Routine for babies

bonty44

rachelet wrote: »

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.

Any way you could then share 'what felt right' please, as this will clearly help OP and many others!

Ms_Piggy_2

onlyroz wrote: »

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

You can't generally. A minority will do it, but the vast majority won't - unless you force them. It's unatural. And offering cooled boiled water to a BF baby goes against all medical advice.

Quite frankly, if you really need this much routine at such an early age, then get a goldfish!

rachelet

bonty44 wrote: »

Any way you could then share 'what felt right' please, as this will clearly help OP and many others!

Hopefully this will help then. I am trying to write down what we did with have each of our babies.

For a start I am not a health professional and I know some of what we did goes against advice given by professionals.

All of our babies, except my first daughter, slept in their own room from when they came out of hospital. With baby number one she was in our room for the first 8 weeks and then went into her own room. With the next two children, we put the babies in their own room, but there was a put up bed in there, that I could sleep on if I wanted to be near the baby. I did do this quite a bit for baby two but only for a couple of nights with baby 3. With my youngest baby she has been in her own room from the first day out of hospital and I haven't slept in there with her at all. I have a baby monitor that has a sensor pad to detect movement, this helps me not to be concerned if they do have a long sleep.

With the last two babies, I have blackout blinds on their windows which I pull when I put them to bed at night. This helps the baby to distinguish between night and day. They don;t have a lamp or night light on either.

I have bottle fed all my babies so I could see how much milk were having from an early age. When I was in hospital the nurses advised not to feed any less than 2 hours apart. When the youngest was tiny, I fed her every two to three hours and within about a week she was already sleeping for a bit longer at night between feeds. She would then have about 5 hours between feeds at night, and only 3 or 4 hours between feeds during the day.

When she woke up during the night for a feed, I would get up, change her nappy and feed her in her room with only a side light on. Then as soon as she had fed and burped, I would put her back to bed. She has a very low tog sleeping bag which she also goes in at night only to distinguish between night and day.

During the day, I only feed her downstairs and never in her room. If sometimes she hasn't woken up for a feed and it has been about five hours during the day, then I would go up to her room and start making a bit of noise in order to wake her up. If she naps during the day, she sleeps in her cot in her room, but with the blinds open and she doesn't go in her sleeping bag either during the day.

I think this is all I did, if I remember anything else, I will post again.

bonty44

Thanks for this info; I wonder if there is a difference if baby is breastfed, my 6 year old is breastfed, sleeps from 8pm - 2am then wakes again at 4.30 for another feed, has lots of milk etc during the day but would sleep for England if I didn't wake him up after 2 1/2 hours during the day!

bylromarha

bonty44 wrote: »

Thanks for this info; I wonder if there is a difference if baby is breastfed, my 6 year old is breastfed, sleeps from 8pm - 2am then wakes again at 4.30 for another feed, has lots of milk etc during the day but would sleep for England if I didn't wake him up after 2 1/2 hours during the day!

Shouldn't he be at school during the day?!!:D

Ms_Piggy_2

rachelet wrote: »

For a start I am not a health professional and I know some of what we did goes against advice given by professionals.

You're right, it does go against advice. Babies that sleep alone (i.e. in a room on their own) either during the night or day are at far higher risk of cot death.

rachelet wrote: »

I have bottle fed all my babies so I could see how much milk were having from an early age.

You don't need to see how much a baby is eating to know they are healthy though. And often waking isn't to do with hunger.

I'm glad your methods worked well for you Rachel, but I just wanted to throw in a word of caution.

bylromarha

Ms_Piggy wrote: »

You're right, it does go against advice. Babies that sleep alone (i.e. in a room on their own) either during the night or day are at far higher risk of cot death.

I'm glad your methods worked well for you Rachel, but I just wanted to throw in a word of caution.

Between my 2 pregnancies advice changed. Advice changes all the time. Mums have to go with their instincts rather than advice as you cannot follow all the advice all the time. My friends baby slept on her tum:eek: Baby would not sleep on her back however hard the mum tried. :rotfl: Bad mum or sensible mum? I'd say the latter.

Ms_Piggy wrote:

Quite frankly, if you really need this much routine at such an early age, then get a goldfish!

Just wanted to throw in a word of caution that its unhelpful to tell a mum finding life difficult that routine is bad when she's asked for help getting a routine for her baby, quite frankly.

Routine worked for me and millions of others. Not having a routine worked for millions of others. Each to their own. OP here has asked for routine advice. Lets give her something helpful if we can rather than being negative about routine - if it's not for you and yours, then sshhh.;)

Ms_Piggy_2

bylromarha wrote: »

Between my 2 pregnancies advice changed. Advice changes all the time. Mums have to go with their instincts rather than advice as you cannot follow all the advice all the time. My friends baby slept on her tum:eek: Baby would not sleep on her back however hard the mum tried. :rotfl: Bad mum or sensible mum? I'd say the latter.



Just wanted to throw in a word of caution that its unhelpful to tell a mum finding life difficult that routine is bad when she's asked for help getting a routine for her baby, quite frankly.

Routine worked for me and millions of others. Not having a routine worked for millions of others. Each to their own. OP here has asked for routine advice. Lets give her something helpful if we can rather than being negative about routine - if it's not for you and yours, then sshhh.;)

Absolutely fine Lots of people are happy to ignore research evidence and do it their own way. But that doesn't change the risks....

The OP was/is really struggling with a new baby and juggling family life. There's a whole spectrum between the very rigid routine that one poster suggested and wanting to feel slightly more organised.

The OP has a very small baby, and babies have needs, not wants - and that includes frequent waking and needing lots of attention. Sounds like mum needs mucho support - whether from the Dad (even if he does work f/t), other family and friends.

Has the OP tried a sling? That often settles babies and means you have your hands free.

There is plenty of evidence-based research that shows why strict routines and sleeping alone are dangerous for babies. That's not the same as advice. I'm very glad yours were fine - but the risk is still there.

bonty44

bylromarha wrote: »

Shouldn't he be at school during the day?!!:D

Ha ha, meant to say 6 week old! Was obviously thinking about DS1 at the time!!!

Lalaladybird

Have had the baby in a 3 hourly routine for feeds as I said yesterday but today have had to include more awake time as last night the lo wanted attention from 1.30am because she had slept most of the day before between feeds so I didn't get much sleep.

Todays routine so far has been.... change nappy, feed, kept awake with talking/singing/looking at toys/in bouncy chair etc for max of one and a half hours then sleep til the next feed. Just tucked her down for another sleep and after the next feed it will be bathtime then no more stimulation until tomorrow. Will just feed and sleep (hopefully).

The feed times are changing everyday because if the lo sleeps a bit longer then the 3 hour mark I am letting her but I'd like to get to a situation where I know there will be a 7pm feed, 10pm feed etc so I'm trying to work out how to do that. The feed routine for the whole day is determined by whatever time she wakes for the first feed ie 5am/6am and so it rolls out 3 hourly from there. If she wakes at 5am I'm feeding her but maybe I should try to get her to 6am with water/dummy etc so the day can be more predictable????

I can't feed her more frequently than 3 hours because she's refluxy so if I give her a top up she's always sick. Getting her to wait 3 hours seems to mean she can fill her tummy and go happily for 3 hours....another bonus of implementing routine!!

I really appreciate all the help you are all providing, I'm getting some great tips and this thread feels like a lovely support network. Lala xxx