Routine for 4 month old

[MrsGEW1]

Any tips on establishing a routine for my 4 month old DS.

We currently have a bed time sorted but I'm curious how you organise naps and feeds throughout the day up to bed time.

Anyone with a baby similar in age already have routine established?

Would love to hear replies on this. Also have LO same age and day naps and feeds are erratic. We have a bedtime routine, but also have a terrible sleeper! x

At 4 months my son was feeding roughly every 4 hours (7am, 11am, 3pm, 6:30pm and dream feed 11pm) and had three day time naps - around 9am, 1pm and 4.30pm (short cat nap). He’s now just over 5 months and is dropping the cat nap if he sleeps well in the afternoon.

Recommended Nanny Louenna on Instagram for routine info.

Look at EASY routine and 2.3.4 method.

I ensure my 4 mo has 4 naps, with wake windows about 1hr-1.5hrs. So if he wakes at 7 he'd be asleep again at 8ish. Try not to concentrate on how long the naps are because that's out of your control. The wake times are more in your control. The signals that he needs to nap are eye rubbing, yawning and grouchiness, although if he gets to 1hr 45m without napping I'll try and put him down to avoid over tiredness later on. Bed time should usually be about 12 hours after wake up so the entire day could be 7-7, ensure the last wake window is 2 hours. So last nap would be around 4.30, to wake for 5, then bed at 7. Each nap includes a mini bed time routine of putting on sleeping bag, dummy and cuddles. Actual bed time routine is very similar just with more quiet time before hand. Feeding should usually come upon waking, not going to sleep, but don't stress too much if this doesn't happen sometimes. You can predict when next feed will be by counting how many ounces taken in last feed, next feed will usually be that many hours later. So 5oz feed=feed again 5 hours later (unless your baby tells you otherwise).
Exact timings will never be dead on at this age so I find this much easier to work off. Hope it helps!

Also, so sorry to pp but I wouldn't recommend the 2.3.4 method, I won't explain what it is but look it up and you'll know what I mean. If your baby needs a 2 hour wake window at the beginning of the day they are very unlikely to last for a 4 hour wake window at the end of the day. Remember sleep promotes sleep

Observe your child first. At 4 months there is a wide range of needs! Spend a couple of days watching for when they show hungry/tired signs, then think about when good times for naps might be based on that - you want to have about the right amount of wake time (usually ranges from 1.5 hours upwards at that age, with longer stretches as the day goes on) but not be trying to get them to sleep when they are bound to be hungry or grouchy!

Any program that promises to work for all 4 month olds I’m highly sceptical of. Mine still had a massive afternoon nap at that age, and also needed a “mini nap” an hour before bedtime so she wouldn’t be overtired in the evening. Neither of those was typical, but it was what she needed. Trying to fight against her natural rhythms would have been disastrous.

I found working out our DS's awake time worked better for us than a strict time schedule. He seemed to do 60 mins awake quite happily then fell apart very quickly from that point. It meant I was more focused on him and his needs than the clock which I struggled with the first time round. But take that with a grain of salt because he is a very chilled baby (unlike DD) and self settled quite well. So this approach might not work if your DC needs more structure.