think I ought to start thinking about a routine for DC2

[GirlWithTheMouseyHair]

DD is 7months, breastfed and basically fits in around what the rest of us are doing. But I think it might be time to start thinking about a loose routine for her, now she's a bit older, but have no idea how you go about implementing it for a second child when you have the first to take into consideration.

She's on solids, roughly 3meals a day basically when I eat I give her something too.

She breastfeeds I suppose every 3-4hours, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, has her last bf at bedtime at 7ish and has a formula dreamfeed around 11pm. This has only started in the last week, she still wakes once in the night and won't be settled without a bf (though I'm pretty convinced now this is for comfort not because she's hungry), then up for the day about 6ish.

She tends to have 3x half hour naps but the middle one she definately need it to be longer. We are def trapped in the cycle of either feeding to sleep or being in the buggy so I think she struggles to self-soothe when she comes into a lighter sleep.

I'm not really sure what to tackle first, I suppose the sleep thing, encouraging her naps to be longer. Should I just put her down (using whatever method, ssssh pat, CC, gradual withdrawl) at the same time each day to get her used to that?

It doesn't matter to me at the moment that I often feed her to sleep but in the next few months have some trips planned overnight which will mean leaving her with her dad and it will be easier all round if she's in some kind of routine and doesn't need feeding to sleep.

Pretty sure DS by this age had slipped into his own (or I'd picked up on other people's and we fell into it because of that), timings were never very strict and often he'd nap in the buggy but I could leave him with a friend for half a day and give them detailed instructions on what happened in what order.

We have a pretty set bath and bed routine, but apart from that it's a bit of a free-for-all. DS is in preschool all day Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and our weekends are never the same.

Honestly, where should I start??

I'd be in favour of longer daytime naps but I'd be very wary of dropping night-time BFs - if she is not messing you about (like falling asleep the moment milk lets down) then chances are she's hungry. There is also a major growth spurt/developmental leap at 8 months so anything you put in place now may well go to pot at that point.

For daytime naps, is she in a quiet darkened place? There is nothing wrong with feeding to sleep in the day btw. Whatever works. I'd try to pick up on her sleep cues and see if you can put her in her cot at that time to see if being in a low stimulus environment helps her self settle. I'd go for very gentle sleep methods, definitely no CC as she is too young, but you are right the midday nap is the first thing to tackle. Your night time routine sounds good.

To be honest I don't mind getting up once in the night to feed as its done in 5mins and she feeds back to sleep, I guess I'm just thinking ahead a bit.

We've tried doing her nap cues (same lullaby, nappy change, sleeping bag, cuddle, cot) for a few weeks to see if she'll self settled - its happened once! Also tried putting her down before tired cues, at the first one, at the second one etc!

Ok so if the long midday nap is first, how do I start convincing her to stay asleep after half an hour?

I think you are right to tackle this now before it becomes a big problem.

When they wake up like that it's often because they've completed one sleep cycle and can't get themselves into the next one. This happens mostly with babies that don't self-settle. The idea is that they stir at the end of a sleep cycle and notice that things aren't as they were when they fell asleep nipple isn't in mouth, pram isn't moving, etc. You can do the "no cry" method of just making everything the same make sure you are pushing the pram at the critical time, or keep her on the breast the whole time. I had very limited success with this. The problem was completely solved when I sleep-trained DD to self-settle -- babies that self-settle can do it again for the next sleep cycle.

My DD was older so the methods I used aren't necessarily appropriate for your baby, but I definitely believe self-settling it the key to lengthening naps.

Ok so apart from CC (I agree she's a bit young), how do you teach babies to self settle?

She has a dummy by the way....