When did you start your baby on a routine

[AdrianeMole]

What age did you manage to start a sleep routine?

6 months before we could even think about routines, despite my earlier attempts!

You should have been in the room. Monitors don’t replace the baby being able to hear parent breathing.

6 months each time. I'm not a fan of being tied into a routine anyway.

4 months, before that all we did was make sure to distinguish between day and night to encourage night sleeping (so quiet and dark for night feeds, curtains open, noise during the day)

Day one it was expected pretty much even in hospital with my first (he's 36) and didn't feel the need to change it with my last (she's 20) despite advice changing considerably in that time.

Babies set their own routine. You can try and be inflexible about it but babies usually have other ideas.

Just because some babies will sleep 7 - 7 doesn't mean others will. DD was small and EBF. She needed feeding every three hours. She also cluster fed all evening for the first few months, and it would often be the early hours before she would finally settle.

Their stomach gets bigger as they get older so they don't need such frequent feeding. It isn't about how "good" they are.

Basically, not all babies are the same.

Same as @WithIcePlease

No wonder so many people are exhausted if they don't even attempt a routine. Surely the baby is up half the night & asleep half the day? I realise not all babies play ball but I think it's worth trying so you can aim for down time over lunch & a night of sleep?

Around 4 months

From about 6 weeks we 'put DD down' in the noses basket between 7 and 8 pm in the living room with us. From about 4 months we put her down upstairs with a monitor. From 6 months in her room with a 10 pm night feed and she sleeps though. She's 8 months now. Sometimes she wakes at 5am but a feed and a cuddle usually gets me another hou or so!

Napping on the other hand is a nightmare. I did wake windows and cues and sleep training, no luck. I'm lucky if she naps three times a day.

We started weaning at 5.5 months and always sit her up to table with us to eat. She now has breakfast and dinner with us

But while I loved Gina Ford, the reality was very flexible to her and me

When he started consolidating naps around 4 months so we nudged him towards specific times and set a wake up time to make days look roughly the same. It didn’t really come together til he went down to two naps at 6-7 months and meals were introduced, and now he’s strictly regimented as it’s helping him sleep through. DD never consolidated her daytime naps and was a devil till… well she still is. Some babies thrive on routine. Some are whirlwinds.

Mine slept midnight till noon which suited me perfectly.

My babies fell into a routine of a feed every 4 hours from birth. They were all over 8lbs and breast fed.

Never 🤣

No wonder so many people are exhausted if they don't even attempt a routine.

Oh, I attempted a routine alright, but DD had other ideas.

Another who started a routine as soon as we got home from hospital ... Gina Ford (despised on here ) .. I don't know if it was just luck or because of the routine but I had an incredibly easy baby who self settled and happily slept 7pm - 7am with one very quick night feed. I honestly never had a disturbed night, could leave my DS happily to amuse himself whilst I showered, caught up with chores, read a book etc etc.

@OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide
It was many years before the in the same room advice

No routine with DS really just went with the flow

Routine from week 2 with DD who we'd leave crying in her room to sleep at 7pm so I could read DS his bedtime story

After 2-3 nights DD fell asleep automatically at 7pm and had a good routine all her life after that

@RampantIvy

Oh, I attempted a routine alright, but DD had other ideas.

Well that's different from people who don't attempt one & make fun of those of us do but then complain they haven't slept in 2 years & can't go out until the baby is 3 because they have to lie down with them every night until they go to sleep 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's not easy keeping a routine - had to wake them up from naps & also in morning so they didn't oversleep. My first just did routine no problem but second had to be encouraged as he used to try & sleep all day & then stay up til 1am.

First day home. Repeat repeat repeat. They get it eventually and by two months (three months with second) I could bath, read (or make up) a little story, feed then down at 7.30, lights out I'm outta there ( yes omg they were in their own rooms 😱😱). Went back in about 11pm for a sleepy feed, then they might, or might not, wake again around 2/3 for another sleepy feed. Didn't speak much, certainly did not turn on the lights, just did it by touch with soothing noises - did not want to fully wake up the baby. If they fussed I would go in, and really try to just stroke them for a bit til they calmed themselves and fell back asleep (after checking nappy).
Then first baby would be up around 5.30am - he is still an early riser at 19, second would sleep in til 7 (and will sleep until noon now at 18).

Well, if we’re giving advice from way back, my Nan put my mum in a drawer to sleep and they transported her and has siblings around in a motorbike sidecar……..

Not sure why some parents don't understand that babies are individuals like they are...

My DD cluster fed from early evening until she went to bed at night.

She has repeated eating loads around every growth spurt since then...

I didn't! One slept though the night from 6 months old and the other woke several times until she was 4. 😂

I think posters who think they created a routine from day one just had a baby that created the routine their parents wanted.

Do these parents BF feed on demand or stick to rigid times and bottle feed?

It was around 4/5 months maybe