up all day every day for a couple of weeks, and then not at all for awhile. It’s very odd.

This month, however, he seems to be spitting up less and less, which is so nice! I’ve even cut his dosage of Zantac down by half. He’s getting 2 mL once a day, instead of twice.

In addition to that, I’ve increased the flow of his bottles!

Bottles

William was starting to eat less and less out of his bottles. He’s on the premature high calorie diet still, and he’s eating a lot of solid food. The combination had me thinking that he was probably just not hungry.

At his 9 month appointment, we’ll address if he still needs to be on the high calorie diet. Odds are they will take him off, but the doctor requested that we keep him on until then.

As I mentioned above, I finally upped him to the medium flow rate this month. He was so content at the newborn flow rate, and every time I moved it up, he’d start spitting up more. So, we left well enough alone!

He’s doing much better now on the faster flow nipples. He eats 4 bottles a day, and we offer 6 ounces. He usually drinks all 6 now.

In addition to that, he’s eating less solids, and likely a bit more hungry…

Solid Foods

William took right to solids and loved it. For the last couple of months, he was eating purees and just GOBBLING them up!

One day, he started experimenting and having fun. He was blowing air through his lips and making funny noises. ALL DAY LONG.

Well, at the table, that equates to spitting purees all over the place. He’d then laugh. We’d say no. We’d feed him again, and repeat. It was a mess.

After a little bit of telling him “no spitting please,” we’d stop feeding him and be done. He wasn’t eating it anyways!

We’d gotten him some teething wafers and those puffs to practice chewing. I’d also tried to do more chunky purees in the past, and even tiny bite sized pieces. He’d not taken to it, yet…

We tried again, however, and oh my gosh William ran with it.

Suddenly, he was chewing and biting, and doing a great job with it.

And so I wondered if he was telling me that he was done with purees. We packed away the baby food and never looked back.

William was eating everything we ate this month! He’s doing great with it and loving it.

8 month old babywise schedule

Now, the last week or so of this month, he’s doing 3 things:

  1. Refusing to be fed and wanting to do it himself. He just turns his head away any time I try to give him a bite.
  2. Wanting big things to hold and chew on. (Like a roll, or whole strawberry).
  3. Wanting to practice picking things up. He uses his pincher grasp perfectly now and is so deliberate.
8 month old babywise schedule

I also finally got him eating yogurt without spitting it everywhere.

He’s also really liking the puffs and teething wafers. He gets all excited if he sees them on the table or sees me grab for them!

So he went from all purees, to all bite sized pieces and tons of it, to hardly eating much because he’s wanting more independence and just playing/learning/experimenting at the moment.

Which means… his poop is getting back to that baby soft poop. I was so liking the harder, more formed, easier to clean up poop!

8 month old babywise schedule

And, our pre-potty training has pretty much been paused, since he’s not going much, and I can’t tell when he needs to go anymore, since he’s not red faced grunting. But we’ll be back to it soon enough!

8 month old babywise schedule

Water

For the life of me, I cannot get William drinking out of a straw cup. Caroline was doing it at 3 months old, and I don’t remember it being difficult.

William has no idea what to do LOL!

I bought him some of the “Take and Toss” straw cups. With those, you can squeeze the water up the straw. He LOVES water, but just can’t figure out to suck.

He also loves drinking out of normal, open cups. I’d like to get him drinking through a straw soon, though, so when the time comes at 12 months to transition to cow milk, he can do so with ease and be off of bottles all together.

We even tried apple juice in the straw cup to get him motivated, and formula. Neither worked, but he definitely knows there’s good stuff in the cup!

Wake

This is a fun age. William is sitting. He’s grabbing. AND…he’s reaching and going from a seated position onto his belly.

He’s finally rolling from back to belly, since he has a goal of getting places and things now!

Caroline is trying to help him push off and move forward, and she’s “showing” him how to crawl.

8 month old babywise schedule
8 month old babywise schedule
8 month old babywise schedule

He is going to be moving around in no time.

He’s always loved standing legs. I think he started when he was 2 months old. He still loves doing it! He is not yet pulling himself up to a standing position.

8 month old babywise schedule

His wake times vary. Wake time #1 is 2.5 hours. Wake time #2 is 3 hours. And wake time #3 is 2 hours.

He is still readily sleepy if he happens to be in the car during wake time LOL This schedule change was much easier than it was for Caroline however. Dropping the catnap was a whole ordeal with her! He took to his new wake times pretty easily.

Nap Time

Ok so nap time. Nap time was one of the big indicators for me that he was needing a schedule change.

William was pretty consistently waking up early from his second nap.

In addition to that, he wasn’t drinking all of his bottle anymore, and he was waking up at like 5 am.

