Routine HELP first time mummy :-)

[Rosie2011]

hello everyone, i really need help with my 5 month year old routine. He is all over the place. Have had so much trouble with him with food and sleep. We are now on lactose free milk which i think is helping and ive started to wean him onto food (ellas kitchen pears, bannana, peaches) he used to sleep for ten mins at a time if i was lucky but the last few days he has started to sleep for an hour at the time. Amazing. So obviously he is feeling more satisfied.

But just totally stuck with a routine. He still wakes up 2-3 times in the night for feeding. At the moment we get up 6-7 with a bottle, 8.30 food, 10 am nap food at 12 with bottle, nap at 2, (bit of bottle if he feels like it) maybe 3 oz then food at 5, bath 6 then bed with bottle. Ive been trying this but he is either so overtired or just miserable! I must be doing something wrong.

Does anyone have a good routine that they found to work better so my baby is happier and maybe able to sleep through the night. First time mum and stuck! He is a big boy 18lbs at 5 months x

[ilovepowerhoop]

when we first did food our routine was roughly:

milk - 7
breakfast - 8
milk - 11
lunch - 12pm
milk - 2.30/3pm
dinner - 5pm
milk - 7pm
bed 7.30ish

we didnt do a bath every night. How many naps is he having? Just 2? Could you fit another short one in somewhere?

[Littlef00t]

Sorry for sticking my nose in but Food 3 times a day at 5 months is a lot! Nhs suggest building up to 3 meals at 8-9 months.

[rootypig]

Less food, more sleep. 3 - 4 hours is far too long for him to be awake until his first nap. Try more like 90 minutes. Awake, bottle, get dressed, wee play, back to sleep.

[Littlef00t]

Sorry, previous comment wasn't v constructive, it's just there is a common misconception that babies sleep better when weaned but more likely to be developmental or as they are moving more they are more tired. There are more calories in milk than fruit so more milk is recommended rather than weaning early.

Pease research signs of being ready to eat www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/812.aspx?categoryid=62

www.mybabysleepguide.com/2009/02/wake-time.html link shows standard wake time, I'd say you need to be aiming for an earlier nap and fitting in 3 if possible.

[BotBotticelli]

Agree you should try for 3 naps per day with one early in the morning - max 2 hours after he wakes up for the day.

Don't worry too much about stuff happening at the exact same time every day but try to keep the pattern the same. Something like:

Wake up between 7-8 have bottle
Breakfast an hour later
Back down for a nap 45 mins after that

Bottle mid morning after nap
Then lunch around 12
Down for another nap

Bottle mid afternoon

Down for another short nap around 4 ish (give it take an hour)

Tea at 5.30 ish

Bottle and into bed around 7.

At that age I always made sure DS went to bed 2 hour after waking up from his last nap.

So if he napped from 4pm - 4.30pm, I would bath him and put him into bed around 6.30pm. If he napped from 4.30-5.30pm I would put him to bed at 7.30. So things happened at slightly different times every day but we tried to follow a pattern.

Btw I know the official advice is to build up slowly to 3 meals per day. But I started weaning DS at 5mo and by 6mo he was on 3 meals per day.

He is a thriving 2 year old now and he is fine - I always tried to follow his lead and do things in a 'baby led' way and he was just desperate to eat solid food (not a commonly held belief on MN I am afraid). You know what your baby needs. Read all the advice and guidelines and then make decisions which feel right to yu.

[LucyB1]

Just reading this and I'm confused about how you get anything done? Do you go to any groups etc? How do these effect your routine?