Sleep routine

[Cat lady]

Hi all,
Thomas is just over 5 weeks old now and doesnt have a sleep routine at all! I received an email this morning from cow&gate saying at 6-8 weeks we should start to introduce a sleep routine. Is this right? It still seems a bit young to me. But I am a first time mum and certainly NO expert!!!
Also how did everybody start with this? Also it said dont be afraid to wake them up in the day if they are napping, but I have read that if a baby needs to sleep they will. so surely waking them up will deprive them??? When do you babies nap in the day and for how long??
Thanks all!!
xxx

 

[hooch]

Hi
Im a first new mum too and by no means an expert! But, my little boy is nearly 7 weeks and we introduced a bedtime routine at about 3 weeks. We start about 7:30pm and take him up to his room, turn the light off and put on a musical projector which he loves to look at. He then has a bath and the bottle and then put into his moses basket. He generally sleeps until 3:30am for food and then wakes up again about 7am. Some days we arent able to follow this routine and I wanted to be flexible with it but the other day he missed his bedtime routine and he literally woke up every hour during the night and seemed quite unsettled.
During the day I feed on demand which is usually every 2-3 hours. If he went longer than 3 I would wake him but I dont need to do that as he only sleeps ut to an hour during the day.
Apparently if they eat as much as they want during the day they will sleep better during the night.
Hope this helps a bit!

 

[hannahR]

Above is a good post by hooch.

I introduced a bedtime routine to Hazel at about 7 weeks. Bath at 6, boob and bed. She is asleep most nights by 7. (i have an older daughter to get to bed too!) Its a juggle but worth it as i get the evening to spend with hubby!!

As for daytime naps, i cant really help, Hazel is a terrible napper, always has been and doesnt sleep for much longer then 30 mins at a time. She is breastfed and feeds every 3-4 hours. During the day i take her lead, but bedtime is bedtime and she doesnt come back downstairs after 6 and i took this approach with my eldest and she always has gone to bed really well. xxx

 

[Odd Socks]

we don't have a routine, & bella's 8 weeks tomorrow. she still feeds when she's hungry, & it's never really at the same time each day. having said that, she usually goes to bed between about 8.30pm-9pm (depending when her previous bottle was, she might have another later that night before we have her early hours feed!).
xx

 

[Cat lady]

Thanks for all advice ladies, there is so many opinions on this, its difficult to decide what is right for us!
xxx

 

[NG09]

We tend to bath Stephen at 7ish, bottle, then into his basket. He is normally sleeping for 8ish, wakes at 12ish for a feed, then again at 4am then he wakes aroung 6.30am. In the morning I take him downstairs aroung half 7, top and tail him, bottle the normally he sleeps until his next feed, although sometimes he stays awake. Throughout the day he normally takes his bottle, stays awake for about an hour then has another snooze.

 

[RHR]

Hi hun, Isabelle is 10 weeks old now and we tried to get a routine going from the day she came home. More so as it helped us to be more organised but at the same time we went with the flow of what Isabelle did. It's only been in the last few weeks that things have started to click into place and she now roughly goes to sleep between 7-8pm for the night, wakes up for a bottle between 1-2am and then again at about 5ish.

Isabelle certainly has days when she's more tired than others and sleeps more and other days when she barely naps during the day.

 

[ouchwithNo.2]

Ella 12wks has always fed 3 to 4hrs. From 6wks slept through 10.30pm to 6.30am.
Since 8wks her day naps have settled and being back at school (we have a 6yr old) our day goes as follows :
Wakes 6.30am to 7am. Feed. Nappy change.
8.20am off to school, 9.20am home (may nap 15mins in car)
9.30am bath, play, cuddle
10am feed
10.30am asleep until 2.30pm
2.45pm feed, school
Awake until...
6pm feed, play half hr, bed 7pm.
7.30pm son in bed.
10.30pm wake ella for feed.
Off to bed..

 

[pinkandfluffy]

We're at 6 weeks and just starting to introduce a bath/bedtime routine. I think its more about doing the same things in the same order, and not necessarily about time, especially if baby doesn't have a regular feeding pattern? My baby is bf and really doesn't feed at the same times every day yet.....Though I would love to be so regimented tbh! Dylan cluster feeds from about 6pm.

During the day if he falls asleep I let him......everything is still noisy and bright, so if he's not very tired, he won't drop off so I figure if he does then he needs it?

 

[Babynumber1]

oh dont worry i didnt get my son into a proper routine untill he was about 3 and half months hun xx

 

[Nats21]

We started a bedtime routine with Callum at 7 weeks, at 8.00 he has a bath, bottle and a cuddle then into the cot. I'd definitely recommend a bedtime routine as Callum now realises when its bedtime, before we started the routine it took us 1 - 2 hours to get him to sleep but now he self settles within 10 minutes.

I let Callum sleep for as long as he wants during the day as I don't believe in waking a sleeping baby although he does only tend to have 3 - 4 hours overall, he has one sleep around 10 for 45 mins, then a main sleep around 12 and then a couple of short afternoon naps. At night he sleeps for 12 hours overall (waking for his night time bottles inbetween) xx