Do you have a routine?

I'm just wondering how old was your little one when you tried to establish a rountine or did you let you baby guide you?

My DS is 4 months old and i'm still letting him guide me. So does this sound normal?
He wakes between 6am and 7am, after 1 hour he is ready to sleep again usually for 45 mins. He then has 1.5 -2 hours awake before he is ready for another nap, lasting another 45 mins. Play for 1.5-2 hrs, then I try to get him to have a 1.5 hr sleep in the arvo, but need to be ready after 45 mins to soothe him into another sleep cycle. The rest of the day repeats the cycle of 1.5-2 hrs awake to 45 mins sleep. He goes to bed between 7pm- 8pm. I try to keep him awake for 2 hours before bed. If I'm lucky DS will go 5 hrs uninterupted after i put him down initially at night, but can then wake any where from hrly to 3 hrly after that.

I question this because some of the books I have read are saying things like aim for a 30min morning sleep, a 2 hour lunchtime nap and another 30 min nap around 4pm. Aim for 8 hrs of uninterupted sleep at night (though it does state only 20% of bubs will).

I'm just wondering what other do?

Those sleep guides don't sound right to me for a 4 month old hun.

Sounds like bubs is up a bit too long - perhaps this is interferring with the night sleep as he is overtired etc and needs that extra settling??

At 4 months he should be up for no longer than 1.5 hrs before sleep (is possible, if at home etc). 2 hours is too long. It is hard to judge I know - my little fella will go 2 hours and he doesn't cry much (Yes lucky this time :)) - but as soon as I wrap him this is his sleep cue and his eyes roll back in his head - and I only get 1 sleep cycle I think cos he was overtired - KWIM??

I don't have a routine as such as I have school runs and other things on - BUT I do try and make sure that when he does go to bed, he is in his bed for at least an hour - so if he wakes at 30 minutes, continue to resettle him - again, he doesn't scream the house down, otherwise of course I would pick him up - but I do believe in getting the day time sleep to help the night time sleep. SOunds like you are still up alot your poor thing.

At 6 months I know Tresillian recommend up for 2 hours, down for 1.5 hrs.

My boy sleeps well overnight and has a feed around 4 - 5am. He goes back to bed, but when he gets up for the 'morning' and goes back to bed, it might only be 1 sleep cycle and I am fine with this as I have to get out of the house, and think well, he has just slept overnight!

Good luck, each bub is different, just what has worked for me.

My first bub didn't have much of a routine at all, he would just fall asleep on the floor, and wake up, roll around and fall asleep.

Can't remember how much my second was sleeping at that stage, perhaps a morning and afternoon nap (quite long each), and bed around 5:30-6.

Something I did to encourage this was to feed at least 3 hourly during the day. But as Sam said, each bub is so different. Just do what works for you. :hug:

Your son's sleeping sounds fine. I let my ds guide me at 4 months, now at almost 10 month we have established a proper routine.

Ok your bub is basically the same age as my DD (coupla days difference) and this is her usual routine
Up at 6.30
Nap at 8.00
Up again usually at 9.30 for her next feed (today she went till 10.30)
Nap at 11.00
Up again at around 12.30 for her next feed at 1.30
Down straight after feed - or at around 3ish
Up again at 4.30 for next feed
Down again at 6pm
We wake her at 10pm for her feed.
She then sleeps through till 6/6.30

So she usually has around 3-5 hours during the day - and then a sleep through.

HTH!!

I think that he sounds fine. At that age I generally let my girls determine the routine. I used "2 up, 2 down" as a general guide during the day, and I have been lucky enough to have kids that slept from 7pm-7am from about 4 months. But it's really whatever works for the individual child.

I found myself worrying about DD1s kindy runs interfering with DD2's sleep patterns, but she has kind of worked herself around that. They're funny beings. They figure out what works and they work with it.

I had a vague routine with DS.

We'd get up in the morning, 6-7ish I think.
We'd get dressed.
DS would have a sleep for a half-hour at about 8ish if he'd had a bad night, otherwise a nap at 9.30-10ish for about an hour (in the pushchair; I went out for coffee or playgroup).

He'd then nap for two hours over lunch on the way home again.

He'd often have a half-hour or so at about 4pm (usually in the sling).

Bedtime was 7.30-8pm, but quite often he'd be up until 9.

I know people try to say "overtired" but he REALLY didn't need much sleep. I did try to get him to sleep more or make bedtime earlier but it just frustrated us both as DS was too awake to go to bed. If he slept more in the day he'd be up at 4am, wide awake and playing.

I also let DS guide me, still do and yours sounds similiar to mine at that age. Do what ever you are comfortable doing.

