routines

[mindy26]

at what age should a baby start to get into a routine, my dd is 7 weeks now and iv been told she should get bath feed bed evry night, by MIL and gran and my mum but i dont like to bath her every night as i dont think its necessary, i top and tail twice a day and bath her every 4 days, will this affect a routine, i cant get into a routine just now as bf takes hours sometimes,

It was when my DD was 7 weeks that she started to develop her own routine for feeding/sleeping and I just tweaked it a bit. They are all different and if you are happy with how things are going then no need to listen to others about what you baby should be doing. I can't see why bathing every night has to be part of a routine for such a young baby, I did the same as you at this stage.

I don't think a bath every night is necessary. DP and I both have bad excema so were advised not to bath DD every day as it might help avoid her getting excema. We usually bath her every other night because she loves it so much, sometimes it's every 3rd night, sometimes it's twice a day depending on how far up her back she's pooed.

DD worked out her own routine by about 8 or 9 weeks, she would always fall asleep at about 7pm so sometime after 6pm we'd either bath her or give her a wash, get her changed, swaddled, (or gro-bag now) then give her a feed so when she fell asleep at 7 she'd sleep for a few hours.

Every baby is different though, we've been very lucky that she worked out a routine herself early on.

7 weeks is still very young and, if your DD is anything like my DSs were you sound all evening feeding anyway so trying to fit in bath and a bedime routine might seem a bit too much.

IIRC DS2 and 3 were at least 5 months before they had a decent routine. I would just stick with what works for you as a family and just smile sweetly at your Mum and MIL

well im just glad i have been trusting my own instinct about these things and not listening to MIL and my mum, i do appreciate them trying to give me advice but shant be taking it, i cant be doing too badly as she is thriving, ill not wory too much about routines just now and let dd ease into it herself (hopefully lol)

We did the bath every night thing but just so DD realised that after this event, it was time for a long sleep. She was literally in and out very quickly. Including it every night was half that we were scared that if we didn't include the bath, would that mean she wouldn't settle well at nighttime and we were not brave enough to see what would happen!

I think you have the right idea to be honest - even though we had DD in her routine, she did not start sleeping through (7pm - 6am with dreamfeed at 11pm) until 12 weeks, so I'm not sure it was that effective before this point anyway!

The thing I did like about the routine was that I knew if DD cried I knew what she wanted straight away. As in, I knew when her next feed was, so if she cried way before this, I knew it was not food she was wanting etc. And as a first time mum, it was nice to get this helping hand.

at the moment i cant even get her ready for bed at the same time every night as she is constantly feeding and if i can get her down for a sleep id hate to wake her again just to get her ready for bed, were all over the place just now, some days i dont even get out the house lol, hopefully it will all get better, i have everything crossed!!