How old was your DC when you started a sleep routine??

[Highlandgirl]

Hi,

Just a quick question..sleep routines..when did you start and why?

My DD is 3 weeks today, she's really great sleeper during the day 3/4 hours but at nights she's waking every 1.5 or 2.5 hours..!

I know she only wee still but at this age could she be sleeping too much during the day hence why she's awake at night.

Back up to birth weight and feeding (bottle) well, not so great from the breast.

Any advice or suggestions would be brilliant.

I started my DD on a routine at about 3 weeks - I could not take the chaos and liked knowing what to expect and when (and we wanted our evenings back!).

Everyone is different but we started bath, bed and bottle and putting her down in her moses basket in her cot in her nursery before giving her a dream feed at 10.30 and bringing her through to our room to spend the rest of the night. In the early days she would then usually only wake up about 3 then back til 7. She started to sleep through more or less from about 10 weeks.

The daytime sleep was the hardest thing to crack and that did eventually fall into place - however to make sure she was not too tired at bedtime I used to take her for a walk between 4-5 and then let her have a good kick on her playmat and plenty of cuddles before her bath. I also FF after breastfeeding didnt work out and pretty much kept to a 3 hour feeding schedule during day which was pretty much her normal pattern anyway.

Hope this helps - have you read any books - I read Gina Ford, the Baby Whisperer and The Sensational Baby Sleep plan and just adapted elements of all 3 to suit us.

Oh forgot to add we obviously had monitor etc..but putting her moses basket in nursery also got her used to nursery and cot so that when she did move into own room/cot the transition was much easier and environment wasn't alien to her!

Thanks steben

Going to try and make some sort of routine today..at the very least make the evening's much quieter than the day.

So far today it's gone like this:
6ish awake..BF for an hour.
Nappy
Sleep till 9am
Formula feed
Nappy
10:15ish Play mat..triedness cry (i think)
Nappy
and now she's in the bouncy chair..sleep time??

How's it looking so far..?!?! Next feed should be around 12ish. How long did you let DC sleep for in the afternoon.

I'm trying to read Gina Ford and the Baby Whispers at the moment..why oh why didn't i read them before she arrived, spent far to much time worrying about the birth didn't think about looking after it when it arrived...
Not quite sure what to make of Gina..however like you said..adapted elements of the bits you like!

:)

I think that is all you need to do use what works for you there is no need to follow anything as gospel - when we did 'last feed of day' so to speak we did it in a darkened room no talking etc..(not as extreme as no eye contact lol!) and just kept things calm. Also when she didn't settle we did the BWhisperers pick up put down/shush technique, however I think in the early days she was so tired if we would have left her for a few minutes instead of rushing in she would have drifted off! However I think we did benefit from putting her down awake as she has always been good at self settling.

I think the books help (if you were clueless like me!) but they are just opinions/advice - you can pick and choose what to listen too/ignore.

I can't honestly remember - she is now one and I remember when we did crack daytime sleep it went something like this - up between 6-7, nap 10-11 - lunchtime sleep (in cot) 12-2ish and the afternoon between 4-5 was the first one she dropped. But in early days I think she would easily have slept between 3-4 hours during day. As they say sleep breeds sleep so I prob wouldnt worry too much about it!

To be brutally honest, at three weeks they are going to do what they damn well want. It passes. They get bigger. They sleep more. Three weeks is tiny.

With routines I think it depends whether YOU need one, rather than the baby. I found trying to stick to anything like that really stressful and counterproductive.

Were I you I would just go with the flow a good while little longer. They find their own routine in time.

I don't want to have a firm routine, I'm not trying to be a control freak or anything like that I know she's only wee (all 10lbs 5oz of her)..just need some form of daily plan to keep me going. Also recovering from an emergency c/s so not really crashing around the place just yet.

It's the sleepless nights which are killing me..! She's quite easy really..just a bit concern about the amount she sleeps during the day. However she was awake for 2 whole hours earlier (not had that before) and has now crashed out..!

