When/how did you get your baby into a routine

[jumpyjan]

DS is 4 weeks and we have been letting him do his own thing in terms of routine up until now. He is feeding every 3/4 hours and wakes at 11pm, 3ish then 6ish for a feed at night. However, lately he has been v difficult to settle after the 3ish feed and last night I was up until 5 trying to get him to sleep again.

He sleeps well in the day time and goes longer without a feed in the day too.

I was wondering if I should try and rectify this but not sure how - or will he just figure out the night/day thing on his own?

Also we are not putting him to bed until after the 11pm feed as he is very colicy and just cries in the evening.

Babies have their own routine, I just let my DS have his own natural routine and fit around that.

Just keep letting him do his own thing. Feed him when he's hungry, play with him when he wants to, let him sleep when he's tired, hold him if he wants holding etc etc

It's not rocket science.

I didn't bother with a routine for the first three months. It kind of emerged by itself. My two would sleep in the day when they needed to and feed when they needed too.

Then after 12 weeks, I'd put them in their cots from 6pm and go to them when they cried but in the dark and settle them again with a feed or a hug or whatever.

Give yourself and your new baby some time, jumpyjan. Life is all over the shop in the beginning and routines only slowly emerge. You and your baby will find what works best for you soon enough.

Good luck.

Thanks OMDB and Winky - that is actually what I wanted to hear.

I worried about a routine with DD and it just caused a load of stress trying to enforce it before she was ready. My instincts tell me this time to forget about all that and just let him settle into a pattern himself. Think I just had a bit of an impatient moment/bad night where I wished he was more settled at night - but guess its still early days.

I really wanted to get DS into a routine and stressed myself out because I couldn't. In the end I just went with the flow. We started solids just after 4 months old beacuse his weight gained had slowed and he was BF all the time, and things suddenly clicked. He started feeding at more regular times and sleeping better too.

Are you making day time and night time feeds different? i.e. very little contact and dimmed lighting and no playing at night and more interaction in daytime feeds? I think this is a good way of indicating nighttime is for sleeping and daytime is for being more active.

If I had another one I would just go with it and not allow myself to get in to a state about it. Enjoy being a mum and being with your LO.

Good luck!

I had a very strict routine with ds1 from quite early on, set feeding times, set bath times, set bedtimes, even set toys at set times
Over time (he is 22 months now) I have relaxed alot but we still do housework at same time, eat at same time, bed at same time etc.
Ds2 however was different. He doesn't seem to like routine, so I have to be a bit flexible for him. Sometimes he'll feed 2,5 hourly, sometimes 5 hourly, just depends, but I do find he just naturally slips into mine and ds1's routine iyswim.

we started at 8 weeks but not a set in stone routine as it changes as baby grows or teethes i was told babies can tell difference between day and night at 8 weeks so started with night routine

4 weeks to me is still at the sleep whenever they feel like it stage and too young to get a routine in place

you could do bath and bed at same time but feeding on demand was still in p[lace with my ds until he was about 3 mths and then he set himself to his own routine

but i had to change it and tweak it as he got older until again he set himself to a new routine this went on until he was around 2 i had to work with him if really tired food and bed were bought forward an hour if wide awake moved an hour later

I do think that a bedtime routine would be pointless the moment as he would just cry. I do give him a bath every other night or so when DD has her bath and get him ready for bed. But I then take him downstairs and what normally happens is DH takes him out in pram/car to try and settle him as he is very colicy at this time of night. We were wondering whether we should stop this as it may feel a bit like a daytime thing to do?

How old are they when the colicy stage passes?

I do make the night time feeds different - only put on the lamp/night light so its fairly dark and don't talk/play with him. It is strange as he goes down fine initally but after the 3am feed I think he just wants me to cuddle him for a couple of hours!

my ds was 4 mths when colicky stage settled we found winding after every ounce and sitting slightly propped after each feed helped and head of cot or moses basket was always raised

at 4 mths all signs were gone and settled easier after feeds although we always had head of cot raised

we used gripe water in the end we tried everything else but nothing worked infacol was useless spent loads of money on that best one ended up being gripe water we used this after every feed and left him propped up and used to settle lovely after that

bubblagirl - I am wondering whether to try Gripe Water. We are using infacol at the moment and I think it is working - he has been on it since the second week. It still takes a lot of effort to get him to bring his wind up and of course it has not helped with the evening colic at all. He does manage to burp most of the time and before the infacol he could not burp hardly at all so I think it would be worse without it.

It is another expense though as we get through a bottle a week and the HV says we cant get it on prescription.

I has a colicky/pukey screamer so the first few months were just survival. Introduced bath time at roughly the same time every night between 2-3 months. By 6 months she was on 3 meals a day at about the same time each day and bed at 7.00 and as if by magic we had a routine.

Colic passed pretty soon after weaning started at 17 weeks.

I was so tempted to try a certain famous routine as I was so miserable for the first few weeks but my instinct was against it. I'm glad we let a gentle routine emerge.

we found gripe water had instant affect where as we spent loads of money on infacol and to be honest it really didnt work gripe water was by far the best

along with winding after every ounce and sitting upright for 10 mins after every feed having head of cot/moses basket propped up after all that huge difference

at night we just put small cushion in moses basket propped him after feed and winding gave gripe water he'd either burp or pass wind and then we'd lay him down to sleep

My DD is age 10 now and I never did manage the whole routine thing!