McKenna Baby Summary: Week 51

Schedule and routine for a 50-51 week old baby. Get info on this 11 month old daily schedule and routine for each day and know how to structure your day.

51 week old McKenna

As I write this, we are starting McKenna’s final week before she turns one! I can’t believe it!

NURSING

Nursing is the big story of the week. McKenna continued biting me. Most of the time it was just with her lips. But as the week progressed, she had two top teeth close to breaking through.

I seem to make a fabulous teether. One day, she bit down and pulled off while still biting. Ouch.

I decided to drop a feeding at that moment. So we are down to three feedings a day. I give her formula for the one I dropped, but she will only drink two ounces. Despite that, it is more than I thought she would drink.

Also, I know several moms who go to three feedings a day around 9 months, so I think she will be fine. I like to go to three liquid feedings at 12 months, so it is good prep.

51 week old baby schedule and routine pinnable image

BLANKET TIME

Blanket time is much improved. We still do 10 minutes a day. She still has her moments of trying to get off. Most of the time she laughs her little head off as she tries. But things are getting better slowly.

SIGNING and SCREAMING

McKenna can have a blood-curdling scream.

You know those screams that literally send chills up your spine? Yeah. She can do that.

This is my first child capable of such screams. She does it at dinner when she wants more food.

We have been working and working with her to sign “more” instead. Finally this week, she started signing instead of screaming. Happy day! My blood will flow more smoothly.


Read: How to Teach Your Baby Sign Language


OUR SCHEDULE

8:30 AM–wake, nurse, solids (prunes or peaches/apricots and oatmeal). This is when we do a bath (four days a week) and independent playtime. We then do sibling playtime.
10:30 AM–nap.
12:30 PM–wake, nurse, solids (green veggie and applesauce. Sometimes mix with blueberries or cherries). She then “helps” me put Brayden in rest time (which just means telling him to go) and Kaitlyn down for her nap. We then do blanket time followed by free play with me in the same room.
2:30 PM–nap
4:30 PM–wake, formula (sort of), solids (yellow veggie and bananas or pears). Then time with Daddy.
5:30ish PM–dinner with family. Finger foods and what we are having. Then time with family.
7:15-7:30 PM–nurse, PJs, story, prayers, bed.

Babywise schedule week 51

GOOD BOOKS/WEBSITES

RELATED POSTS

39 thoughts on “McKenna Baby Summary: Week 51”

  1. I just recently weaned my 10/12 month old from breast feeding. Since then, he has not been interested in taking as much milk/formula as usual. He seems to be ready to go to 3 liquid feedings a day. Is this okay? And when you drop to 3 liquid feedings a day do you make one of them the bed time feeding or do they get liquid at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and none at bedtime? I would appreciate any advice you have. My email is [email protected] Thanks so much!

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  2. Oh, the dreaded "bite and pull", ouch! My son did that plenty right before I weaned him. Not sure what I'll do to stop it if baby #2 does it since I'm determined to breastfeed to 1 year or later. I'll bet if you asked some extended breastfeeding moms they'd have some tips to stop the biting so your last month or so of breastfeeding doesn't have to be so painful.

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  3. Happy Birthday to sweet McKenna…soon!My sister-in-law's son bit a whole in her nipple when he was around 10 months old. YIKES!

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  4. I second Kristen Ray and would love a post about going to 3 feedings. My daughter is almost 11 months and doing great, but I like to be ready for the next step. I don't remember Babywise saying anything about how/when to move to 3 feedings.

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  5. I love, love, love your blog. Not sure what I would do without it. I beleive I have your son Braydens sleeping habits (the 45min nap thing). He hates day time sleep. My LO is almost 10weeks. Could you give me a schedule or idea as to how to move from a 2 1/2 hr schedule, when dealing with 45 min naps. I have read the nap links, but I know my LO cannot need to be eating every 2 1/2 hrs. HE is already 14 lbs!!!! I would appreciate some advice.