I am always reminding myself that it is only in the western world that we dictate to our children how long they should be sleeping, feeding, crawling, trying to make them fit a routine. Sounds like you are both doing fine:)

Thank you for your replies. It has given me some clarification. I will just keep plodding along, it is not as if he is a screamer at night, I can be grateful for that.

Just keep doing what is working hon don't worry about others. Our "routine" isn't strict or anything - this is what SHE does - I think she might be tired, I put her in the cot, and she falls asleep..... I'm not forcing her into a routine because someone is telling me to - I just do whatever she needs.

As long as its working for you guys - its not wrong. :hug:

We don't have a 'routine', basically I just hope to the universe that she sleeps for about 12 hours in a 24 hour period, for her thats the magical number. Any more or less and its scream-town. When she sleeps and for how long is a mystery each day, I just take it as it comes and hope it evens out into 3 neat day sleeps and one long night sleep.

Hey, I can dream, can't I!

At that age my DS was still having 4 day sleeps (usually 40 mins each). Although I worked hard at teaching him to self-settle, he has never been very good at going into the next sleep cycle (even now I often have to resettle him to get a longer sleep in the day). DS has a bit of a routine now - but it's just something that has developed over time, by me watching his cues. I haven't imposed a routine on him.

My DS is 4 months. Being a first time mum I thought I would just do my own thing and see how that goes. We don't really have a routine. The only thing I am doing is trying to get DS to sleep through the night which is working so far so good. I tend to work off feeds. He has his dinner every 4 hours pretty much on the dot. So this is what usually happens with him:

7am - Wakes up and eats. He then will stay up for about an hour or so.
He will then sleep till about 10 - 11am. If he wakes up at 10 - he is fine to just do his own this till about 11 which is feed time. He might then stay up for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours. Then sleep. He'll wake up between 2- 3pm for his feed. Next feed he will get up around 6-7pm. Then at 10pm I will get him up regardless of how long he has slept (sometimes 1 - 1.5 hr). He then stays up till about 11 -11.30pm and then he sleeps through. I would prefer to go to bed earlier but then again who am I to complain when I am getting an 8 hour sleep??

I really don't mind what goes on in the day and if he wants to stay up, it's fine with me. The only time I intervene is at nighttime where I make it work for me. Lucky DS is a good boy and does what mummy says!! lol (for now anyways..he'll probably be a right little terror when he starts getting around on his own.)

So I guess - whatever works for you - do that.

Routine? What's that??
No j/k... I made our routine from Ashton. He wakes at 5am for a feed, then goes back to sleep, then is back up at 8, has another feed, change his bum, plays for a while and goes back to sleep at 10 for 3 hours then back up for feed, another sleep at 4 till 6 then up feed, play back to bed at 9.30 and he sleeps until I go to bed around 12ish, feed him and he goes back to sleep and wakes at about 3 for a feed then 5am again :) We REALLY settled into this at about 2 months old :)

I'm glad to find this thread. Peter is still a short napper and I read on one site that one way to help him extend his naps is to have set nap times during the day. I don't really do this- basically I go from his cues and put him down when he is tired (which tends to fall into a VERY roughly similar-ish schedule each day). So it got me freaking out that I was doing this major dis-service to my child by not giving him more structure. But then the thought of a routine that says "you must nap each day at 10am" also freaks me out.... life just doesn't seem that clean and predictable.

So I am glad to hear others are "child-lead". To me it seems like going with the flow, whereas when I try to impose longer naps etc on him, its a constant uphill battle. But then the inevitable mother guilt kicked in and I wondered if maybe I should be the adult and lead and not let him lead....sigh.... sorry, extreme routine confusion in this corner!!! :wall:

My bub has pretty much had the same routine from around 3 months. He'll be 6 months at Xmas. Every now and then there is a variation but this is fairly standard.

Wake between 6.00 to 7.30.

Bottle feed then straight back to his cot. Sometimes this doesn't work so I put him in our bed or in a rocker.

Wakes 9-9.30am. Bottle feed (also has solids now) then put in rocker for 20 minutes then on floor to play. If he got sick of floor I would hold him or put him in rocker. Back to bed when he looks tired. Usually about 1 hour to 1/2 hours after waking.

Wakes 12- 1.30. Pretty much the same as above.

Wakes between 3-4. Bottle feed. Play. Sometimes sleeps for a while (and then wakes at 6-7pm but often stays awake til his final feed of night around 7pm.

Sleeps through the night but sometimes wakes when dummy comes out but goes right back to sleep after I pop it back in.

If you compare what all our bubs are doing on this thread I think you'll see they all do it a little differently..... whatever works for them.