Routine for babies

andrealuton

I personally found a book called Baby Sense really helpful. Rather than a detailed routine it helped us help our DS build his own appropriate routine. What people have said about cluster feeding is right, but with our son I generally found his cluster feeding was more along the lines of 3-4oz every hour or two, not 1oz then a nap. It might help if you got a cloth sling and at the point in the evening when she starts doing the 1oz feeds rather than feeding her right away put her in the sling and just take her everywhere with you. She might be able to hold off for longer then and build up an appetite

And just remember that in 2 weeks it's likely to be a whole lot better!

hngrymummy

Molly41 wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/cotdeath2.shtml

Hi Molly41. I too am interested in this. Do you know where I can access the research data at all. This just states that a dummy can reduce cot death but doesn't give any more details or information.

Thanks

freebiequennie

Hello

I do some ad-hoc work as a night nanny helping get babies into routines and basically giving parents the opportunity to get some sleep (not a cheap option!!)

But here is my 4-8 wk and 8-12wk routines that have been tried and tested a number of times - obv can be tweaked and are not set in stone. This for a 6am-6pm routine which many families I have worked for have wanted as they have often had toddlers and older children who start getting up at 6-7am and want baby sorted before hand and also if baby is fed and in bed for 6.30pm means they can then sort the older children.

Baby Routine 4-8wks (singles)
6-6.15am – Wake baby if not all ready awake, un-swaddle and offer feed. Change baby half way through feed.
7am – re-swaddle baby and place back to sleep either in pram, cot or chair.
9am – Wake baby top and tail
9.15am – Offer baby feed and post feed play with baby for some awake time.
10.30am – put baby to down to sleep
12 noon – Wake baby and offer feed, change nappy mid feed
1pm – put baby back down to sleep
3pm- Wake baby and offer feed, change nappy mid feed, play with baby post feed for some awake time.
4.30pm – place baby to sleep for a short nap no longer than 45mins
5.15pm- wake baby and play for 15mins
5.30pm – offer baby half of feed
5.45 - 6pm- bath baby and get ready for bed.
6.15-6.30pm – offer remainder of feed and place baby swaddled to sleep
10/10.30pm – Without fully waking baby offering a “dream feed”, change nappy mid feed, after feed swaddle and place back to sleep.

Baby should only wake once during the night to feed around 2-3am offer feed do not make eye contact or offer any stimulation, be as quiet as possible, only change nappy if baby has poo’d.
If baby requires feeding at any other time other than feed times offer cooled boiled water (30-40mls) and encourage baby to take more milk at feed times.






Baby Routine 8-12wks (Singles)
6-6.15am – Wake baby if not all ready awake, un-swaddle and offer feed. Change baby half way through feed.
7am – re-swaddle baby and place back to sleep either in pram, cot or chair.
9.30– Wake baby top and tail
9.45am – Offer baby feed and post feed play with baby for some awake time.
11.30am – put baby to down to sleep
1.45pm – Wake baby and offer feed, change nappy mid feed, play with baby for a short time for some awake time
3.30pm – place baby to sleep
5pm – wake baby and place under play gym or activity centre for 30mins of awake time
5.30pm – offer baby half of feed
5.45 - 6pm- bath baby and get ready for bed.
6.15-6.30pm – offer remainder of feed and place baby swaddled to sleep
10/10.30pm – Without fully waking baby offering a “dream feed”, change nappy mid feed, after feed swaddle and place back to sleep.

To encourage your baby to sleep through the night start to reduce the amount of milk they have at the 2-3am feed and encourage them to wait longer for that feed ie – if they wake at 2am try to wait 15mins before giving milk. At 11wks of age if your baby continues to wake at night begin to offer cooled boiled water rather than milk.
As long as your baby is getting enough milk during the day and is having awake periods and therefore not too much sleep in the day they should sleep from their dream feed at 10/10.30pm until 6am.
If your baby requires feeding at times other than feed times offer cooled boiled water and encourage them to take more milk at feed times.

bylromarha

Lalaladybird wrote: »

Thank you all so much for the replies. Yesterday I only fed the baby every 3 hours and gave her a dummy between feeds if she was unsettled and put her in the swing/bouncy chair/cuddled her to get her to the 3 hour mark. OH did the 10pm feed so I went to bed at around 9pm so didn't have to do another feed til 1am (and then 5am) but it's a start.

