has anyone had success with the 'routines'?

[wingingitk]

I am at my wits end with DS as he seems never to want to go down for a nap and is grizzly all the time. I wanted to know if people had success with any routines (from books or ones they have made up themselves). DS is only 5 weeks so I am of course not expecting him to sleep through the night or anything like that but I would really like to get him into a routine. DH has been so wonderful. When he comes home from work he takes over and sends me to bed as I am so exhausted. But that means he is alone with DS screaming his head off in the evenings until his next feed when I take over. I am not expecting miracles but I would so love a way to try and eventually get to a point where we have some time together. Any advice would be so appreciated.

I agree with Iggly. At that age DS needed just 45 mins awake time between waking & the first nap, and no more than 1.5 hours between naps later in the day.

He would just about sleep in the pram then (after a LOT of screaming ) but by soon after that, he would only sleep while I was out walking with the sling in the day. Once we'd had a good while of sling naps I was able to get a better idea of his tired signs / sleep needs and could then plan things a bit more. He got much easier to get to sleep, as he was no longer overtired from being awake for too long between naps.

Grizzly or screaming evenings are pretty normal at that age even if they sleep well. New baby unsettledness peaks at 6-8 weeks, but fussiness in the evenings often continues (although it improves gradually) to about 3 months. Again, a sling was the only thing that worked for DS then.

I don't think a baby is ever too young for a routine. We started from day 1 differentiating between night and day and feeding ever 2 hours. From about 3 weeks she was on a proper routine, although I found there was no way she could stay awake as long as the books suggested. I now follow a mixture of gina Ford and book called Baby Secrets. Dd is perfect (now 11 weeks). She sleeps when I put her down, can sleep happily on her own during the day, virtually never cries and goes to sleep perfectly in her own room at 7pm. She has started sleeping 11-7 from 9 weeks and now does it approx half the time. She never wakes up before 4.30 now. Routines all the way for me!

Another vote for keeping a log of feeding and sleeping here. See what your baby is doing and work out what's best for you from there. I honestly think that he's too young for a rigid day routine at five weeks, but it's never too soon for a bedtime routine. We do bath, pyjamas, milk, story, bed and a song with five month old DS, have done since four weeks. At first I was up and down the stairs for an hour until ge slept, but in a week he would sleep as soon as he was put down. He might not sleep through all the time yet, but at least DH and I have our evenings together which really helps :)

My baby slept through the night after 9 weeks but day time was a night mare, I gave my son 5 feeds a day every 3 hours.
7am-bottle
11am bottle
2pm bottle
5pm bottle
8pm bottle
I developed this routine at around 3 months before that i had no routine before and i was very strict with bottle times and looking back i would have given him a bottle earlier or later depending on his mood or weather he was asleep or not.

The best advice i could give is develop a routine but make it flexible to suite your child's mood if they are hungry give them a bottle earlier don't do what i did and have a grumpy baby for half an hour or if you see your baby is getting tired give them a bottle earlier so they will sleep that bit longer during the day and they will be more happier in the day time.

I know how hard it is i remember being up till 12:00pm at night trying to put my baby down to sleep for him to be up again at 3:00am and then 7am and then he would sleep all day in my arms and if i put him down would scream and scream then he would be awake from 5pm till 12:00pm every night eventually getting earlier and earlier.