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Routines

2 replies

sleepe · 21/08/2023 21:52

I'm a FTM and my DD is 4 and a half months. We don't put her down for bed at night until we go up between 10/11. Most of the time she falls asleep downstairs with us at around 8ish and she will sleep on one of us until we go to bed, however she has the odd night (like tonight) where she will fall asleep but then wake up around 30 mins later and we can't get her back off to sleep. We rarely struggle to put her down when we actually go to bed, we always give her a bottle in bed which usually sends her off and then she will sleep through until around 6:30.
We have tried to put her down in her nextome upstairs when she falls asleep in the evening but she always wakes up and the only time she stays asleep at this time is if she's on one of us.

I follow her lead when it comes to naps in the day, I'll keep her awake for around 1.5-2 hrs and then try to get her off for a nap. I will then leave her to sleep for as long as she wants (usually 2 naps of 30-45 mins in the morning and a longer nap in the afternoon around 1.5-2hrs). She doesn't have set nap times and if we are out for the day she tends to just fall asleep in the pushchair as and when she wants.

My questions is, is this normal or should we be trying to implement a stricter routine e.g set nap times through the day and an earlier bedtime at night?
I'm kind of stressing myself out thinking about trying to get her to sleep upstairs earlier in the evening before we go to bed, I know it's going to be hard to get her to stay down especially if she isn't ready to go to sleep as we have already tried and it will most likely take up most of our evening keep going upstairs to resettle her.

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
toddlermum27 · 21/08/2023 22:06

Sounds like you're doing a great job and following her lead. She's sleeping through the night when you go to bed which is a major win.

If its working for you to take her up to bed when you go then keep doing that - the advice is to keep them with you for all sleeps for the first 6 months, which many find difficult but seems to be working for you in the evening.

I wouldn't be in a rush to introduce more rigid routines - review if it stops working for you, but for now I'd keep on doing what you're doing.

Stressing over sleep definitely took away some of the enjoyment with my first - enjoying it much more second time round now I'm more relaxed about sleep.

sleepe · 21/08/2023 22:31

@toddlermum27 ahhh thank you, it's reassuring to know what we're doing isn't unusual or "wrong". Always second guessing yourself and your decisions as a FTM!

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