Routines?! When, what, where, how, help!

[wingingitalltheway]

First time mum to a beautiful 5 week old little girl! So far we haven’t introduced a routine but wondering when other people introduced a routine and what was it?! I’ve heard about just doing a bath, cuddles and down for sleep but heard others that have a very rigid timed routine. Would love to hear what worked for people!
Some information that might help:
FF
Currently sleeping only about 2 - 2 and a half hours in between feeds at night
Sleeps in a Moses basket
Any advice/tips would be really appreciated!

My dd2 didn't do a routine till about 4 months.
Da is 8 weeks and gets cross if I keep him down stairs too long.

I don't do bath as part of the routine. But it's upstairs. Change clothes. milk both boobs in the dark and into basket with white noise. He some times will drift off by himself. Sometimes i cuddle a bit longer.

Try it... if it doesn't work leave it a few weeks and try again.

DS not DA

Didn't bother until DS was 6 months old. Wanted to 'enjoy' those first few months and not be overwhelmed by clock watching/what happens if we aren't in and can't follow the routine blah blah blah. He sleeps 13 hours straight now, and I would do exactly the same if we have another child

I started a routine at 5 weeks with DS because I was developing PND and needed structure and some time to myself to get it all together, a lot of people said it was far too soon and it would never work but much to my amazement I found it worked from the afternoon I started!
Maybe DS is a naturally good sleeper or it’s a fluke and I’m in for hell soon but it’s got me to 15 weeks with a few hiccups here and there but nothing awful

Here’s what I did:

Bought and read 7am to 7pm sleeping baby routine by Charmian Mead after some good reviews online. It changed everything!
DS is also FF and this book works well for that

I didn’t follow it to the letter (for example, we use HiPP Organic milk which DS loves but she doesn’t recommend and DS has a dummy & is in our room which she also doesn’t recommend — BUT the general routine works perfectly for him!)

I found the stuff about ‘awake times’ and food really helpful and the routine also helps me figure out the reasons he might be crying - the hours of this used to cause me a huge amount of stress

I also found the little ones 3-12m routine answered a lot of the questions I had once we got to that stage that the book stopped covering

DS now has 3 naps a day (45m in the morning, 2hrs in the afternoon and 15-30m in the afternoon) and sleeps 7-7 with the odd grumble here and there but nothing awful. He dropped all night feeds at 6 or 7 weeks of his own accord and is a very happy baby that grows like a weed so it’s working for us

HTH, happy to answer any q’s if you have them

Hey OP, We have 3 DCs and were blessed that they were very good sleepers (something I take no credit for)

What we did though was to watch their own routine and see patterns in it. When we noticed something, we would try and accommodate if for them. DS for example would wake between 6 & 7 but got tired again around 8:30 so we would build his routine round his own clock. It made things more predictable for us but we didn't have the stress of trying to feed him or get him to sleep when he didn't want it. (I'm looking at you Gina Ford!)

Start noting what your baby does and build on it.