@grandma5657 For my kid the order depends on the length of the nap. If she sleeps an hour plus, she wants to eat right away. If it’s a short nap she is usually happy to do 15-20m of play and then eat.
@grandma5657 I’ve always found that it happens intuitively. They usually wake up, need a change, then want to eat. Then they are happy and relaxed enough to play. Then they tire themselves out and are ready for a nap again.
@grandma5657 I’ve read that baby is most alert then so they will be a more efficient eater (instead of falling asleep while eating and maybe not getting all they need).
The first 2 months I was not concerned with our adult ideas of a "schedule". Babies don't have that idea and won't conform to it for a very long time lol.
@jeanista For sure - his feeds from about 1-6 are marvelous as he goes right back to sleep after eating. EASY has helped us keep some sanity during the day.
@rhianne Following the eat-play-sleep routine was a game-changer, along with following the wake windows. Made so much sense after I learned about that! But I love the addition of “Y” in this routine!
@rhianne Our approach is a bit odd but it works for us. We have been tracking his patterns on BabyTracker. So he will naturally get hungry every 2-3 hours, and get tired every 1.5-2 hours. Sometimes he eats then sleeps, sometimes the opposite. We just live our life on his schedule. But since we can see a rough pattern, we can plan to do things for ourself on his next sleep, etc. It also takes the guesswork out of his fussiness.