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  6. Aunt Kristen – My son is 6 1/2 mo old and we have followed Babywise from day one. Love it. But, I thought I would let you know that I have several friends that also followed BW and all of our children only napped about 45 minutes, average for the longest time. It's hard when they wake early from a nap and are discontent just waiting out their nap time in order to make it to their next feed time. First of all, I explained to my son that he doesn't have to sleep the whole hour and half, but he does have to rest that whole time. He said ok. Just kidding. I felt like he needed to know why I was not getting him up to play already or feeding him. Then, if he simply would not stay in his crib contently, I put him in his swing to finish out his 'rest' time. Usually he ended up falling asleep again. Sometimes he didn't. If he didn't, I might cut his next wake time a little short to try to make up for that lost rest. One way or another, he rested for the alotted time. Come heck or high water. Now, at 6 1/2 months, if he wakes early from a nap (which is almost every time still), he is usually very happy hanging out in his crib until Mama comes to get him. He talks to his mobile, plays with his toes. Sometimes he'll do this for up to an hour. This is the whole premise of the parent deciding when a rest time starts and when it stops. There are some days when my son only sleeps about 45 minutes at each of his 3 naps. But, he always RESTS for an hour and 45 minutes at those 3 time slots. And, it's always on his own. Even if he's in the swing in the family room, we don't pay any attention to him. He's ok with that. Hope this helps.

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  7. ohhh–good to hear megan's advice…i think so many kiddos don't follow exactly as we think they will according to the book. my mom always says they will make much more interesting adults :)so here's my little non-book like baby story. my 3rd little boy (all 3 have been BW babies) will be 15weeks tomorrow. his entire little life he has been on a 2.5 hr schedule occasionally 3. he still is not sleeping through the night! i don't mean until the morning either–i mean 7-8 hours in a row! he may have done 7 hrs for a few days, but the last few nights he has even been up twice–at 2 am and 5:30a (with DF at 10p). daytime naps are pretty consistent 1-1.5 hours. i KNOW all kids are different, but my first 2 boys by 3 months were consistently sleeping from DF @ 10p to 7 am so this is throwing me for a loop. what the heck am i doing wrong? i'm trying to be patient… p.s. i had him CIO for 3 nights (I've never done that with anyone else either!!) which is when he started sleeping until 5:30 for maybe a week–then he started waking again??

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  8. Megan- Thanks soo much for your encouragement and advice, how did you move to a longer schedule??? My awake time is only about an hour, so I am running into other feedings. When do I know when to drop feeding/naps if he is always waking on his own. The book says you will know when you continually wake them??? Thanks Again

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  9. Heidi – My son did the exact same thing. Exact times and everything. Every night. I would get so anxious because he was waking up that I would immediately get up and try to settle him back down, for fear of him becoming more and more worked up. See page 132 in BW. It speaks specifically to this scenario. Come to find out with my son Waylon, if I just left him alone, he would infact go back to sleep for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours. He is 6 mo now and still awakens periodically in the night, talks to his mobile, then drifts back to sleep. Aunt Kristen – Ok, when we moved to an extended schedule, it was a little bit of book-following and a lot of baby-reading. See pages 124 and 134 for starters. It says between 3 and 4 months, so around that time, I started paying more attention to Waylon's wake times. Could he stay awake longer? Was he taking longer to fall asleep once I put him in his crib? Was he not as famished when he got up to eat his next meal? All these things were cues for me. We still extended a little later than 4 months, though. And even now, we are at a definite 3 1/2 hour, sometimes 4 hour schedule, trying to finally drop the late night feeding and possibly the late afternoon nap. AK and Heidi – Waylon is our first baby. He has shown me, among other things, that I am OCD. BabyWise magnifies OCD by about 100. If there is anything I have learned from this whole process, it's that BW is completely worth the effort and exhaustion I experienced in the first 4 months. I have friends who did no schedule and are regretting it to this day. I haven't said I told you so, but… Another thing is that there are so many parenting philosophies out there. The best thing that worked for us was to start with BW and mold it to fit us. I had to let go a little or I would have driven myself, my baby and especially my husband nuts. Also, in all reality you really know more than you give yourself credit for. Listen to yourself. What do you really think and really feel? Most importantly, I have found that quite literally NOTHING has been like a book said it would be. I'm glad I read things. I'm glad I thought I was prepared. But, it was HARD for me to accept that things were not happening like I read they would happen. Lots of things. I still look to BW for refreshers, but have also started reading Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers and am loving what I'm finding there. My husband said he was going to publish a book called The How to Raise a Baby Without a Book Book. I'd probably read that one, too! Check out my blog sometime to follow our updates, blunders and crazy days. http://www.dubsnub.blogspot.com

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  10. true that megan! don't worry the more kids you have the less OCD you can be 🙂 b/c i know with each one some things you just have to let slide.i too like to read but like i'm sure most of us, pick what we like and agree with out of each one–that's what makes us individuals. i like your husbands idea of a book too!with STTN its kind of like a "due date" to me. you have this day that your dr. will tell you baby will come and then (for me at least) it comes and goes with no baby. you feel like baby is NEVER going to come out–especially 1st baby–and then one day they just do. STTN with this little munchkin, my due date has come and gone and i just want some more ideas of how to help get him going (and yes i do let him go in the night for a bit before picking him up). Castor oil worked for helping my #2 make his entrance into the world…what is #3 trick? :)sorry for all of the crazy analogies..he he.

