At what age do you start a routine for your newborn

[flapjackaddict]

Hi. My DS is two weeks old and I am demand feeing right now. When does this stop and I am able to let him sleep longer than 3 hours during the night? I had thought 8 weeks but would be keen to hear how other mums have gone about the first few weeks of their newborn's feeding. Thank you.

I started a routine on day one, however I think I am in the minority on here.

My understanding is that if you demand feed, its a ling term thing (or at least, the baby will establish their own routine which is a by product of demand feeding). Once your baby has regained their birth weight, its ok to leave them to wake when they need in the night

are you.BF OR FF

I stopped demand feeding with my first at about a year and suspect I will do something similar again this time.

You can still follow their lead with a routine though. We took no 2 out in the buggy each day to pick up no 1 from preschool and found she usually fell asleep at that time. We usually put them both to bed at 7.

Totally up to you!

I demand fed for 8 weeks then started a strict routine. That lasted till DD adapted the routine to meet her own needs I gave up being fussy and chilled out a bit .

I'd suggest reading around and looking at a few routines, see if any might suit you. It might be that your DS is already beginning to fit into one and you can then see if you want to adopt any of the other bits.

I'm in the minority too Gnocchi - I also started a routine as soon as we got home from hospital (6 days old). I can't remember ever waking my baby to feed in the night, I woud put him to 'bed' at a specific time, 7pm, rather than letting him drift off wherever he was and he would wake once, max twice, for a feed in the night.

As Gnocchi says though, these views aren't popular on Mumsnet .

I was BF by the way throughout and just found I needed to ensure she'd had a full feed at feeding time to last her through till next one, so I just always did both sides and it seemed to work ok (in that DD was quite content and gaining well).

All my three DC were different, and yours will be, too.

Newborns eventually fall into a routine on their own, in the first few months. DD1 slept for about 6 hours per night from very early on, DD2 did not sleep through until after 1yo. Second and subsequent children often have to adapt their routine to the family, more than first borns (if you are on the school run at 8:15, you can't feed your baby, then)

I can't imagine having followed a strict routine, but it works for some people, so if you think it's a good idea, why not try it? You can always abandon it if you find it doesn't work for you.

We had DTs and started a vague routing at 6 weeks - basically a bedtime routine. They were bf on demand though but they kind of 'fell' into a pattern. The fixed bathtime was basically for my own sanity!

Feeding on cue has been shown to be the best way to get a milk supply established so you might want to wait a few more weeks before you start a routine. Usually things start settling down about 6 weeks anyway and you might start to notice a pattern that you can work with.

Do you mean a bedtime routine or daily nap/feed routine?

If BF, feed on demand for the first 6-8 weeks. Even gina ford says that.

They change so much in the first few months, any routine other than bedtime and a set morning wake up time is fruitless IMO.

With both of mine I went by them except for DD (my second) I put her to bed at the same time every day and she got her days and nights a lot faster than her older brother. She fell into a routine but tweaked a bit around her brother as we'd be out a lot more.

At 2 weeks, there's no point. But roughly - feed every 2-3 hours in the day and let them decide on night feeds.

Babies get themselves into their own routines. Ebb and flow with them, they know what they need.

Many thanks for all your advice. I am Breastfeeding should have mentioned that. Like the idea of both of us trying to find what works for us .

About 10 weeks when I had worked out roughly what his natural patterns were.

Routines are meant to make your life easier, but they are not for everyone. If you find it too much work and prefer to go with the flow then go for it :) There's no right and wrong way to do things.

When they are out the newborn stage and are sleeping for longer stretches. I didn't have a routine until DS1 and DS2 were both at least three months old.

To be honest, looking back (seems light years away now) I actually just let them take the lead (but it did happen after the 3 month mark both times when they settled into a predictable sleep pattern).

My main tip for newborns is to treat them in as womblike a way as possible for the first 3 months - baby wearing, if they're not hungry but fussing try to be somewhere dark and quiet, feed on demand. The gaps between feeds will increase.
After that I am of the opinion that's baby shouldn't be awake more than 3 hours at a time so if they are, return to womblike thinking.