I cant comment on the baby routines books, as I have never read any of them, but with DS I just followed his lead, we demand fed so, it all went around his feeds, by about 3-4 months he had a nice little natural routine going, which while we had a few bumps along the road (wonder weeks, developmental stages, teething etc..) he pretty much stayed the same.
The only things I did were to put him to sleep during the day in the longe room in his rocker (not the basinette/cot/our bed as they were for night sleeps) and the bedtime/bath thing.
Every baby is different though, DS is such an easygoing kid, he will roll with whatever is going on, but I know other kids who need to have that "routine" of sleeping in the same place, fed at the same times etc, find what works for you and do it!
HTH a little xx
we've also followed DS' lead here as well, based around demand feeding. at the start i looked so desperately for patterns (set feeding times, wake up times, length of sleep etc) & was tearing my hair out because there weren't any! over time, DS has fallen into a 'routine' by himself with regards to nap times & bedtime but tbh, it was only really once he started eating solids that this seemed to really come into play.
the main thing we did from the start was try and distinguish between night
& day. we found his cranky time, sorry - i mean 'unsettled' time - was from around 4ish so we started bathing him then because it soothed him. that was the start of our nightly wind down & has been going since he was just a few weeks old. we've added things along the way, like quiet play in his room after his bath, as he's got older & has more awake time.
i think the difficulty of too much parent-driven routine too early can be that your baby will change & then you're kind of back at square one. BUT, as STARRYSKY said, all babies are different & there are some who thrive on routine. it all seems to be a bit of trial & error to see what works best for your baby & for you
We were lead by what the baby wanted in those first few months and both girls sort of fell into their own patterns or routines. Having said that, DD2 sort of fell into line with DD1 just because of the way things felt and worked in the house if that makes sense?
I think the first 6 weeks are all about them working out that they are out in the big wide world and it is all pretty freaky for them so I tried just to keep them as close as possible. After that they started to be awake a bit more and be a bit more interactive and lead the way.
I did start off making sure bathtime and bedtime were consistent but that was because I wanted DP to do these things so they needed to be at a time where he could participate and be involved.
We did what worked for that particular day until Moo was about 6 months old. He put himself in a routine. I find it still changes depending on his needs at the time. If he's going through a developmental stage he needs alot more attention & everything takes more time for example
I've let jackson sort out his own routine... I found it frustrating when it's "time for bed" but they don't want go to bed... and you sit around for 2 hours trying to get them to sleep when you could have just been enjoying them instead
Is there a reason you feel you need a routine Sue?
Your baby girl is very small, all she needs is milk when she's hungry, sleep when she's tired, nappy change when she's dirty, and cuddles from her mummy and daddy. Unfortunately babies don't read the books and so often when we tried to put them into routines we have read and that sound good to us, they don't fit the baby and then mum ends up feeling stressed!!
If I could give one piece of advice to new mums it would be put down the books, trust yourself. You don't need anyone to tell you how to do things, you will know if you listen to your instincts and your baby, I promise. You are the perfect Mumma for your baby and you are entirely capable of looking after her all by yourself without any help from any 'expert' in a book. It's amazing!!
If you are a reader and feel like you do want something to read on parenting the one book I loved and would recommend was 'Parenting by Heart' by Pinky McKay.
You're doing a great job, well done!
Last edited by Heaven; April 20th, 2010 at 03:33 PM.
Thanks for all the input guys, I'm not thinking of a routine at the moment - or ever for that matter, I just wondered what others do.
Evie is getting herself into a wee routine anyway already - she's a smart wee thing. My only concern is the bedtime thing - she seems to enjoy a 3 hour sleep from 5pm - 8pm and then wakes quite cranky. Am wondering if this will continue or she'll change things around herself. I'd love to get a bedtime routine going if I do nothing else.
xx
Reply With Quote
You're doing a great job, well done!
Bookmarks