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  11. I am so glad to hear that you are down to 3 and a partial feeding a day. I was just wondering about this with my son, who will be one in four weeks; sometimes he will half nurse and then move on to playing in the early evenings. Oh, and I am praying he doesn't start biting. He clamped down a lot well before there were any teeth and I pray that I broke him of it then. As always, love your blog! God bless!

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  12. A dear friend told me the best way to curb biting was a moderate flick to the cheek, just enough to get the point across and a firm no. I only had to do it twice and she has not bit me since. Thankfully my daughter tested biting before she got teeth.

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  13. I am curious about the 3 liquid feeds a day. Is this just referring to breastfeeding? My DD drinks a sippy of milk 4 times a day, and she guzzles it each time! I think it would be pretty rough to take one of those milk drinks away from her. She is also small, always in the 5th percentile for weight and height, so I feel that it is good for her to have the fat and calories.Amy

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  14. My daughter turns 1 in 5 days. She's our first child and I can't believe how fast the first year of her life has gone by. She just dropped her last nursing today (the one before bed). She didn't seem to be too interested so I let it go. She went to bed fine w/o it. She is extremely dairy intolerant and so I haven't been able to eat any dairy while nursing. I celebrated tonight with a pint of chocolate haagen dazs!As far as biting while nursing goes: Good luck. My daughter had teeth by three months. Now she has all her teeth except for her eye teeth (got her one year molars at 10 months). Her two top eye teeth are almost thru. She bit a lot around the time that her teeth were just about to come thru. I always told her "no" in a firm voice and told her that "it hurt mommy". I never flicked her because I had 2 friends that did that and their children weaned themselves immediately. I guess you'll just have to try what works for you. But, I always tried to remember to be gentle but firm! Good luck!

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  15. Kristen Ray,There is a post on going to three feedings. It is "dropping the fourth feeding." I would do breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So long as your child gets the dairy she needs each day, that is just fine.

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  16. Aunt Kristen, see the post "eat, wake, sleep cycle."Have you tried adjusting waketime length, what type of jammies he has on, white noise, room darkening shades…all of that stuff outlined in "naps: troublehshooting revised and updated"?

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  17. oh, and Megan, if you are reading Baby Whisperer books…I would go for the first book and "The baby whisperer solves all your problems." They would be more applicable for a 6 month old.

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  18. Lisa, I tried that trick…I really did try literally every trick in some arbitrary book. One of my closest friends is a lactation consultant, and she ran through it all with me. I really had tried it all.McKenna's reaction when I flicked the cheek was to sit thoughtfully for a few seconds, then try to do it to herself. Didn't exactly have an impact :)Thanks for mentioning it! It might help someone sometime.

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  19. Amy, at some point, you will want to move to three liquid feedings. Brayden didn't until about 18 months. Kaitlyn did at one year. McKenna, obviously, did just before one year. You want to get the correct number of ounces in per day, and some will take them in 3 feedings, while others won't drink as much per sitting and need it in four.

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  20. I have done everything I can think of. He goes down great, gets himself to sleep but there seems to be nothing I can do to get him past that 45 min mark. I have tried rocking him through it, pacifier, CIO multiple times. Not sure what else I can do. The strange thing is he never does it at night or his last nap before bed??? Any advice?

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  21. I have done everything I can think of. He goes down great, gets himself to sleep but there seems to be nothing I can do to get him past that 45 min mark. I have tried rocking him through it, pacifier, CIO multiple times. Not sure what else I can do. The strange thing is he never does it at night or his last nap before bed??? Any advice? I have read every post available.

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  22. Once you have done all you can think of, my best advice is to just take a deep breath and accept it. Try to not stress about it. My son took 45 minute naps until he was 6.5 months old, and he is a bright, happy child today. Do what you can, but don't let it ruin your day–or your first months with your child 🙂

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  23. What did you do when he napped only 45min.?? Did you get him up and feed every time? How and when did you extend your schedule and drop feedings? The book says when you continually wake them, but we both know that is not happenning. My LO's awake time is only an hour still, so just curious what you did for a schedule? Thankyou so much for all of your help!

