Any suggested routine for 7 wk old?

[bramblina]

Should i just let him find his own or watch how much sleep he's getting? No idea how much at this age? Any suggested routines out there? First time mum. Loving it

there's so much for us to worry about, isn't there? I should get worry beads

the thing that decided it for me was, not just my terrible light sleep problem, but the fact I'd read threads on here from mums who were desperate to find a way to get their child to sleep in the big cot, or in their own room. We also had friends who's two year old was still co-sleeping with them, which was quite an issue.

I twigged then - and decided I would try to set her up with routines I wanted to continue, to avoid the stress of having to change anything in the future. Oh yeah, that and the fact that I tried to get to the bottom of the SIDS advice about them sleeping in your room. Nobody could account for why this advice was issued. And nobody could answer my question "how come it's ok for the baby to sleep alone in a room for daytime naps but not at night?". The best anyone could offer was that perhaps babies need to hear the mother breathing in order to remember to breathe themselves.

I think that sounds a bit iffy - If a baby needs reminding to breathe, there's surely something else wrong?

Anyway, we always kept both doors open, which I reasoned, meant she was technically closer to me than if she had been sleeping on the other side of our bedroom. Gradually we closed our door, but hers always stays open - I haven't the heart the close her in completely just yet!

Bramblina - I agree! I think the thing which swung it for me was the situation my friend was in with her 2 dds.
I visited my friend when I was pg with ds. We were going to have quiet night in looking at baby clothes/toys that she was going to give me, and have a general broody evening! The men were on the playstation! Her dds were in bed, but shortly after we got there her eldest woke up and decided she wanted to get up and be part of the fun.
My friends dp took her back to bed, and tucked her in.
A few minutes later- she was up again. My friends dp was going to put her back to bed again - but my friend undermined him and said loudly 'oh just let her stay up, its easier!'
This totally wound me up a treat!
The thing which really got to me though was the way my friend then went into the kitchen and got some crisps and a drink for her dd and made up a cosy 'bed' for her on the sofa!
I made a promise that I would not do this and that my baby would know what bedtime really meant!

We have just started leaving dd (16 weeks) in a room (ours) on her own at night nb: we are sleeping in the nursery as we have yet to sort out the curtains in there (lets face it dd has taken over the entire house in anycase ).

We started because we were waking her up, not the other way around, and after 4 nights, she is sleeping from 7pm to a dreamfeed at about 10.30pm then to anything from 4.30am to 5.30am when she wakes for a quick feed and then to 7.30am. Shes is breastfeed, which I think accounts for why she still wakes in the night.

We also leave her to settle herself for naps and after her nighttime feeds and have done for about 5 weeks. She sometimes mutters for up to 20 mins, but crying is getting less and less (most nights no crying at all now) and at 7pm she is going to sleep very quickly. We started doing this on the advice of our hv, as she was getting seriously overtired and screaming before we left her to settle herself. I try and avoid going into her once I've put her down, as although it makes me feel better, it seems to just keep her awake longer and make her worse.

We put her in her cot about 5 weeks ago too (didn't see the point of getting her to settle herself in her moses basket and then switching to the cot - also she was just about kicking the end out of the basket as she is very long), she took to it really well and will now wake up from naps and lay in it quite happily for 5-10 minutes chatting to her invisible friends .

I am following her lead to an extent on timing for naps etc, trying to catch her when tired and I note times down every day. It does follow a rough routine, which means I can plan when to go out to shops/meet friends etc. I also try not to stress too much, so if I am out at nap time, I try and get her to sleep in her buggy.

Sorry to ramble on, but thought insight into another routine might be useful. I also wanted to confirm what Mogwai and others have said about leaving them to settle themselves. We didn't do it for us, we did it for her. I would happily have had her up with us till all hours, but it was obvious she wanted to go to sleep and that seemed the only for us that she could.

Just jumping in here hoping for some advice. My Dd is now 17 weeks, was breastfed for 3 mths, now on the bottle. We have just dropped 11pm feed and she is sleeping through the night from 8pm - 7am....and then drops off for another few hours. ( I know, she's a great sleeper!! Very lucky!!

Should I be increasing her volume through the day to compensate for dropping the 11pm feed???

Do you know I laughed when I read the title. Not to be mean or judgemental. It's just that I have 5 kids and the thought of a 7 week old with a routine made me chuckle.

7 weeks is incredibly young for a routine. It doesn't mean that your 7 week old is going to rule the household if you have no routine. It just means that they are incredibly young.

You can't over cuddle a baby. You do learn to recognise what the cries mean.

I think you should just enjoy being a first time mum and enjoy your wee one. As they get to the 3 month age, or even later, you will start to see a pattern forming and then you can have your routine.

Of course, many will post after me as to how irresponsible I am and how my kids clearly run rings around me.... but they don't. They are completely happy (except when they want something and I've said no... but they accept that). They all sleep in their own bedsand they all know who Mummy is!

Still each to his own.

Heavens, 5 kids! I should think you would laugh, you must be an expert! I simply wanted to know other peoples ideas of what they would suggest I should be looking for- and all I neede to do was watch for his cues which, as soon as we began to notice them (oh how obvious something can be but you just don't see it!) he was already in a really good pattern of his own. He's 12 weeks now and is sleeping for 9 or 10 hours at night, and taking an hour's nap late morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon. He's put himself in this routine, I wouldn't dream of forcing him to one, a la Gina Ford. He has been an incredibly good baby, we've been so lucky and looking back I can see why you thought I was being a tad neurotic but I'm just determined to do the best. I needed advice as he's our first and our HV is useless.

Mogwai, how is you dd doing now? Hope you're still reading this. Have you started weaning yet? Do you still need to give a dreamfeed?