Greg K. Porter's Blog: How To Keep Baby Occupied All Day

Thursday, December 6, 2018

How To Keep Baby Occupied All Day

How do I keep my baby occupied all day?

It was a question that I asked myself about a million times during the 9 months leading up to my firstborn's birth. I mean, they are a baby! They don't DO anything!

Keep Baby Occupied

Once the baby came, the first few months were completely filled with baby-necessities. But once I got into a rhythm of keeping my baby bathed, fed and napped, the question repeated over and over again!

What to do with baby?

I found that my best days were ones where we got out of the house in the morning. It didn't have to be a big trip – one to the grocery store or library story time was plenty. It was just the act of getting out of the house that seemed to lift MY mood. And MY mood was very important on my baby's mood!

BABY BONDING ACTIVITIES

The other thing that seemed to help was to get outside in the afternoon. At the time we were living in Abilene, TX which means we were dealing with more hot weather than cold. The evenings tended to cool a bit and putting the baby in the stroller for a before-bed walk did us both good.

Inside, I had three areas in the living room/kitchen area that had play stations. One was a box that had little toys that he could empty out while I was in the kitchen – although he soon found the cereal shelf and took great pleasure in emptying those boxes on the floor!

The living room stations consisted of a play blanket with hanging toys and a ball toy where the balls were placed in the top and rolled to the bottom. My thought was to rotate him to the next station when he got weary of one toy. I soon found that our windows were low enough for him to pull up on the sill and watch outside. Ryan spent hours gazing out the window at our dog and the other exciting things that passed on the Abilene prairie!

Once a week I tried to plan a bigger trip – like to the local zoo or to visit a friend. I found I really didn't have energy to do something like that more than once a week, but it also helped us feel connected with other families.

My main goal was to have something {even something small} to look forward to. Some days this was not necessary, but others it was a sanity-saver. I had been used to working a full time job with a ton of people interaction and all of a sudden, I was home with a tiny person that didn't speak…but enjoyed crying a lot.

Another thing that can really help is find another mom that is in a similar situation. Those are the kind of friends that understand if you don't show up for a playdate or need to call them for a little adult conversation. My good friend had twins the same age as my baby. It really helped me put my situation in perspective especially when her husband was deployed and she was solo-parenting.

Post by quirkymomma.com.

Here are some of the best answers from our Facebook community, and there are so many others over there as well!

-Try and get out as much as you can. Getting out in the sunshine and fresh air will also help him sleep better (as long as he doesn't get overstimulated).

-Lots of messy play (cereal, yogurt, corn flour & water), reading to him and singing, make discovery baskets with bangles and shiny objects.

-Find the free programs at your library, join a moms group and do play dates. Try to get out in the mornings so that you can get home in time for naps – it makes the days go by so much faster!

-Make a treasure basket. This is just a box made up of things from all over the house that are safe for him to explore. Try things with different textures, like wooden spoons, metal spoons, sponges, toothbrushes etc.