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  24. I keep thinking it may be a growth spurt, but its never ending!! He is definitely a growing baby but ????? Nothing in our lives have changed since the week that he actually slept until 5:30 am (ahhh what a fabulous week that was 🙂 He started waking every 3 hours at night since I posted–which even as a 2 week old he was sleeping longer (4-6). Also instead of me getting him up at 10 for a DF, he is waking crying at about 9:45-10–He just turned 4 months yesterday…I'm at a loss, just kind of going with it hoping it will end (knowing that eventually it will 🙂 Maybe I should start cereal? I never thought that truly mattered but I can't think of what else to do. CIO again???

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  25. Aunt Kristen,Our waketime was about 1.5-2 hours. Then he took 5-10 minutes to fall asleep and he slept for about 60 minutes usually. So we were always on a 2.5-3 hour schedule, though it was usually 2.5.At 6.5 months, he literally one day just started taking two hour naps. Really. So that extended our schedule for us.

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  26. Heidi, see "wonder weeks" blog label. That should give you some insight here. You can also look at the blog index and look under "sleep problems" there is a post on four month sleep problems. Actually two. There is a Babywhisperer four month sleep issues post, too.

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  27. So you just stayed on a 2.5 -3 hr schedule until he started sleeping longer. You said at 6.5 mnths it just clicked, and so that is when you extended. He just became consistent with the longer naps?? I am hoping for that soon, as I have dealt with the intruder for 2months now. Wpuld you try and rock him through it or give him a pacifier to keep him happy in his crib? Or always just get him up and feed and start over?

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  28. thanks. i will look them up–b/c it is boggling my mind! :)aunt kristen-my 1st little guy was the EXACT same–not a great day time napper and YES we were at 2 1/2 hours for a LONG LONG time (and even that seemed like a stretch..i got him up and he just hung out and then we just "started over" after 2 1/2 hours)–i think it was around 6 months that it just worked for him and suddenly he took 2 hour naps. he has turned out to be my greatest sleeper and took naps until he was 4 1/2! it will seem like forever right now, but it will be not a big deal later.

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  29. I also meant to ask you…did you continually let him CIO when he would wake after 45min, or did you just realize he wasn't gonna get back to sleep and get him right away. I have let him CIO for awhile now, but not sure if I should give it up for now, and maybe try when hes older?

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  30. thanks. i will look them up–b/c it is boggling my mind! :)aunt kristen-my 1st little guy was the EXACT same–not a great day time napper and YES we were at 2 1/2 hours for a LONG LONG time (and even that seemed like a stretch..i got him up and he just hung out and then we just "started over" after 2 1/2 hours)–i think it was around 6 months that it just worked for him and suddenly he took 2 hour naps. he has turned out to be my greatest sleeper and took naps until he was 4 1/2! it will seem like forever right now, but it will be not a big deal later.

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  31. Heidi- Thanks for the encouragemnt I can hardly wait for 6 months. Hopefully that is when it clicks for my LO also. So you stuck with feedings every 21/2 hrs until one day he slept longer. I was curious if you did CIO also. My email is the [email protected] if you wouldn't mind, I have lots of other questions as well.

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  32. Aunt Kristen, Yes, it all clicked one day and he literally never looked back. I always just got him out and started the cycle, but I don't necessarily know that is the best answer for everyone. There are a few different ways to handle it and I did different things with each child when they woke early. There is a post "waking early from naps/won't fall asleep for naps" that gives some ideas on what to do.Plus, I have a lot of theories on why Brayden started sleeping longer, and those are all listed in my "Naps: troubleshooting revised and updated" post.I never did CIO when he woke early. We didn't start BW or CIO until he was 9 weeks old. He and I were in the same room in a studio apartment situation and I just couldn't do CIO mid-nap.

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  33. I have read through all of the nap trouble shooting, 45 min intruder, waking early posts and am still wondering if I will ever be done with 45 min naps. Would you just stay on a short(2.5hr) schedule until one day they nap longer? How do you know when to drop feedings and naps? I feel like I am way behind what the book says because I am waiting for my LO to take a longer nap? He is 15 weeks, and is still on 6 feedings. It says to drop the dreamfeed, but he is eating it so well. I know you said its hard to move forward when naps aren't going well. I am thankful that he has slept thru the night since 7 weeks. Any advice would be great!!

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  34. Kristen,Yes, I stayed on a short schedule. Brayden was a 45-60 minute napper until he was 6 months old. As he gets older, he will be able to stay up longer, which will stretch his schedule a bit, too.Whether he naps well or not, dropping the dreamfeed is your next step, so I would watch for him to be ready for that (it sounds like he could be). Good luck and hang in there!

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