Hi Jen

I agree with what everyone else has said. Sometimes my 14-week-old has a 40 minute nap in the morning, sometimes (like this morning, she had a 4-hour sleep). Sometimes she has feeds two hours apart. Sometimes they're 4-6 hours apart. So rather than trying to get her back to sleep when she's obviously awake and alert, I get her up and if she's hungry, I feed her. To me that's a lot less stress than trying to make her do things that she obviously doesn't need to do. And, by the way, although she isn't in a routine by any clock, she sleeps between 9-12 hours per night so I don't think routines affect whether they sleep or not. But also, "sleeping through" is counted as five hours continuous sleep (not 12 hours which we think of) so maybe Mackenzie is sleeping through anyhow?

Routine schmoutine I say. If anyone asks me if she's in a routine, I'll say "well, I don't want to go to bed at the same time, eat at the same time or get up at the same time every single day so I don't see why she should."

It's much easier to follow your baby's cues rather than try to get them into a routine that's recommended by books or other people.