How much do you stimulate your baby throughout the day?

JT and I were discussing this the other day. We were saying how nothing gets done around the house anymore because 5 out of 7 days, it's only one of us home with the baby and we feel guilty if we're not constantly stimulating her. Books, toys, singing, playmat, etc. That's not to say that she gets no down-time, but for the most part, we stimulate her until we feel she needs a break and it just so happens to be that this baby thrives on being stimulated. But as I stated before...NOTHING gets done here because we feel awful if we're not constantly paying attention to her. It's not as bad for me because she goes to bed for the night while I'm here, but she's not really a napper (which , I'm convinced is because JT OVERstimulates her and can't calm her for a nap, whole other issue...), so poor JT doesn't get anything done.
Anyway, I am just wondering, how much is enough?

Re: How much do you stimulate your baby throughout the day?

I think that you have to let the baby learn to stimulate herself! I think that we might have made that mistake with Noah and now he is mostly unable to play by himself. He will play with a measuring spoon set or some wooden spoons for a few minutes, but only until I am like halfway through doing something, then he will moan until I pick him up. Once I pick him up I try to carry on with what I was doing in the first place while holding him, but in the end, NOTHING gets finished in my house! I think that the thing to do is to let her watch you doing what you need to do, talk her through what you are doing....let her get used to that now!

And the moaning has started now.

Its a vicious cycle because I can't stand the moaning, so I pick him up!!! Once I am holding him...he is a happy boy!!!
This is the reason I have decided to put him into a daycare center situation rather than him being taken care of at someones home....

Re: How much do you stimulate your baby throughout the day?

She does sit very nicely on her own and play, and does that a lot throughout the day. I think the real problem lies in that I have an inability to walk away if she's enjoying herself because I feel like I SHOULD be holding her and playing with her. I think I need to be at peace with the fact that she does know how to entertain herself and it doesn't make me a bad mom if I allow her to entertain herself.
So, my issue is actually different than JT's because as I mentioned above, she will not nap for him because he is definitely over-stimulating her. He does too much with her, then he plops her down in the crib and can't understand why she won't just fall asleep for a nap on her own

Re: How much do you stimulate your baby throughout the day?

Luka will play with his kick and crawl for probably close to an hour if he doest see me and he will also stay in his jumper and I usually put on Laurie Beckner twice sometimes especially if I want to start dinner earlier or I need to take a shower because we have to go somewhere. I also put him in his crib awake for naps and bedtime and put the mobile on and he usually talks to the hanging animals. I noticed that if I am holding him alot durning the day he gets very restless of one activity fast. Like if we play patty cake or If your Happy and You know it or the Hokey pokey he will only last about 2 songs and then we have to move on to something else. I think he likes to be independent also.