Now if I could get my DD to tell me when she's about to do a COWABUNGA style poo that would be bloody brilliant esp at 4.30 in the morning when i've already changed her twice in 10mins....

You can start some routines immediately - nothing heavy, just helping her distinguish between night and day. I started a bedtime routine with DS almost immediately (though 'bedtime' at that age changed every day depending on feeds etc) although he was downstairs with us in the lounge in the evenings at 3 weeks. I'd do bath/ top and tail, sleepsuit, feed, 'bed' in a loose sense (knowing full well i'd end up cuddling him in front of the TV till he got to sleep). The last feed was quiet surroundings, whispers/ low voices, lights low. Daytime was loud, bright, busy etc.

From around 6 weeks i started to put more structure on bedtime, feeding DS in the same place i expected him to sleep (in our case in a moses basket in our room) when he seemed tired. Sometimes he'd go to sleep in his moses basket, no crying and no problem, other nights he'd cry so i brought him downstairs with us for a lovely cuddle on the sofa and he'd fall asleep on us. From around 8 weeks we persisted a bit more with settling at bedtime before resorting to bringing him downstairs. This all worked really well and very soon afterwards he was settling well 9 times out of 10.

I am sooooooo envious! These are such special times. Enjoy the cuddles, don't get hung up on routine, but help her in the right direction.

Thanks guys...tried it out last night..feed, bath, further feed (which i think she didn't need..piglet) won't go down until DH put his Ipod on and played her some classical music..duhh can't believe I didn't think of this. She's been with us in the living room and can sleep with noise and then I put her down in a silent room.

She slept from 8 till 11, DH did that feed and I did the next one at 4am!!! Bloody brilliant, felt like a new women at 4am as I went to bed at 9.30! She feed really well at every feed..outstanding. Only the first try so i'm sure tonight will be very different.

Day to plan isn't going to plan..but hey ho, she's happy!

Forgot to say.... ditch Gina Ford, she should train dogs not babies. But that's just my opinion!

The Baby Whisperer is quite useful, but just remember your LO will find her own routine when she's ready. The best thing to do is follow her lead and when she appears ready respond accordingly by giving her a bit more structure. I made the mistake of reading too many books and listening to too much contradictory advice in those first weeks. Your instinct is the best guide. You think she needs a cuddle, cuddle. You think she needs sleep, help her sleep in whatever way you can.

Oh, and music was our saviour too! Completely chilled out our DS and was the breakthrough we needed at bedtime. Hope it goes as well tonight.

The real danger of thinking too much about routines at this age is that it's really not going to work unless you happen to hit coincidentally on the one that fits what your baby's doing anyway, and if it doesn;t work it's REALLY easy, particularly when you're tired and hormonal to start thinking that there's something wrong with you, or you've got the wrong sort of baby or something like that.

I KNOW every oens says this, but really - sleep when she sleeps. It's a very short time she'll be like this - go with the flow, and before you know it, she's hae realized she's not pasrt of you, reailzed the difference between night and day and bob will, as they say, be your uncle.

Oh, and may i recommend the Goldberg Variations as the best possible sleepy music. Worked wonders on my two as babies, and they both have them on their Ipods in case they can;t sleep any time - and they are 10 and 15!

I'm relaxed about the routines..spent this afternoon in our local beer garden having a sunny cider with a great friend..DD slept for ages (no doubt too long) but I didn't care, it was just lovely to get out of the house and chill out with a great friend and chat about utter rubbish! Wasn't going to wake her as I was having a lovely time..only wished I'm shaved my legs otherwise I would of got them out!!

DD seems to have a natural 3 hour sleep patten..so I'm just trying to listen to her, would be great if I could try and roll that into the evenings. She went down at 7.30 this evening, quite nice for DH and I too have an evening to chill out and watch a film...how much of the film we'll see is another matter!!

Oh Gina Ford...mmmm well I've read bits of it, but quite frankly I'm taking everything with a pinch of salt. Afterall she's our baby and I'm quite sure Mum and Dad know best....!