How do you instigate a routine?? (15 week old)

[BananaHammocks]

My baby doesn't wake at the same time each day, doesn't nap at the same time or for the same amount of time. I try to put her to bed at the same sort of time each night so this means, depending on what time she wakes up, her bottles are at different times too.

How do I instigate a routine so I know what we are doing when each day?

It was about this time I did a routine for DD. I read a bunch of baby books and found the one that worked best for us was by Jo Tantum. Without fail DD was woken at the same time every day, changed nappy then a feed then play. She had her naps at the same time each day & then her bedtime routine aimed for her to be in bed 12 hours after waking up. It really helped, it took about a week to settle her into it but at 10months she's still in a routine & it's massively helpful.

What if she wakes up before your wake up time? DD wakes at 2 or 3 or 4 or 5am, never predictable. If I give her a bottle I can get her back to sleep til 5 or 6 or 7 am but I don't want to give her a bottle overnight as I know she doesn't need it (as she had a good couple of weeks sleeping til 5/6am most nights) and I don't want to get in to that habit, but if I leave her she stays awake and if I pick her up and carry her around waiting for her to get sleepy again she stays awake (doesn't seem bothered about having a bottle though!)

When she gets tired during the day she just starts whinging/crying, I don't see any eye-rubbing/yawning cues so never know when to put her down for a nap.

If I put her in the cot for a nap she just cries, I tried 5 times yesterday so she ended up sleeping on me which happens every day. Doesn't like the pram either. :(

If she wakes up before our wake up time I'll go in & cuddle her, but I have never taken her out of her room until bed time is over, even if she's just in her cot chatting away.
I could never work out her sleep cues either which is why the routine helped, I think at that age she was up for an hour and a half then slept again. She didn't always nap for the whole length of nap durning the day but that's fine. A routine doesn't have to be rigid it can be flexible to fit around what works best for you.

What time is your wake up time? If I want wake up time to be 6am but she wakes up at 4.30am I can't just leave her in her room for 1.5 hours, she'd be screaming by then not chatting!

I get her up about 7:30, but all babies work differently so you might find she isn't happy & you build up to it? For what it's worth I did night feeds until she was about 6/7 months. She probably didn't need it but it meant that I could keep her in bed until 7:30 so it worked for me.