Calling all 'Routine' mums...........

[ZombiePlanB]

How you do wake your baby up? Have tried tickling, putting down, changing his nappy.

5wk old ds2 is quite sleepy and will even sleep in the bath given half a chance!

The routine method is working brilliantly, except for the fact he wants to sleep all day. We were demand-led first time round but with a very active ds1 I need all the sleep I can get.

Any tips?

Why do you want to wake him up?? If I needed to rouse either of mine I would very gently blow on them! Five weeks is probably still earlish for a strict routine (and I am someone who did the routine thing)

I was always told that rubbing babys palm woke them up, not sure if it works.

at five weeks he can probably only stay awake about 45 minutes at a time. I wouldnt worry to much about waking him up so long as he is waking up for feeds. His stamina will increase as he gets older though i am impressed that he can snooze in the bath!

I would just gently undo the poppers on his babygrow and take his legs out. Always worked to rouse DS.

Why on earth would you wake a sleeping 5 week old?

Find a different Baby Routine guru to follow. I knew someone who swore by Gina Ford for Baby1, but had to switch to Baby Whisperer for Baby2 because Baby2 just wouldn't stay awake long enough.

I'd let your baby sleep and enjoy it while it lasts. Routines work best if you try to harmonise them with your baby's natural pattern. My son, for example, could go a very regular 3 hours between feeds so that's the routine we adopted. Roughly.. feed, change, sleep for 2 hours, awake for an hour, repeat....

If you are waking for feeding like I had to for the first 3-months - sleepy baby under medical care
Strip him, use a damp cloth to wipe his tummy, change his nappy half way through the feed, put on the TV, turn on the lights - can I point out how frustrating night feeds are at this point!
Also set your alarm clock for every 3 hours with the feeds, it helps wake you as well as baby.

If you are trying to keep baby awake for Gina Ford, don;t bother, you can still do GF without keeping baby awake at the 'times', read the advice at the back of the book. An alternative is 'sleepsense' which suited my sleepy baby, because it had more flexible ideas around sleep.

I've now got a good routine going with DD2 (5MO) but I found in the early weeks there was literally nothing I could do to stop her sleeping - she was just a v sleepy baby. I do think routines can be a v good thing if they work for you but I honestly thing 5 weeks is really early. Just stick to the basics routine-wise e.g. having the same bedtime routine every night etc but I'd give it a few more weeks and she'll naturally start being awake a bit longer.

Hi

I followed gina Ford with my first child and worked beautifully. I also followed with my second but let him flow into the routine mor and it worked. he did sleep quite a bit at first but he gradually got into it. i think it is easier from 8 to 9 weeks onwards.

Yes, I too did GF from birth but found it worked best from 8/9 weeks. At 5 weeks our DD could only stay awake for max 45 mins at a time - she slept for 4 hour stretches - though we did wake her every 4 hours if she was not awake to feed and then she quickly went back to sleep.

How did we rouse her? Took her out of her basket and changed her nappy - it seemed to rouse her enough to feed.

thanks for all the replies. We aren't in a strict routine, just that if he sleeps four hours at lunch then he doesn't settle well at night, obviously! I am keen on up time in the day.