When did you start your baby on a routine

[AdrianeMole]

What age did you manage to start a sleep routine?

From day 1

Wow really? I've been following "your baby week to week" and advice of friends to not really do one first 3 months. But baby is 2 months and was doing a long 6-7 hour sleep at night (bliss). Yesterday we drove 2 hours in evening and she must have started her 6 hour stretch then and its all gone to pot!

I would say from about 5 months was when it started to come together. Before that things were pretty random

First baby = 12 weeks
Second baby = day one

9 months onwards..... Days old is ridiculous.

Second baby is now 16 weeks, sleeps 7-7 and has a solid 3 hour nap in the middle of the day.

We always had a very loose routine - both times we had newborns they’d sleep in our arms in the evenings but there was always a structure of bath/into fresh baby grow for the night/feed/rock to sleep if not fed to sleep. At first baby would hang out and sleep on one of us downstairs all evening, then slowly around 5m we started transferring them upstairs - at first at 9pm so we had an hour baby free before bed, then slowly moving that back until they were going down at 7pm in the cot after bath/pjs/feed/rock. But I’m one of those people that needs routine for my sanity so we always had a ‘plan’ - I really can’t ‘go with the flow’ 😂 how I survived two newborns I’ll never know..

6 months - just after starting weaning

I just went with the flow with my baby. I didn’t start a routine until she was closer to 6 months and started going to sleep in her own room. My friend started a routine from 12 weeks. It’s made no difference between the two babies as they both cope well with their own routines.

In the run up to starting pre school.

It depends what you mean by routine. From first few weeks we did bath, feed, change, and in cot upstairs.

Around 6 months with DS1, although we did a bath / books / sleeping bag routine with him very early. He always slept in the same room as us (including naps) until 6 months.

DS2 is 4 months and we're aware of his wake windows and that's about it! He seems to do a first big sleep at around 9pm, but only if he's on someone. Naps are all contact naps too. Once he manages longer stretches awake we'll probably try to see if a pattern emerges - DS1 fell into the 2/3/4 nap pattern rather than us forcing him into it.

Never did. It sorted itself within a week of starting fulltime school nursery just before she turned 4.

We had somewhat of a routine by 3-4 months but it was just what my baby had naturally started doing consistently rather than an actual routine me or my husband had established. It wasn't 100% but we found there was a pattern. The day time routine regularly changed though through the weeks

I started a 'routine' in the very early days but it was less for DD, more for my tired brain fog.
So she'd always have tummy time while I sat next to her and ate something. Then she'd go in her little chair while I washed the bottles (and narrated what I was doing like a crazy lady). Then we'd have a wash and get into bed clothes. Then we'd have a cuddle with a story in my room. Then a feed. It was more so I knew I'd done everything rather than her having a predictable routine. And it just sort of evolved from there rather than deciding one day to give her the routine. Seemed to work well for us, and for me. The odd time I did things in a different order, I'd inevitably forget dinner, or end up washing bottles at midnight when it suddenly occurred to me I'd forgotten.

I'm a mn and I start good sleeping habits /gentle routine from day one

"It depends what you mean by routine. From first few weeks we did bath, feed, change, and in cot upstairs."

Is that OK now? In my day-about a million years ago-babies were supposed to sleep in the same room as you until 6 months.

Proper bedtime routine from 4 months. Pre that we still did a routine of sorts.

I know some people thrive on a routine, but I do worry that sometimes you're setting yourself up for failure. Because the baby does something for a couple of days you think you've cracked it-then it does something completely different the next day and you feel as if you've failed. Particularly if you're working hard at trying to make a routine happen and it doesn't. Babies do what they do. Try to go with what they do. You're not making a rod for your own back or spoiling them or establishing bad habits-you're meeting their needs. Which is good for everyone.

As soon as we got home from hospital. I started nudging them into a schedule. Putting them to bed and feeding them when and where I wanted - but obviously responding to their needs too. It was a combination. Dc1 slept through from 7 weeks and Dc2 from 11 weeks. They were big and content babies which helps too, I think. Each were over 4kg.

We just did a routine because it worked and when it needed to be changed we changed it, we did not do any deep thought into failure or success we just did what we thought at the time and went with it

Only when she started at the CM just before 10 months. That was just getting her to sleep and wake up at the same time most days.

Prior to that she did generally sleep at the same time over night and wake the same time. She also slept through the night most nights from 7 weeks old. I say most nights as this excludes her teething and when she had vaccinations. She was a small baby.

On the other hand I have a friend who is very into routines. Her children didn't sleep through overnight until one was 3 and the other started school.

Baby 1 - about 6 months before I felt like we were in a proper routine

Baby 2 - about 3 months. Combination of having to due to being second child, and almost finding that routine herself

But don't beat yourself up about it if you don't have one yet. Day 1 for a full routine seems a bit odd to me. Newborns do not have a set routine from day 1, they do what the fuck they like 😂

I didn’t follow a routine as such, but I tried to pre-empt her waking for feeding at night, so I fed her at 10pm and 2am, for a good few weeks (maybe 8 weeks), and she soon started to reject the 2am feed. Mine was a very sleepy baby, she still is, she’s always slept 5pm-7am since she was about 8 weeks old.

I didn’t worry about bed time when she was tiny, but I did try and wake her up at 7ish, to try and encourage her to know what daytime and nighttime was.

Good luck x

I started from day 1 at home with night time routine - in cot in the dark, quiet feeds - and day time - light rooms, chatting, radio, hoover etc

I don't know how this would work now though if I had to be in the same room for the first 6 months? I did use a baby monitor