Half of me does, the other half doesn't!

[Macmad]

Morning ladies
I'm a bit of a control freak and love a good routine but im having trouble deciding what to do with my LO.
I've fed on demand from the day she got home which has always been roughly 3 hours. Recently she started sleeping from 9pm till 3am, having a feed then straight back down till 6ish. She started to sleep less early evening and get a bit grumpy, so decided to try an earlier bed routine about 7 - 8pm. Trouble is she takes ages to go to sleep and then wakes up for extra feed around midnight!
I've read one or two sleep books and just not sure what to do. The control freak in me is dying to get her in a routine but the other half is happy to let her go longer through the night when she's ready.
If you're still with me, well done!
So my question is if you chose a routine, did it work and when did you start?
Or did you go more baby led and found they sorted their own routine as they got older?

Thanks if you got this far and can help!

 

[tu123]

Hi there
We are baby led. BUT, we learnt that alot of the "colic" type symptoms used to start after 6pm and in fact she was just tired so we started giving her a bath then bottle at about 6pm for bed at about 7pm and she was much better and calmer.

Most nght we get her up for a dreamfeed around 10pm but take it day by day. For instance, she slept little throughout the day yesterday with teething problems so we didnt get her up and she slept 7 till 5.

I think you can mix routine and baby led

 

[karlilay]

Hey.
Were routined.. as soon as he started to settle with three hourly feeds thats when i started.
I get him up at 7ish (hes normally awake anyway) then his routine is like this...

7am: Bottle
9am:Sleep ( Half hour ish)
10am: Porridge & bottle. (Weaned early due to reflux)
11am: Sleep about an hour.
1pm: Bottle
2-3pm Sleep
3.30pm- Puree
4pm- Bottle
Then he has about 10 min power nap at 5 ish.
Bottle and bed @ 7.

He sleeps through... 7- whatever time he wakes anything from 5am to 7am.
HTH xx

 

[blinkybaby]

I am routine fan. Got Louie into a loose routine as soon as we got home from hospital. I feel a definite bath bottle bed routine encouraged sound night-time sleep for Louie and he started consistently STTN at 9 weeks. I would be inclined to persist with the earlier bedtime and she should get used to it after a week or so and start having a longer night-time sleep.xxx

 

[patch2006uk]

Your LO is still so young! We have a set bedtime, but no more routine than that. Bed at 7 and then it's anyone's guess- sometimes he'll sleep for 7 hours, othertimes he's up every 90 mins. Usually he's pretty good and just feeds for 5/10 mins then straight back to sleep. It doesn't bother me that he wakes me for feeds, his stomach is only little and I read that until they're a certain weight and have a certain percentage body fat they can't really go for too long without some food.

Plus I know that when we reach the teenage years it's the opposite problem that they just want to sleep forever, so I'll catch up on my sleep then

 

[Macmad]

Anyone else?

 

[captainj1]

We went baby led and found that the night feeds got gradually fewer as he got bigger. He started reliably sttn (from half 7 until 7 ish) at about four and a half months, just after we started weaning.

He has found routine of his own and it suits us fine. When he was much younger he didn't go to bed til ten ish and used to feed 3 or 4 times a night (i was bf then but had to stop at 3 months as he had intolerances) and eventually get up at around ten am but over time we just found he needed to go to bed earlier and earlier. I'm glad he has got himself into a routine as I'm back at work full time now as is DH so we need some predictability for the mornings!

 

[3011busyyear]

No advice, I'm rubbish at suggesting things! But thought I'd tell you what we do as it seems different to others.
We found LO got her self into a rhythm...I don't even like the word routine!
I noticed she wakes in the morning almost exactly12hours after going to bed, but her bedtime varies between 5.30pm-7.30pm, most usually around 6.15pm.
So say she goes to bed at 6.15pm, she will then wake up anytime between 1am and 5am, just once per night for quick feed and back to sleep. I've stopped doing the dream feed, it didn't seem to make any difference. She'll then be up almost exactly at 6.15am for the day. If she sttn she will generally wake a bit earlier, usually about an hour before the 12hours is up

So we are pretty baby led but she's quite transparent. I don't bath her every night, she likes the bath but screams when we get her out and call me a bad mother but I don't like to make her cry just for the sake of making her sttn. I find doing activities like swimming, music group, and just taking her out and talking to her has her sleepy at the end of the day. I know you've not asked this but for info, she wake up and is up for about an hour or so then naps for a couple of hours, then is up for about 2hours in between naps for the set of the day, so depending on when she wakes up this determines each day when her naps will be. She sleeps in her cot, on or bed, in her car seat or pram so we can usually still go to groups and she just sleeps before or after them.
My next baby may be different but I will try to avoid routines as much as I can.

 

[oliviarose]

We have always been baby led. But that is only because Harrison could not get into a routine. He started to fall into a routine at 6 months. It is still only a loose routine though. I like knowing roughly what is gonna happen most days, instead of thinking what today is gonna bring.

 

[Macmad]

Thanks ladies I always find it interesting what other mums do. I am going to stick with pretty much baby led as I find she is most happy with that for now. I would like a rough bedtime routine just so I can get some structure to my evenings as I'm back at work in a weeks time, but we shall see! Lol

 

[bathbabe]

We were pretty much baby led except he HAD to be feed every 3 hours. After 4weeks he started waking for feeds (rather than just sleeping thru every feed )
Anyway by 6weeks he started dropping night feeds by himself, and sleeping thru. But if i gave him his last feed before 8pm he would wake every 3hours again during the night but if he had his last feed between 8 and 10:30 he would sleep thru. Hes still the same now but bedtime is 8-8:30pm everynight, till 8am (im not hung up on this 7-7 rubbish, i like my 'lie ins', and get a chance to do stuff with OH coz he doesnt get home till 6)

 

[aliss]

This is just my opinion but I think she is doing great for now. While I understand the need/want for a routine, there is also only so much we can expect from such young babies (especially as yours is nearly 2 months premature when it comes to sleep patterns, so the mentality of a 2 week old newborn). I'm sure your baby is better adjusted due to time spent in NICU as they are obviously kept on a more structured routine but at this point, I think she seems to already be following a good pattern.

Now, my 1 year old doesn't sleep through so I'm not sure you want my advice But I firmly believe that babies will do X when they are ready.