I actually had to feed him twice at 5 am.

So, we tried the schedule change.

The nap issue was fixed perfectly. The bottle issue was also fixed, although I can’t tell you if it was the schedule change, or the nipple flow change that did the trick. But he was eating his full bottle again throughout the day.

Early morning wakings did not fix. They started getting earlier and earlier!

So, we moved his bedtime back by 30 minutes. That did the trick!

Bedtime

Bedtime got moved 30 minutes earlier after dropping the catnap.

This helped to fix the early morning waking issue. He was simply overtired.

Now, we start bedtime at 6:30 pm instead of 7 pm.

His routine is simple and we change up the order here and there. We are trying to keep him flexible.

Our bedtime routine at 8 months: feed bottle, read two books, change diaper, place in sleep sack, say goodnight, turn on sound machine, place in crib.

Life With Two

Caroline is starting to get annoyed at times. As her annoyance grows, her love seems to as well.

We went to the grocery store yesterday. William is now sitting. So, it’s MUCH easier to put him in the cart to sit, rather than have to put him in the carrier on me.

8 month old babywise schedule

That means Caroline has to walk. Which, she usually chooses to walk anyways. But, now that William is sitting, she suddenly wants to sit there.

Standing on the end of the cart, or walking, or even getting a fun little kid cart is no longer exciting, and she simply wants the one thing she can’t have.

These annoyances will obviously continue as William gets to do more and comes out of his “baby stage”.

She’s also wanting to do more with him though. When he wakes up from a nap, Caroline asks if she can go snuggle with him. She runs in there ahead of me to get her William time. She climbs in the crib with him and lays down and holds him.

8 month old babywise schedule

Now that he’s wanting to crawl, she’s trying to help him by pushing him along! She came up with this all on her own, and it was so adorable.

She shares her food with him, and even shares her toys (the ones that are safe). She’s so good about asking if something is big enough for him to look at, etc.

And then randomly she’s mad when I talk to him LOL!

To be expected I suppose. Growing pains of the family haha

Favorites This Month

We had a rock ‘n play given to us when he was born, (the ones that were later on recall). We sent it in for the recall, and received this nice little sit me up type thing in exchange.

While William is sitting on his own, this has proven to be very nice to have outside as a place to put him. When I am trying to water or deal with things in the yard, I have to walk away from him quite a distance.

So, it would take me a minute to get to him if he did fall over. I like the security of this while I’m off taking care of things. He still has fun, I can see him, and I know that he’s not going to bonk his head while I’m across the yard.

Our Favorite Products This Month:

Teething Wafers
Puffs
Sit me Up
Cookie Shape Toy
Wobbly Giraffe Toy
Water Mat
Ring and Shape block Combo Kit
Teething Wafers
Puffs
Sit me Up
Cookie Shape Toy
Wobbly Giraffe Toy
Water Mat
Ring and Shape block Combo Kit

His favorite things right now are:

Ring stacker

Cookie Shape Blocks– This is such a great toy. William loves the blocks right now because they are easy to pick up. This toy will grow with him as he learns to put them through the shape holes. Right now, he’s just figured out to reach in and grab!

Water mat

Books – All books. He loves grabbing them out of my hands as I try to read. He gets excited when I read his bedtime stories as he knows the books well.

Gerber Puffs – These are FANTASTIC for getting your baby used to chewing, as they dissolve in their mouth and are not a choking hazard. It gives me piece of mind when I first start chunks with a baby. William LOVES practicing his pincher grasp with these as well. They are wonderful.

Teething Wafers– Another great product. Babies can practice biting, chewing, holding, etc. I love these and William gets super excited when I get one out!

8 month old babywise schedule 7

How to Structure the Day for Your 8 Month Old (Printable 8 Month Old Babywise Schedule)

At 8 months of age, your baby will likely need about 3 hours of wake time. They need about 4 feedings, and 2 naps. Here's a starting point for building your baby's 8 month old schedule.

Materials

Instructions

8 Month Wake Time

Start by figuring out the wake time that is ideal for your child. For us, our baby is 2.5 - 3 hours of wake time. (This is the month between when he turned 7 months old and 8 months old).

8 Month Schedule

This schedule is working great for him at 8 months.

  1. 7 am wake and feed bottle
  2. 8:15 am feed solids
  3. 9:30-11:30 am nap
  4. 11:30 am wake and feed bottle
  5. 12 pm feed solids
  6. 2:30-4:30 pm nap
  7. 4:30 pm wake and feed bottle
  8. 5:30/6 pm feed solids (this changes depending on dinner for us)
  9. Bedtime routine starts at 6:30 pm with bottle

Recommended Products

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8 month old babywise schedule

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