Should we have a routine at 6 weeks?

[MYA2016]

My exclusively breastfed baby is 6 weeks old today
He eats when he wants and sleeps when he wants. There is no routine or pattern, only at night he sleeps 11pm-3am and 3.30am-7am and 7am-9am. This works for me :)
From other posts I've read though I'm wondering if he should be in more if a routine by now? sometimes he will nap in the day for half an hour other times its 2 hours.
Am I doing wrong by letting him do what he wants? If not at what time does a pattern start to emerge?
Thanks

[Fluffy24]

Personally I would start a bedtime routine ASAP as it'll stand you in good stead for when he's bigger and ready to go all night.

It doesn't mean he's not fed to demand - for instance you make 7pm bedtime and so then bath him and give him BF with the lights low on your bedroom just before. Then when he gets up for the rest of his feeds after this. Even if they are only 2 hrs later, they're treated like night feeds, so keep lights low, don't wake him up more than necessary etc.

I found daytime naps more difficult to establish!

[villainousbroodmare]

Around 3 months I started very consciously putting DS into his bed awake for all his naps and at night. Other than that, he had no set routine, but he did more or less the same things around the same times most days. I just watched him to see when he needed a nap.
I only established a real routine in the last month as I was going back to work. Now it's up at 7, naps at 9, 12.30 and 4, bed at 7. Much more restrictive really. I'd suggest getting the settling to sleep thing sorted by 3-4 months if you can but otherwise enjoy your freestyle baby for as long as you can!
Now I'm back to work and he's reverse cycling and feeding all night aaaargh!

[unimaginativename13]

We have routined since day one but only bed time. Lights down low, no eye contact, pjs on around 8pm. Then that naturally came forward to 7pm and we started introducing a bath bottle bed as soon as you can bath them.

DS usually wakes about 8, if he wakes earlier I try to still wait until 8 (he doesn't associate waking with feeding which is good as he will go back to sleep sometimes)

He's awake around 2 hours before he gets tired and naps himself- gives me a chance to get ready, tidy house etc.

The rest of the day is just what he wants to do and depends what we do. He might sleep in the car or pram and feeds around every 3 hours.

I never think 'O it's 3pm DS needs a nap'

[Skiptonlass]

Yup. Like fluffy we started from quite young. 8 weeks I think. Bath, pjs, in bed for cuddle and feed and then from then on until morning all feeds were upstairs, in darker quieter conditions. I continued to feed on demand and if he was unsettled I'd go and cuddle up with him rather than leave him up there on his own. We have a video baby monitor.

He's 4.5 months and still doesn't sleep through the night, but he goes go gown ok at bedtime! It is literally my only sleep success ;)

[CornishDoll82]

I'd start a bedtime routine. It won't get stuck to all the time but it's good to get good sleep associations in place. Ours was bath, feed, music and bed. Then all night feeds after make them REALLY BORING, no eye contact or chatting. Worked for us and she slept through from early on.

At this point I think you just let them sleep whenever during the day. My girl is 7 months and only just doing a day routine and it never works!

[IpsyUpsyDaisyDo]

Routines work for some, not for others (parents I mean). I really liked the evenings with DH and a sit-down meal that our DD's 7pm bedtime gave us from about 3 weeks. But I'm quite a routine-driven person and it does sound like you are happy going with the flow.
One thing though, if you are going to be returning to work, you might think about establishing good sleeping patterns sooner rather than later as it can be hard (and a bit unfair on DC) to impose a routine later on when everyone has got used to there not really being one, and you desperately need the sleep!

[SweetAdeline]

I wouldn't bother. We made a big effort with dc1. We were massively paranoid about sleep associations, self settling had a yada yada. Dc2 stayed downstairs with us until we went to bed cat napping in a bouncy chair. If he cried, I fed him. If he wouldn't settle we'd let him sleep in with us.

Dc1 is now 4 and still sometimes wakes us at night. She is a terrible sleeper and always has been. Dc2 is a brilliant sleeper and had been since he was about 6 months when we started putting him to sleep in his own room.

[DaggerEyes]

God....at this point I tried to chart my babies naps, feeds etc too see if any sort of pattern was forming that I could tweak into a routine. Random. Fucking. Mess. But, I did start to have my 'non negotiable' things that never changed. Bath at 6. Eat at table with family (well, held by me while I ate like a pig with one hand) and tummy time while I watched a program at the same time every day. I just kept adding bits into it as she got used to my ways, and is now a creature of habit like her mum!