Until this point I’ve just been letting my baby fall asleep in the day (usually after feeding) and then putting her down to sleep in her crib, she’ll either sleep or wake up and that will determine whether she naps or not. The other day she went 6 hours without a nap and today she slept for four hours in the middle of the day. It’s totally random and she leads it. But reading stuff now I feel like I should be actively putting her down for naps at certain times and trying to get some structure. Do people have any advice about where the start? Should I just pick the same time each day and try to push a nap on her? Or try to get a nap in once she’s been awake for 2 hours or so? And should I be waking her up if she’s going over 2/3 hours napping in the day? I know she’s still young so I feel like (hopefully) I’m not too late and now is the time to try to get her in good habits. Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks!
Honestly, don't stress yourself out with routines and schedules at this stage, she is still so young. My LO is 7 months and I'm only just starting to establish some sort of routine but it's on his terms and is VERY flexible. I'd continue to let her lead you for now. Let her sleep when she's tired and eat when she's hungry. Don't get too caught up in what she 'should' be doing. There's no one size fits all when it comes to babies, they all have differing needs.
At this age with my DS it would have been far too early to start a routine, and far too stressful! I think i started around 4.5 - 5 months to start a routine.
My DD2 is 9 weeks and I keep wondering the same thing re schedules
Everything I read says wait until around 4 months though
So don’t stress about it yet (I’m trying not to )
I think with dd1 we ‘found’ a way into a routine at 4-5 months ish BUT they change so much as they grow/have sleep regressions that things are rarely the same for long!!
My DD2 is 8 weeks and I generally just follow her lead - if it's been a couple of hours since her last nap and she's getting cranky I usually take her out for a walk or pop her in the sling and that does the trick. I'm starting to notice a pattern emerging so I'll just follow that as she gets older. I'm pretty relaxed about it - DD1 has shown there's not much point stressing about it too much as it can be hugely changeable. I'm also not worried about her falling asleep mid feed or cuddling/rocking to sleep as I know this can be changed later on.
If you want "routine", there's plenty of differing methods to follow from EASY to Gina Ford and it's just seeing what works for you and baby.
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