I'd love to do the Gina routine, I bought the "baby and toddler" book but I find it really hard to implement. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough, one problem being that I can't find the time to read the thing lol! For those who have used it, do you follow it to the letter? What do you do if the baby doesn't comply? Do I jump in at the 6 week mark? How do I stop my baby wanting two feeds between 10pm and 7am?

My toddler loves playing with all her little toy figures (peppa and friends, mickey mouse etc) and she's lost them all! They've vanished into a black hole. I have searched the whole house because they're all she wants to play with and they were keeping her playing happily for hours every day. I had to resort to more cbeebies/nickjr than I'd like yesterday. So frustrating!

My MIL is being a huge help by popping in every day that OH is working for an hour or two and helping with the housework and/or letting me get back to bed if I really need to catch up on sleep. Without her help I'd have PND and exhaustion for sure. I tried to be supermum the first time and ended up with PND because I expected too much of myself and wouldn't accept help as I wanted to do it all by myself. I'm not so daft this time.

Glad to hear MIL is able to help and that OH did a 10pm - an earlier night for you.

When I Gina'd, there was no baby and toddler book, just contented baby. I stuck to it rigidly for DS ("he still has to wait 20.2 more seconds before he feeds:rotfl:), then eased off with the timings to within 30 mins, but stuck to the principles.

Finding time to read it is, I agree, difficult. I suggest you only read the bits you need...routine for 4 - 6 weeks (that's what I'd start with personally), principles behind regular sleeping and feeding (reading this part help me resolve in my mind routine was a good thing, so gave me determination to do it when everyone was telling me I was psychologically damaging the baby), and have a pile of post it's with you. I used to label the post its then stick it in the book as a tab if I read something I knew would be useful.

As for sleeping longer at night, I seem to recall the theory is that a decent gap between feeds during the day means better fuller feeds during the day, so less waking at night needing feeds. So keep on doing what you're doing - shift the food intake slowly from night to day and keep giving your 2 littlies as many cuddles as you can!!!!

All the best.

onlyroz

freebiequennie wrote: »

As long as your baby is getting enough milk during the day and is having awake periods and therefore not too much sleep in the day they should sleep from their dream feed at 10/10.30pm until 6am.
If your baby requires feeding at times other than feed times offer cooled boiled water and encourage them to take more milk at feed times.

I'm not convinced that you can get a 4-week-old baby to sleep from 10:30pm-6am

GobbledyGook

onlyroz wrote: »

I'm not convinced that you can get a 4-week-old baby to sleep from 10:30pm-6am

I think you probably can, but I can't imagine it being good for a baby that age. They have tiny tummies so need feeding often.


The idea of making no eye contact with a baby that young during night feeds or nappy changes just made me cry. Then again I am in that very emotional first-few-days stage. My boy is feeding almost constantly in the evening atm, but it doesn't last forever and is (imo) just the way tiny babies are.

rachelet

onlyroz wrote: »

I'm not convinced that you can get a 4-week-old baby to sleep from 10:30pm-6am

You can and I did. My son was sleeping through the night from 10pm to 7am the next morning at just 4 weeks old. My youngest now sleeps from 8pm to 8am and has been doing this since she was just 6 weeks old. To be honest all my kids have slept through the night from very young. After the first baby everyone said I wouldn't get another baby to sleep through the night as quickly, but I got three more babies that slept through the night at between 4 and 7 weeks. It can be done and I didn't follow any books just did what I felt right.

badabing

Just give the baby water, after a night or so waking up to a bottle of water hopefully he will lose interest...easier said than done but.........;)

freebiequennie

onlyroz wrote: »

I'm not convinced that you can get a 4-week-old baby to sleep from 10:30pm-6am

I didnt say you could I said under the routine for 4-8wks they will need one feed during the night from 10.30pm-6am usually around 2am.

From 12wks old a baby should be able to sleep through if they have the right routine during the day

treetrunks

are you able to sleep when your partner gets in from work. I realise its broken sleep but if you can get an extra 3 hours between 5 and 8 then surely its worth it. Another option is to say that you partner will handle all of the night feeds until 1 and you'll do them afterwards (you head to be about 8 ish). I also had a stressful job but found this worked for us, you both can get at least 5 hours sleep each then.