no routine at 4 months?

[loeylo]

Please tell me I'm not the only one!

My baby goes to bed when we do. Even if that is 3am and she has been sleeping in her chair for hours. I just don't like her in a different room from us.

Typically she goes to sleep around 11pm. I don't do anything in particular to make that happen, it just does. She gets up around 8am. Except two days ago it was 3am and she stayed awake until 7am.

She was a brilliant sleeper until a week or so ago. I'm sure this is some sort of sleep regression.

The thing is, I pretty much follow her lead. She obviously gets changed then a bottle first thing in the morning, and usually only stays awake about an hour and then sleeps for a bit again. She still sleeps a lot during the day - as in, she's sleeping more than she is awake. If she starts doing her "sleep cues" I let her sleep. I don't wake her. If she does her "hunger cues" I feed her. I know she gets 5 bottles a day, but they aren't always at the same time.

When she is awake, she spends about 50% of her waking hours crying. She suffers from terrible wind (the bowel kind!) and we have tried everything, from infacol, colief, Gaviscon, gripe water - nothing works!

All I can think of trying which we haven't already tried is changing her milk? She is on cow and gate now, they have a comfort milk but it looks like it is for reflux and constipation. She is sometimes constipated but not excessively so.

 

[Rainbow82]

You are doing great! DS didn't have much routine at four months either and he always stayed in the living room with us till we went to bed till he was maybe seven months. Around 5 months he started to get into his own routine, bottles at approximately the same times, he settled into two or three naps a day at similar times (at least when we were at home) and started to go down at the same time in the evening (he fell asleep about 7:30 but we still kept him in the room with us and took him to bed when we went. This made a big difference for us actually to get the evenings back for ourselves and time together even though he was still in the room with us we could plan to eat together or watch a film together etc. Previously he would go down anywhere between 7 and 11. I think there is a bit of a sleep regression at four months just do what you need to do to get through it. Also try the comfort milk, it might not make much difference but then again it might and it won't hurt. You can always switch back. I don't think it is specifically for reflux as they also do an anti reflux milk.

 

[lau86]

You're not the only one! Some kids are just easier to get into a routine. My ds2 did his older brothers routine pretty much from birth, his feeds were always fairly predictable. My dd is proving tricky so far as she feeds all the time and is very unpredictable. I would like to do bath time at the same time as the boys (her to go in first then them) but the way she feeds it's so hard! Plus I'm often on my own at bath time. She sleeps whenever she wants, she's not a great sleeper. There is a 4 month sleep regression which I'm really dreading as my daughters sleep has got gradually worse since she was born

 

[donnarobinson]

I'm struggling with baby time to I'd like Cruz to bath the same time as the older to as well but it's hard cuz I want to do bath bottle bed but can't cuz they bath quiet early as my middle boy is in bed for 6/6.30pm X

Your doing great X

 

[_Meep_]

Very little routine here at 19.5 months - my daughter's fine and so are we.

 

[Bevziibubble]

We didn't have a routine for our first and it worked for us. The only routine we have for her now is a bedtime routine

 

[jessmke]

We implemented a bedtime routine at about 8 weeks. Between 7-8 pm (depending on when she woke up from her last nap) we do a bath, a few stories, feed, and then put to sleep in her Moses basket in our room. When we started doing that Isla started sleeping a 4-5 hour stretch when she was put to bed before she would wake up to eat. We used to keep her with us in the living room until we went to bed, but then sometimes we'd have to wake her up to take her to bed and then it would be hard to get her back to sleep. During the day we haven't implemented a routine, she just eats and sleeps as she feels the need, but she is gradually falling into her own routine.

 

[Taurus8484]

Im the opposite. Both kids had routines from 6 weeks on. I love it and they seem to thrive on it so it worked for us but just go with whatever works for you.

 

[donnarobinson]

I am defo a routine person tho I literally am lost when my routine is messed up! Can't wait to have Cruz is a good routine altho I can see one slightly forming now X

 

[loeylo]

Glad I'm not the only one!!

I love routine myself - I'm a teacher so I'm used to things being planned, but I just cant get her into a routine as she always changes when she wants fed, when she is tired or when she needs changed. If I try and get her to sleep/eat other than when she wants to, she just screams and screams!

For the milk issue my h/v is now advising prescription milk as she witnessed the complete struggle im having to feed her. She's also dropped from the 50th centile to the 25th.

 

[SarahBear]

Four months is a typical time for babies to have sleep issues. At this age, their sleep changes such that their sleep cycles are more similar to an adult's. Also, there are other developmental changes happening. Some babies go through this transition smoothly and others do not. In terms of her sleep habits, it sounds like you're very aware of her needs and that's what's most important. What you'll notice is that with time, she'll start to settle into a routine eventually. If you use the clock to anticipate her needs as well as follow what her actual cues are, you can regularize her routine with time. When Violet was a baby, her routine changed and evolved a good bit because that's what she needed. I don't know when we really got Violet into a bedtime routine; however it was because of her that Leo has had a fairly regular bedtime routine since very early. His needs, however, were such that this worked for him. His sleep needs have been more regular with fewer bumps and changes. He did experience sleep troubles recently (8-11 months is another typical time that sleep troubles occur) but is now getting back to a routine. Different babies have different needs and if what you're doing works, there's no need to change it.

It sounds like there is a gas issue with your baby though. Sorting that out will likely make the awake time more pleasant for your baby. It may also change the sleep patterns as your baby will be more physically comfortable. I don't have any formula advice as I nursed both my babies, but I know that different babies have different tolerance levels to different formulas.