To structure or not to structure?

[RawChicken]

Hi, my baby is nearly 4 months (15 weeks). Her day time naps have started being all over the place - often shorter than before and sometimes taking longer to settle. She has also started being hungry more frequently. Before this I was doing the "EASY" method of eat, activity, sleep (as opposed to eat right before sleeping). Now that her naps are all out of kilter and her feeds are more frequent, any routine I had has gone out of the window. For example, she is currently napping even though I would normally be playing with her before starting bedtime routine at 7, so now her bedtime tonight is going to be later.

Should I A) try to move things back to be more structured somehow
or
B) just let things happen when they happen even if bedtimes are always at different times, and hope that it evens itself out some day?

At 4 months what's the general consensus?

.

Honestly, my only regret about the tiny baby stage is that I panicked and thought I needed to Do Things. If I had a time machine I would spend the first six months of DS’s life watching black and white films and feeding or cuddling him, rather than rushing about to activities.

Do whatever you prefer. Or whatever is easiest.

Just go with the flow. Let baby dictate her own routine.

It’s your choice, it’s hard for people to advise you and there’s no “best” choice.

I liked a routine but then again my baby was happier in a routine. I needed the structure as I coped v badly with sleep deprivation and not having a “break” when she napped. Without a routine I think I would have become quite ill.

It’s more about what works for you as a parent than what your baby needs - babies can be happy either way IMO. Personally at that age I had quite a set routine for feeds, but naps were a bit more hit and miss. That was because I liked to be out and about quite a bit, so it was hard to get a fixed nap routine.

I wanted to keep both mine in as much of a routine as possible for both our sakes from a few months (I used EASY too). I discovered I wasn't the chilled mother I thought I'd be and needed the predictability!

Both were chilled babies and seemed to fall into the routine easily.

Its the prime time for the 4 month sleep regression. Sleep/naps tend to be all over the place during this anyway, id just go with the flow.

I wouldn’t worry too much. Both of mine had no routine at 4 months, (resisted my attempts to try!) but both fell into a routine at 6 months when I started weaning, giving meals at set times. Trying to get DC1 into a routine was so stressful I didn’t bother with DC2, but they both did it by themselves at 6 months!

It's likely the 4 month sleep regression, as PP said. I'd leave it for a month or so.