Is it even possible to do a routine with breastfed baby?

[AuntFlossy]

Without using some sort of CIO? My daughter is 10 weeks and has no real routine during the day. We have a bit of a bedtime routine which involves bath, booby feed, bottle and then bed.

During the day she would feed constantly and sleep on me all day if she could. Everytime I put her down she wakes up again so she has constantly disturbed naps and screams until I pick her up again and feed her. I use a sling when I can but its not always ideal!

I have two other children who are 2.5/5, and they are suffering as I'm never available to do things with them. I would like to start some sort of routine but I'm struggling to see how I would do it without her having to scream herself to sleep.

Any advice?

Yes it can. But you may have to wait a few more weeks. iirc I bf mine approx every 2.5 to 3 hours and then cluster feeding all evening. She might be too small for that though. Think it was asking 4 mths that mine fell into that routine.

Mine didn't sleep much during the day, but I found that they slept for longer if they were being walked out so it meant that everyday at about 10.30ish and 2pm I'd go for a walk then they'd sleep for about an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon.

I think it depends on the baby. Some seem to fall into their own routine but others don't. My ebf ds had his own routine by around 12 weeks, but I did actively put him in his Moses basket for most naps (but not all) and either patted him until he slept or fed him to sleep then put him in there, and I encouraged at least one long nap a day by patting him if he stirred after a short while. He did not follow the exact routines you find in books. It was similar, but he fed more frequently than the books suggested and had his longest sleep in the morning rather than at lunch or in the afternoon. It was a routine in that roughly the same things happened in the same order at around the same time most days, evolving over time as he grew. But I do think his adopting a routine was mainly down to him being that way naturally.

During the day she would feed constantly and sleep on me all day if she could. Everytime I put her down she wakes up again so she has constantly disturbed naps and screams until I pick her up again and feed her.

IMO it is perfectly possible to have a routine with BF but probably not with a baby who is like this.

This is how my DD was - turned out she was tongue tied and wind was disturbing her sleep and making it impossible for her to get a proper full feed. Once the TT was cut, life got a lot easier in so many ways including longer naps and fewer better feeds and a routine became possible.

Is there any chance your DD is tongue tied? is she windy? comes off the boob a lot and has to be relatched? nipple feeding? squashed nipples/white tips after feeds?

Or, she may not be tongue tied and just needs to get a bit older until she can feed and nap better. Then a routine will be possible.

I never did CIO to get DD into a routine - I distracted her for say 5 minutes to get her to wait for her next feed - gradually lengthening the gaps between feeds this way. Obviously distraction is easier as they get older.

I am in a similar situation than you. DC age 4.5 and 2 and a 9 week old. I also have no idea where on earth to begin with a routine. I've totally forgotten everything I did with the other two. The youngest also screams if not on boob most of the time. He naps on the morning school run and I try to have a little walk to extend it (and burn some calories!) but DD will only stay in a pushchair for so long. From there it's completely random, a fair few tears, lots of cuddles and lots of ceebeebies. I am hoping things will naturally settle into more of a routine and he'll be able to go longer between feeds. And eventually take naps in a cot, but that seems totally beyond us at the moment.

Anyway, you're not alone...

Both of mine basically fell into a sort of routine around 3 months, though still cluster fed in the evenings. It was more that their naps became more predictable, and then the feeds fell in around the naps, IYKWIM?

Mine had a bit more of a routine between 3-6 months (though never 3 hourly feeds) - to get him sleeping in his cot I would feed him to sleep, switch nipple for dummy, transfer him to the cot and then ssh-pat him until he was back into a deep sleep. He didn't start self-settling until 7+ months.

We didn't really have a predictable routine until 5-6 months, and as leedy said that was more about naps becoming predictable and then feeds around that (before and after every nap basically) and then solid meals too.

OMG! Dd is 7 weeks & i was giving myself a hard time for not introducing a routine. I did with the older dc.

I really couldn't cope if she was 6 months & not in a routine. I'm EBF. I'm wondering if it's easier to get a ff baby into a routine?