Formula feeding times/schedules & bedtime

[m4rdybum]

DD is 3 weeks old.

I'll start the post saying I know that no routine of any sort will stick with her just yet but I'd like to start introducing a rough guide mainly for me and DH, who is due to go back to work in just over a week.

DD has been fed on demand since birth and has started falling into a pattern of feeds at 5/6am, 10/11am, 4/5pm, 8/9pm, 10/11pm, 1/2am.

On average she will take 4oz each feed, with the odd feed being 5oz. Sometimes she'll drink it all in one go, others it may take an hour or so for her to go back and finish it, usually taking half then another half.

At the moment she sleeps in her Moses basket downstairs with us until her 10/11pm feed, then we all go to bed together and she sleeps nextto our bed. Next week we are going to start trying to get her upstairs about 7/8pm (she tends to be asleep anyway) after a bath and bottle, to get her used to the quiet period

I'm just wondering how we'd go about adjusting her own devised formula schedule?

And what are everyone else's experiences of slowly introducing a routine?

Congratulations! To be really honest I’m not sure I’d mess with the feeds at this point; she’s doing really well in terms of spacing out her feeds.
If you really want to do the bedtime I’d do it to then fit her 8/9pm feed as her bedtime feed in the dark and quiet etc.

She’s doing amazingly well with her feeds so I wouldn’t mess with it to be honest. Also I wouldn’t put a baby that young to bed on their own - I’m assuming you’re not planning to go to bed at 7 as well? They should be in the same room as you until at least 6 months.

As pp said baby needs to be with you for the first 6 months, as separate sleeping (even for a few hours before you go to bed) is one of the factors of SIDS.

When babies are still tiny and in the 4th trimester there isn’t much point of forcing them into a routine. Just enjoy her being teeny-weeny and needing you. That’s not meant to sound patronising! But babies change so quickly that even if a routine works for a week, if she stops doing it it will no doubt put you under stress trying to work out how to fix it. Just go with the flow.

I also agree not to mess with her feeds, sounds like she’s doing brilliantly and I really wouldn’t want to risk disrupting that. She’s still so tiny the fact she is feeding so well and is seemingly setting her own routine is brilliant.

Agree with pp she’s far to young to be sleeping unaccompanied. She should be in the same room as you for all sleeps until 6 months. Leaving the room to grab a drink or go to the toilet is one thing but i wouldn’t be leaving her upstairs alone to sleep for any length of time at that age.

Thanks for the feedback so far.

I get where you're coming from she you say to instead, for now, treat her 8/9pm feed as her bedtime until she's a little older. We'll try that definitely.

With regards to SIDS risk and baby being in the same room until 6 months, again I get all this, hence why we have had her downstairs with us so far and plan to until she's about 4 weeks old. In all honesty though I don't know anyone (this includes all of my family members with babs) who has had the baby downstairs with them for a much longer period of time, as it really doesn't make it easy to set up a "bedtime" when the time comes. We have a baby monitor, which of course we'd use, and we would always regularly check on her, not just wait until we went upstairs.

Plus, I don't know how I'd carry the Moses basket upstairs with her in it at 6 months -
She's a chunk as it is

That’s up to you. I personally wouldn’t risk it, as no matter how much you check baby it only takes a minute of no breathing for it to be too late. And if you’re going up and down the stairs every minute you may as well keep baby with you.

The reason babies should be kept in the same room is because they regulate their breathing through your own. And downstairs noise etc stops them sleeping too deeply. A 4 week old asleep in the dark and quiet can slip into too deep of a sleep and ‘forget’ to breathe. The current SIDS advice is to try to prevent babies from sleeping too deeply (on their back, cool room etc) as this is what causes SIDS.

Just because it hasn’t happened to someone you know doesn’t protect you from it. It’s totally up to you of course! But make sure you’re fully informed of the risks before you do anything.

One of mine was EBF
The Other was FF

FF was on a strict feeding schedule from about 6 weeks, gradually dropping a bottle At a time
Every 4 hours