7 months - everything's changing - does this mean baby would prefer a routine?

[colsy]

As a big fan of 'natural' baby-led parenting, I've never implemented any kind of schedule, but have simply attempted to follow baby's cues as to what to do next, in terms of feeding and sleeping. Things seem to be changing, however, and now he won't nap easily when he rubs eyes/pulls ears/yawns, and he doesn't go to sleep easily at night, and I am beginning to not know his hungry cry, as it's changed so much from what it used to be.

Just wondering - does this point to a good time to start moving to a more structured schedule? Or do you think it's just a bit of random stuff and he'll start to show me the cues again soon?

I don't really mind either way, so there's no right or wrong answer here as far as I am concerned. Just wondering what others have done, really. Baby is seven months, so it might be far too late now to implement a schedule. What do you reckon?

 

[anothersquish]

baby led parenting is about following what suits YOUR BABY! If your baby is not happy with how things are then something needs to change....if this is putting in some form of loose routine then give it a shot.
From my own experience they do go through various phases of developing more awareness of things around them, of separation etc that can cause these upsets and generally they improve again with some gentle encouragement, eg if you know he often sleeps around the same times every day then moving him to a quiet room thats slightly darker and doing quiet activities/reading a book etc can calm him for a nap. Same at nighttime, if there is generally a time where he will fall asleep or where he is tired then form a loose routine around this, do similar things to wind him down for sleep.
It doesnt mean you have to have a fixed time or fixed order you HAVE to follow EVERY day to the second though

 

[Rachel_C]

I don't think it's ever too late to implement a schedule if that's what you want to do, but what you describe sounds similar to what happened with Leyla at around 7 months. We've always just fed her when she's hungry, played when she wants to play and put her to sleep when she's tired. She got herself into a nice routine of two naps a day, one 2 hours after she woke up in the morning, then the other 3 hours after that. The only thing I decided was bedtime and she fitted everything else around that herself. At about 7 months though, she had horrible trouble napping during the day and it threw everything off! I think it was that she still needed a certain number of hours sleep during the day but she didn't want two naps. Now I've started calming things down for a nap time well before she gets to the eye-rubbing stage. If she gets that far, I know I'm too late and she'll struggle to sleep. I've started watching for less obvious cues now, like general grumpiness and playing differently with her toys, that aren't so obvious in a younger baby. It was just trial and error with us. Sometimes she still wants two naps, sometimes only one longer one. I think if you just watch him for a bit longer you will probably see different cues to the ones you're used to, or he'll find his own routine again.

It must be confusing being a baby. One day you need two naps, the next you don't feel like you need any!