Helping your baby to make a routine is one of the hardest things for all parents, let alone when you are on the road and everything is constantly changing.
A few things we have done to try to encourage a routine are:
Meals: setting meals and meal times- this might seem like a given, but when you are travelling for 8 hours on buses/tuktuk/plane some days, it can be quite tricky. We have found that having set times has been great for Gypsy, but also, having set meals.
For breakfast Gypsy has oatmeal with 1 tablespoon of honey and about 10 sultanas. We travel with quickoats so only need to quickly run out to the restaurant for hot water as soon as she wakes up, usually between 6:30 and 7:30am.
For lunch she has bananas/papaya with yoghurt.
For dinner she has either vegetable fried rice, fried noodles or Kotthu (like fried rice but with chopped up roti bread instead of rice)
She also usually has 1 snack a day, either soya crackers (freshly available everywhere), or plain wheat biscuits, or more fruit. (or sometimes icecream....)
A few things we have done to try to encourage a routine are:
Meals: setting meals and meal times- this might seem like a given, but when you are travelling for 8 hours on buses/tuktuk/plane some days, it can be quite tricky. We have found that having set times has been great for Gypsy, but also, having set meals.
For breakfast Gypsy has oatmeal with 1 tablespoon of honey and about 10 sultanas. We travel with quickoats so only need to quickly run out to the restaurant for hot water as soon as she wakes up, usually between 6:30 and 7:30am.
For lunch she has bananas/papaya with yoghurt.
For dinner she has either vegetable fried rice, fried noodles or Kotthu (like fried rice but with chopped up roti bread instead of rice)
She also usually has 1 snack a day, either soya crackers (freshly available everywhere), or plain wheat biscuits, or more fruit. (or sometimes icecream....)
Sleeping: As for sleeping, Gypsy alternates between having 2 x 1hr naps a day (once in the morning and once in the afternoon) and 1x 1.5-2hr nap (from around 1pm) a day.
On days we have a lot of travelling to do, we try to coordinate it with her naps. She usually goes down for her first nap around 10:30am, so we will aim to leave around 10 and drive until about 12. Stop for lunch and a play, then get back on the road at around 3pm in time for her next nap. If we try to work around her routine as much as possible, she doesn't seem to even notice the constantly changing rooms/people/landscape.
On days we have a lot of travelling to do, we try to coordinate it with her naps. She usually goes down for her first nap around 10:30am, so we will aim to leave around 10 and drive until about 12. Stop for lunch and a play, then get back on the road at around 3pm in time for her next nap. If we try to work around her routine as much as possible, she doesn't seem to even notice the constantly changing rooms/people/landscape.
Breastfeeding: Gypsy is still breastfeeding, and breastfeeding is the one thing we have struggled to make a routine for. Somedays she won't feed at all. Other days it's every hour. We figure that as it is one of the few things we can keep constant for her, that we will let her choose when she has it. Breastfeeding is very accepted here in Sri Lanka and was in Malaysia as well so I haven't felt the need to cover up, but we do travel with a thin wrap to use as a cover if need be.
She also drinks alot of water (in her explora cup) and likes to share (aka steal) our milo poppers and fruit juice, although we try to not let her drink much. In places where fresh fruit juices are available though we will get her one for herself and she will devour it!!!
She also drinks alot of water (in her explora cup) and likes to share (aka steal) our milo poppers and fruit juice, although we try to not let her drink much. In places where fresh fruit juices are available though we will get her one for herself and she will devour it!!!
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