How old was your baby when you started to try and get them into some sort of routine?

[Holymoly321]

I can't remember with DS1 but now we have DS2 - 4 weeks old, DH is convinced DS1 was sleeping thru by now!!! Which is obv wishful thinking on his part!

i had a routine of sorts going by about 2 weeks but it wasn't about getting ds to sleep thru, although he did sleep thru at about about 7 weeks and think that was very lucky indeed! Shame that months 9-12 involved a lot of NOT slelping thru all the best.

1st dd - no routine and still suffering! 2nd dd routine at 6 weeks (now 10 months and never looked back) It was a complete life saver and would do the same again if I have any more!! Sleeping 7-7 at 10 weeks (lifted for dream feed) and then 7-7 at 6 months.

btw all babies are different and may, or may not, sleep through from 4 weeks.

This has answered some of my queries too, but have another one if anyone can help?. recently started a bath, feed,bed routine with 15 w/o dd but not at a particular time, just when she seems ready. She has slept through occasionally but the last week she has been hard to settle & waking a couple of times in the night - what I would like to know is whether I should wake her (assuming she's asleep!) at 10 - 11ish for a feed or is it best to leave sleeping babies lie?

I would do the bedtime routine at the same time every night and I would lift her for a dream feed at about 10ish (depending on when she goes to bed) At this age my dd was in bed at 6pm.

Also, I think it is important to have some kind of day routine also (ie that she is not sleeping too much in the day)

I feed my 6 weeks old every 3 hrs during the day. I wake him if needed and offer him both breasts (he's 13lb at 6 weeks so I need to get a lot of food in him!). We then do bath, stories and bed at 7 ( I have a 3.9 yr old too) I feed at 10pm. Last night he slept 10pm - 5 30am (wooohoooo! Unfortunatley my boobs didn't realise this and I was desperate to feed him when he woke up)

maliciap, I'd check it isn't because she is getting too cold first, both mine started rewaking after sleeping through for a while once winter hit. It took me ages to realise what was making them wake up!

i dreamfed at about 10-11pm til about 7 mo, probably could have given up earlier but didn't want to risk losing sleep! (then teething started..)

Muppetgirl - when you say you feed your 6wk old every three hours, is that breast or formula? I'm feeding DS2 on demand during the day - the timings seems quite random at the mo, and then thru the night he seems to feed every 2-2.5 hours. Also, you mums who say your lo is sleeping 7-7, does that mean you are putting your baby inside his cot/crib whatever upstairs in either his room or your room whilst you come back downstairs for the rest of the evening? At the mo DS1 goes to bed at around 7pm and then DS2 is just downstairs with us until we go to bed around 11pm (or he stays down there with DH while I try and get a bit of kip!).

He is breast fed during the day and dh gives him a f/f to give me a rest at 10pm and then I b/f during the night.

I bath, story and bed both my boys at 7pm. I have just dream fed my ds2 at 10pm and I hope he will go through till 5 ish -he did last night! Once he's in his crib in his own room he doesn't come out till morning. I feed him in his room with the lights off and I don't talk to him. Dh goes and gets him in the morning and we have the first b/f of the day in bed. Lovely

Sounds like a nice routine MG - only I don't think DS2 would feed every three hours if he didn't want it - and to be honest his day time feeds are all over the shop! When you say 'dream feed' is this a feed when he's already in his cot upstairs at night? Am VERY of you getting 10pm till 5am!!!

Smiling - I fed every three hours as well. If you try to do this your lo may get into the routine. Even if my dd did not take much she just got into this routine. I felt the main thing was that she was getting most of her milk in the day which meant she needed less in the night. I dream fed too and this ensured that she got a good feed before sleeping through.

Smiling - Hi! My lo goes to bed in his crib in his room at 7pm every night as this is the routine my 3.9 yr old has. I go into the lo's room and feed him in the dark and quite often he's very much asleep but once liquid is in his mouth he does tend to start sucking and then he's off...Once he stops sucking I put him back to bed.

Last night he was bed at 7pm - 10pm - 2am - 5am so not as good as the previous night but now he's done it once I know it is possible

Ds breastfeed every 3 hours during the day. And every 4 hours at night. He was 6pm,10pm,2am and 6am. He did this on his own from about day 3. Then my milk dried up and I moved to formula. Then at about 8-10 weeks, can't exactly remeber he dropped his 2 am feed. Then at 13 weeks he dropped his 10pm feed and slept through from 7-7. He was in his moses basket, then cot, in his own room, and we had a rough routine, of calming down , prior to bed.
From my years on mumsnett, I know that this is very, very rare, so please take that on board.
A gentle evening routine of bath and cuddles, can never hurt.
No baby will sleep through until THEY are ready.