What are your 4 month old routines?

[Babymay]

Hi, just wondered what your routines were with a 4 month old. My DS still has no routine in the day in terms of feeding/sleeping. What do your 4 month olds do?

Daytime is still hit & miss with us. I have found that naturally he will nap around 11am & 3pm and I feed him when he cries (this seems to be his sign, doesn't cry for nappy) but no routine for feed.

Night time we start routine between 6 & 7. Bath, changed, story, feed then he usually falls asleep by 8/8.30

I'd be interested to see what others routines are

Hi vicky, thanks for your post. Reassuring at least. would be nice to see what others say too x

At that age, we were up at 7-8, naps at about 9.30, 12, 3 but they were generally quite short, maybe one would be for an hour at the longest, and then a 10 minute catnap at 5.30-6. Bottles were 8, 11, 2, 4.30 and then a bottle split between 6.30 and 7.30, with bath time at about 7 for bedtime by 8, and then a dreamfeed at 10.30. It was roughly a rolling 3-hour routine.

My DD who is 16 weeks, settled down to sleep for the night about half an hour ago, it's only been this week that she's really settled in her cot before we've gone to bed. She's now waking up a bit earlier, at about 8.30 rather than 9.30 and feeds approx every three hours during the day, a bit more frequently late afternoon/evening, so she'll probably feed at about 8.30, 11.30, 2.30, 5, 7 then last feed at about 8.30. This week she's slept through a couple of times, otherwise she wakes at about 4.30/5 for a short feed then straight back to sleep. She usually has one nap late morning and another late afternoon, but sometimes has three naps during the day. The morning one is usually in the sling whilst I'm walking the dogs and the afternoon one is either in the sling or she'll fall asleep in my arms then I might transfer her to her bouncy chair after a bit. This is a very rough routine and it's one of her own making rather than one I've implemented.

DD3 wakes around 7am has a big feed.

She likes to nap a couple of hours later for around 45 mins. On school weeks that happens on the school run.

When she wakes she has 2nd breakfast, 3rd breakfast, through to about 6th breakfast, usually while we are out at toddler groups with DD2.

She falls asleep again by noon and then I transfer her to her cot when we get home and she sleeps for a couple of hours.

Either wakes up and has a nice feed or (more likely) gets dragged out to do school run for 2pm.

Gets increasingly cranky during the afternoon but won't nap again.

Has an afternoon snack or two.

When DH gets home around 5.30 I take her away upstairs and put her on her changing mat while I get her bath ready. She immediately gets really happy and coos, waves her legs and arms maniacally and giggles madly. It's her cutest time of the day.

Has her bath, then I take her to my bed and give her a big sleepy feed.

She's asleep by 7pm, often well before (while I snooze on the bed).

DH does a dreamfeed at 11 or so with EBM before we go to bed. Actually, it might not be a dreamfeed. She does wake up most nights.

my dd is now 7 months and zero day routine. i ebf on demand so no feed routine either. daytime she will normally fall asleep on boob, sometimes twice a day, sometimes 3 times a day. never for more than 20 mins tho. she goes to bed at 6.30pm and is fed to sleep. she's asleep by 7pm latest and dont here a peep out of her till 12/13 hours later-- hence why i aint bothered one bit about a daytime routine lol!!!

Hi, thank you all for your posts. Just one question, what do you class as a feed? EBF DS has no set feeding style either. Sometimes will fuss lots and feed on and off and other times will feed solid for around 45 mins.

Um my dd has never fed for more than 10 mins tops so i class it as a full feed when she feeds without being distracted iyswim?! She often latches, sucks for 10 seconds then starts doing something else, this happens alot thru the day so i suppose these are not proper full feeds!

I don't really class anything as "a feed". I think it's a pretty meaningless word for a breastfed baby.

DD3 (and DD1 before her) feeds very much as you describe your baby - sometimes (usually if she's just woken up) she feeds for a good while. Other times it's just a short go.

DD2 used to have about 5 20 minute feeds per day at this age. She was a massive baby and very efficient (and business-like :o) feeder. She basically fed like a formula fed baby - clearly defined and definite "feeds", but I don't think that's at all typical.

My DD is 16 weeks. We have a loose pattern most days but certainly not a "routine". she's also started really fighting going to bed in the evenings at the moment so is not always in bed and asleep in the way she was 2-3 weeks ago

7ish wake and breastfeed (often not as big a feed as I would expect)
830ish goes mental when she sees DD1 and I eat breakfast and demands a feed sucks for a minute and then yells she's had enough
9ish nap in crib for 30mins to an hour

10ish feed

then feeds on cue/demand every 3-4hrs

1.5-3hr nap somewhere around lunchtimt but exact time entirely unpredictable

keeps feeding through afternoon. powernap 430/5ish for 30 mins

Bedtime routine - bath, cuddles and feed starts at 630ish with aim of her being in bed and asleep for 7

wakes for feeds once at around 3am on a good night, otherwise wakes every 3-5hr until we get up at 7ish

Thank you all for your posts. Have been really reassuring x

Oh, so glad I have seen this thread! Have just started to feel I need more of a routine, not to mention sleep...

DC3 is 4 months old, but as first two are 8 and 6 yrs old now, I can't remember what they were doing at this stage, and was a little Gina Ford-ish with them (sorry, don't flame...), while this time, poor DC3 has no routine, just gets taken along to Cubs/ Rainbows/ swimming/ tennis/ Sainsburys etc etc.

No routine as such during the day: she is BF, and I am working backwards from bedtime routine. She goes to sleep any where between 7.30-8.30pm, and has been my most difficult child to settle, but in the past couple of weeks, I've been putting her down while still awake to try and encourage her to settle herself, like her older siblings!

Very depressing when I hear of acquaintances' babies sleeping through the night, as she sleeps beautifully from 8-1, then tends to wake every 2.5 hours...but DC2 was the same, and as soon as she started on food at 19 weeks six months, her sleep was much better, and they've all been bouncing 95th percentile bruisers. I'm really hanging on to that memory, sleep deprivation starting to show!