5 month old routine help

[Nicole2781]

Hello,

I have a 5 mo ds and would like to get him into a better routine as I will be going back to work in may.

He is bottle fed currently on 8oz every 4 ish hours.

He has his own routine which is going to bed around 12am and wakes at 11ish. He usually wakes around 2 times in the night and I try to give him a bottle but doesn't really drink it maybe about 1-2 oz if that but sometimes he will drink it all and go back down lovely.

Obviously going to bed about 12am is pretty late! And we are nakered and would love to get him into bed way earlier ad waking up earlier in the morning.

The last few nights we've tried to put him down at 10-10:30 but he's been waking up to 5 times! I think it's mainly for comfort although he will take some of his bottles.

How will I get him into a better routine? I really don't know where to start. If I try to keep him awake longer so he doesn't have his naps so early he gets so grumpy. He also seems to sleep better in our bed which we don't really want to make a habit out of.



Shall we put him into his own room now?

Any suggestions and experiences will be much appreciated

[silverangel]

Can you start to push his naps back and pull his bedtime forward by say 20 min intervals? I would definitley start waking him before 11 as well.

Introduce a bedtime routine so its the same every night before he goes to bed. We did either bath or nappy off time, bottle then bed?

I think at that age DTs were going to bed at 7 and up at somewhere betweeen 5 and 6, nap at 9-10 and around 1.30-2.30. I always woke them by 3 to make sure they went down at 7.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Bringing everything forward by 15 or 20 minutes a day is a good idea. So say try to get him off by 11.45 tonight and then wake him at 10.45 tomorrow and just keep moving it back each day until you get to a time that suits you. If he's sleeping 11 hours at night you'll need to look at what time you need in the morning and if your childcare provides breakfast and what time you can get him into bed by.

[Nicole2781]

Thanks both for your replies will be trying the advice given praying it will work I need my sleep!!

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Fingers crossed then. Let us know how you get on

[MumOfTheMoos]

No, don't put him in his own room yet. Wait until he's at least 6 months, that's the guidelines.

Bringing things forward by 15 mind as the others have said is a good idea.

Create a bedtime routine but also a nap time routine. When you're doing all this, give yourself he time to work at it. Don't get stressed if it doesn't all work straight away (eg he won't go down for a nap at the time you won't him to) give yourself the time o focus on it (so don't sweat if you don't make that trip to the shops). I find that if I try to fit too much in to the day when I'm trying to build routines I get stressed.

Babies lurve routine - it's fab, and it makes everything much easier.

Don't worry about him coming into your bed either - it's such a short time they're little.

[MumOfTheMoos]

Ooo, yes, let us know how you get on.

I found no cry nap solution and no cry sleep solution by Elizabeth Pantley really good o building routines.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Forgot to link to the isis website. Always a good place to start if you are trying to change Los sleep]].

Agree with Moos too.