Stupid questions about babies!!

[MrsRV]

My DD is 12 weeks old:-

1. she's had a MAM dummy since she was 2 weeks old, do I need to upgrade to a different age range? the ones she has are just 0+... but are there like 3+ and 6+ etc?

1. She feeds every 3 hours in the day, we give her one "big" bottle at about 5am and one "big" bottle at 8pm, (big bottle being 6oz). Rest of the day is 5oz every 3 hours. She sleeps from 9pm to 5am-ish! Now, sometimes she takes a whole bottle, sometimes not, and there is no real pattern either! So... How do I try to make her stretch to 4 hourly feeds!?!?!

1. I guess at some point we'll be putting her to bed at about 7.30ish... Like all other children... When should we start doing this? Is it something that we should be doing now/soon or is she a bit young to have a proper bedtime? As she sleeps so well now I'm

reluctant to put her up early because she'll just wake early?

1. Can anyone give me some pointers on a routine for weaning...like, how many bottles? How often? How much food? How often and then when do u fit in naps? I know 12 weeks is too soon btw but I think our LO will be weaning from about 4 months as she's a big baby and already licking her lips while watching me eat!!!!

Just cracked having a baby... Now it's all going to bloody change!

If this routine works for you as a family, why change it? She's eating, feeding, sleeping and excreting enough, i assume?

As long as she is happy (and you are) I wouldn't worry about a routine. They fall into their own routine soon enough.

If she is draining the 5oz bottles you could try making them up to 6oz which could help spread them out to 4 hourly.

When you start weaning at first its just tiny amounts of food once a day so the bottles shouldn't be effected. As the amount of food increases the number of bottles will start to decrease but until 1 their main source of nutrition should be from milk.

I don't know why I feel so stressed about routine & bedtimes... Control freak!!!!

She is very happy, content and sleeping & eating well so maybe I will just keep doing what I'm doing! Thanks ladies for the reassurance.

She is very happy, content and sleeping & eating well

You're doing it right. Ignore what "everyone else" is doing, they're not raising your child.

1. sorry don't know - both of mine just spat all dummies out
2. you probably can't. Why try to? - 9-5 at night for a 12 week old is great, but she probably still needs it every 3 hours or so in the day for now, so keep it as it is! Neither of mine every went four hourly until after they started on solids
3. Start putting her down at 7.30 once you're happy that you're getting pleanty of sleep yourselves. She's likely to do her longest stretch without a feed during her first hours of sleeping, so in the early months you're best to make those overlap with your own hours of sleep as much as possible. Started putting my DS down at 7.30pm at about 6 months once he was doing this.
4. ime weaning takes quite a while to get going. Both of mine pushed out all food for several weeks before they got the hang of it, so expect quite a while of getting them used to food without it having any real impact on mild feeds. Once they get the hang of it you can move in a matter of weeks to having meals the same time you do (even if not the same food) and then milk feeds afterwards as a top up.

Sorry, number 3 should have read "once he was sleeping for a total of around 12 hours with only 1-2 wakes for feeds"

Why do you want her to go 4 hours? Do you go 4 hours between food and drinks during the day?

Being big and licking her lips isn't related to weaning at all, so I wouldn't assume you need to wean early. It is safer to wait til nearer 6 months.

There's nothing magic about 7.30pm, and no reason for her to go to bed then.

Have you got the birth to 5 yrs book, it's got great weaning info. You start with first tastes over a couple of weeks, gradually introducing more foods. Advice is to wait till 6 months if you can - being big and looking interested in food are not signs that a baby is ready to wean, it's more about them being able to sit up, pick up food and put it in their own mouth and coordinate swallowing it. If you do wean earlier, you shouldn't do it before 17 weeks, and there is a list of things to avoid before 6 months.

I started a bedtime at about 4 months with both of mine, to get some routine in the evenings. Other than that I didn't worry too much about routines, but we did start to fall into 2 naps a day at about 8 months. Once the baby is eating 3 meals a day I think you find stuff just slots in around that. Sorry no advice on bottle feeds as mine were breastfed, but if baby is fine, happy and gaining the right amount of weight it sounds like you are getting it right :)

And crossed posts all over the place there :)

With regards to bedtime, it totally depends what time you want them to get up the next morning. My preschooler still goes to bed at 9pm - it suits our family pattern / routine and means she gets up around 8am which suits me fine. I will have to have earlier mornings next year when she starts school and I go back to work, and she will be more tired from school. So I guess she'll have to have an earlier bedtime then (and our whole family routine will have to change too!)

What I'm trying to say is, don't put your child to bed at 7.30 just because you think it's what everyone does. They don't. Just fo whatever suits your family's needs.