bf and bedtime routine

[tegan]

How can i get my 7 wk ds into a bedtime routine when he cluster feeds all evening??

Hi Tegan,

I really wouldn't worry about a bedtime regime while your lo is still cluster feeding. In fact the cluster feeding might mean you get a longer stretch at night. When my DD2 (now 17 weeks) started going to bed earlier, she slept for shorter stretches at night!

At some point you'll find that your DS seems sleepy and will stay asleep until the time that you're normally putting to hime to bed and then you can start the routine.

He might be just cluster feeding at the moment to stimulate your milk supply.
My DD (also 7 weeks) has just starting going to bed at 6ish this week and then I am feeding her again when I go to bed at 10ish. However last weekend i was up til 1am feeding her constantly. Just go with it, it will settle down.

I agree with ninja. I left it until DD had grown out of the cluster feeding (and maybe a while after that as she used to stay awake all evening) then introduced a loose bedtime routine. It's really not at all important at this age, there's plenty of time to get it sorted. I worried that I was doing something wrong by not doing a bedtime routine earlier, but it was fine

I started a routine when DD was 9 weeks old -bath, swaddle, feed, bed by 7pm. She had been going to bed at the same time as us before then, around 10.30, after cluster feeding all evening but then sleeping for good long stretches at night.

So guess what? Once we started the routine she woke every 2 hours!! We stuck with it for a week then gave up and went back to our old ways. Now she is 14 weeks old we have reintroduced the routine and it's working much better now - she sleeps from 8pm - 8am, waking up once for a quick feed between 3am and 4am. For us 9 weeks was just too young.

I wouldn't bother until a child is older. I don't think I'd even think about it until four months.

Oh - I should say that that us because that's when they'r esupposed to start remembering things - apart from nipples and your face etc..

Thanks all this has really helped. ds seems to be cluster feeding from 7pm until about 9.30pm then sleeping 5 hours up for half an ahour for a feed and then back down until about 6.30ish so i can't complain at that.

That sounds pretty good! It is a difficult time. Good luck!