Baby routine?

[Sunsetred]

I'm trying to get a routine going in preparation for my return to work. My baby is 4 months old. I am aiming for a 7:30pm bedtime and a 7am wake up. Naps at 9am until 10:30am, 12:45pm - 2:15pm and 4:30pm - 5:15pm. I am hoping I will then only need childcare from between 11am - 4pm. Hopefully my mother and MiL will take in turns to come over - I will be working from home and have some flexibility with my hours. Will this work or is there a better routine I could be doing? Baby is up at 7am this morning and now I don't know what to do while she's awake it feels so early! Is it too early to go out for a walk? I'm debating whether to go for a walk and then bath her? What does everyone do in the awake times?

If your baby wakes at 7am you are very lucky - this is not early!

I’m not sure about your baby’s temperament but there’s no way I could have just decided on a routine and got my baby to stick to it before about 8/9 months. Around the 4 or 5 month mark we went through the 45 minute catnapping stage (all part of the sleep regression) and naps didn’t start to consolidate until nearer 6 months. We were still very much led by the baby’s sleep cues at that age and she could only manage about 1.5 hrs awake time so there’s no way your routine would have worked.

Maybe your baby is different and maybe your routine will work fine but I think you might really struggle WFH with this setup. What is your plan B? Do you have an understanding boss?

Hi
You could definately try this but in my experience baby sleep changes all the time and don't always go along with the times that youve chosen for them, especially if you've not experienced the 4 month sleep regression yet, some do some don't but this absolutely changed my boys sleep and naps a lot (he's now coming up to 7 months and still doesn't have set sleep times, sometimes he has a 30 minute nap sometimes 45 sometimes 90 just depends on what he feels like really) we are often out for a walk anytime between 6am and 7:30 for my boys 1st nap as he's an early riser (anytime between 4 and 5:30am 😴😴) xx

When are you going back to work? I think he might be too young for a routine like that. My DS needed to sleep every 1.5 hours at that age and there was no controlling nap times/overnight waking at all. It kind of evolved naturally over time. I would work on getting a consistent bedtime routine going and be guided by him for everything else. In my experience a routine came when we started weaning and he had set (ish) meal times.

As for what to do during awake time, do you have a baby gym? My DS loved his at this age. Also sing nursery rhymes, read books. Pop him in a bouncer so you can get some jobs done. Make the most of the peace before he starts moving!

For most babies you are a very long way from sleeping from 7 to 7. It’s biological normal for a child to need their parent over night up to the age of 7 year old. Trying to get a baby into a really rigid sleep routine is not fair and will lead to stress for you and the baby. Very soon she will drop to two naps a day and for a while she will have two naps some days and three another day. By 15 months most babies are down to one longer more predictable nap a day.

Most parents play their babies during the day, sing to them, read books, show them toys, put them in the bouncer and chat to them as you get dressed and go about your chores in the house.

I’m not sure I really understand your post! Is your baby already in a routine? What do your days look like currently. Whether your ideal routine is realistic depends on what your starting point is, your baby’s temperament, development, teething, etc etc. Only you can tell if this routine is realistic for your child. Does your baby nap like this generally? Lots of babies can’t sleep for 1.5 hours in the day at that age, or even nap in a cot. If yours can, that’s great!

In terms of what to do in the morning... what have you been doing most mornings? Surely you just do more of that. Here, we get up, get clean and changed, feed, go down for a play (and caffeine) and then it’s nap time again while I go on mumsnet do housework etc.

Also, the third nap is notoriously difficult, I have a good napper but would never dream of trying to put her down in her cot for that nap - it’s the pram or if the weather is awful or we’ve been out, the car. And now she is coming up for 7 months she doesn’t need it so much and probably will drop it in the next month or so. So you may need to be able to take baby out for that nap - I don’t know how that fits with your working day.

Thanks everyone! She normally falls asleep herself around 8:30pm and wakes up around 8:30am (with 2-3 feeds during the night) but last night I got her to sleep at 7:30pm and she woke up at 7am herself this morning. 7am seemed too early to go out so that's why I was wondering what other people do as she normally wakes later and we go out for a coffee/park around 9am.

We didn't make it awake to 9am anyway this morning as she fell asleep nursing at 8:30am and only napped for 30 mins! So now we're awake and going to go to the park. Maybe it is a bit too early for a routine! I'm not going back to work for a few months (December) so maybe I should revisit this in October. It's reassuring that people don't have routines as I thought I was the only one doing it all ad hoc!

Plan B is nursery at £300 a week!!

By December you will have a completely different baby. The difference between a 4 month old and an 8 month old is like night and day. My baby started nursery at 6 months and we didn't talk about her routine with the key worker until the week before, because it would have been pointless.

FWIW I think the number of people who follow a strict schedule at that age are in the minority, largely because it doesn't work!

Childcare is expensive but looking after children should be. It depends on your job if you can fit it around but looking after a child properly is a full time job and it you can’t do two full time jobs at once.

I wouldn’t try and plan a routine for your 8 month old based on how things are now. She may be down to two naps by then. If not, her awake times will definitely be longer! But I would expect by 8 months she’ll be more predictable and it’ll be easier to plan based around a rough routine.

I think you should try this. It looks like a good schedule to me. You have time with baby and have some time for work. It seems to be a great option. But it also depends on your kid's temper. Look if your baby is ready for childcare. If the kid stays okay for some time without you, don't see the reason for not doing that.

I've got a 13month with no routine . It wouldn't hurt to try, but it depends on the baby and all babies are likely to change/ go through sleep regression/ drop naps etc in that space of time. You May get lucky (I have seen others with these miracle babies) but have a plan b...

I know its probably not what you want to hear but younger babies change so quickly and in my experience nothing sticks for a long time at that age.

You can definitely try a routine (id love one that sticks), but dont be sad if it doesnt work out. Id take a flexible approach to the issue.

Also, my baby wakes at 5.30/6am every morning. We generally go for a walk every morning about 8. Its not too early to do anything!

I think you need to wait a bit longer to plan and decide. At 8 months my DS was 6.30-6am (still is!) and taking 3 30-minute naps a day! I wouldn’t have got any work done.