7 week old routine??

[ruth4321]

Hi my little boy is 7 weeks old I keep hearing all these things about routines and feeding every 3-4 hours sleeping thought the night etc but I feel like my life is baby led with no routine at all! Should I have a routine or go with what he seems to need? I do tend to do bath bottle and bed at night but during the day is still very random. He sometimes has long naps sometimes short ones sometimes eats every 3-4 hours sometimes every 2. He's usually only up once a night which is good. Should I feed him every 3 hours even if he's not crying for food or feed when he seems hungry? I feel like I'm not doing things right aggghh! Sorry to go on an on!

At 7 weeks I wouldn't worry. My lovely HV (she really was wonderful) told me at some point (I can't remember if it was 8 or 12 weeks) that he should be in a routine. So the next day I wrote down when he slept, when he ate etc and thought I would stick with that. The day after he did the exact opposite, but then that pattern repeated itself every day.

If you are happy and baby is happy then I would continue to follow his lead, maybe rethinking at 12weeks if he doesn't find a rythym by himself.

Thanks that makes me feel much better! I have downloaded an app today to record everything he does so I can see if there's a pattern!

I didn't enforce a routine with either of my two, just put them down when they looked tired (or conversely very shouty, which also meant tired) and fed on demand - when I switched to formula this naturally became more regular every 3-4 hours, although dd2 would often go 5 hours between afternoon bottles and then 2 hourly between her last two evening feeds. Mine were both content with this and formed their own routine around the age of 4 months - around that time I noticed with both of them that they were starting to do the same things at the same times each day, with a little variation. If you're happy and lo's happy, don't try to force a routine upon you both! Enjoy the flexibility for now as in time things will start to form more of a routine and it may not be quite so easy to get out and about whenever you want to. Don't ever feel that you have to be doing this or that with your baby, you're his Mummy, he sounds happy and that means you're doing just fine!

I have a six week old and am feeling the same so glad it's not just me! I spoke to my HV yesterday and she said not a lot of point in having too my h of a routine until 12 weeks as babies don't really have a memory before then so wouldn't remember that xyz = nap time etc. we have a bit of a bedtime routine which is working for us but not worrying too much for another couple of weeks!

Hi Ruth, in my (very) limited experience (mum of one 14 week old!) I find life is far less stressful if you go down the baby led route. People I know who are worrying about set bedtimes and feed times with young babies seem far more stressed and tired! We have just gone with the flow and whilst some people are horrified that our baby is still awake until 11pm most nights, she is already often sleeping through the night once she settles, we just let her do it in her own time rather than spend all evening up and down like a yoyo getting fed up!
She's fed on demand and is never left to cry for more than a couple of minutes. Some people will talk about all these rods we are creating but with a baby so young I honestly don't see how you can spoil them. I may of course eat my words in a few months time but its working for us so far. I believe in just letting babies tell you what they need and giving it to them, after all, that is our job as parents. There is plenty of time in the future to start introducing some routine but from what I've learnt so far, most babies tend to settle into a natural routine all by themselves if you let them.

I agree with ColdTea - 7 weeks is very young for your baby to be in any kind of routine, he is still getting used to being in the world and he will sort himself out (with a bit of nudging from you!) fairly soon.

My son's longest sleep was always around 5pm-10pm then after that he'd need feeding as often as during the day. I tried to make it later a few times but he'd still wake at 10 and then need as many night feeds so in the end I just went to bed at 5pm as well - it was obviously his natural pattern and at least I knew I'd get 5 hours straight!

Eventually I was able to nudge it along a bit until by about 14 weeks he was sleeping from 7pm-3am then a couple of weeks later went through until 5am.

Re the napping and feeding, again I'd say be led by him and not the clock at this early stage - I found that around the 12-14 week mark my son started to 'get' routines and became much more regular in his sleeping/feeding habits.

Thanks everyone for the replies! I have been getting mixed responses from friends/family about this subject so I'm not sure what to do! I think I will go with the flow for now and see how it goes. X