Introducing a Bedtime routine - Help!!

[clarey]

I may be being very thick here but I have no idea how to go about getting my LO into a routine at night when she is breast feeding on demand?
At the moment she has a feed at 10.30 ish and we all go to bed then she wakes around 3am and 6am for feeds. I would like to be able to put her to bed earlier though but she tends to fuss and feeds on and off all evening so how do we do it?

Am I worrying about this too early? I dont want to end up spending my whole evening upstairs trying to settle her!

Any advice appreciated, thanks!

 

[weenik]

Hi Clarey, I didn't really try to get a routine......it just sort of happened and it worked really well for us. I bf on demand and I think it was probably about 8 weeks that I noticed we would head up stairs for a feed about 7pm and that's when he would settle down for longer times. Once we got to to about 12 weeks (I think!) he started sleeping through the night. I wouldn't worry about it too much just now, it will happen xx

 

[lisa&alex]

i personally think its near impossible to get a bf on demand newborn n a bed time ruteen.. gl tho xx

 

[Squiglet]

i personally think its near impossible to get a bf on demand newborn n a bed time ruteen.. gl tho xx

nah...you just have to consistent. First of all make sure everything happens the same time every night... and you get yourself and the baby up the same time every morning.

As you LO currently has a feed at 10.30 ish, make her routine start about an hour before the previous feed. We start at 7, lil miss has a long feed at 7:30, we move to the bedroom awake at 8ish, where she goes between, sleeping and screaming (aka sleep fighting ) until 9 when she finally falls asleep properly she wakes up around 11ish for another feed, and I go to bed then.

 

[mrs_tommo22]

Hi hun, at her age i wouldnt really advise a bedtime routine yet - a demand feeding baby ouldnt be put to bed at a certain time cos of their feeding habits andyour lil one os still so young - she wont get it just yet.

I understand its difficult, and know that you probbly want some time to yourself, but why not wait till shes feeding every few hours then put her in a routine.

 

[clarey]

Thanks ladies, I felt it was a bit early to worry but I was talking about her fussiness in the evening to the support ladies at a baby cafe who suggested starting a routine. I feel like we are just making it all up as we go along at the moment, but maybe thats parenthood?!

Thanks Squiglet, I think I will start making the evenings a bit more bedtimey, it sounds quite achievable the way you say it!

 

[valentine]

at her age i wouldnt really advise a bedtime routine yet - a demand feeding baby ouldnt be put to bed at a certain time cos of their feeding habits andyour lil one os still so young - she wont get it just yet.

I disagree - I think it totally depends on the baby. My DD was/is exclusively breast fed and I have always demand fed and we started a bedtime routine at 6.5 weeks and as if by magic, she started sleeping through 12+ hours, even dropping the 10pm dream feed.

We just consistently did 5.30pm = nappy off time on change mat in living room, baby yoga etc; 6.15pm = bath, baby massage etc; 6.45pm = story and final feed and put her down in her moses basket in the bedroom (she had previously been in living room with us in the evenings). Worked a treat.

My DD loves her sleep though and has never been a really hungry baby so please don't worry if this doesn't work for you straight away. It is common for b/fed LOs to cluster feed in the evenings (feed for hours and hours as if storing up for the night ahead) and if this is what your LO is doing, then just let her get on with it and try to introduce a routine once her feeding has calmed down, this will likely only be a stage she's going through.

I hope this helps clarey.

Valentine Xxx

 

[clarey]

Thanks Valentine, thats really helpful, I think it would be lovely for all of us to have a bit more structure to our evenings even if it takes a while to really work!

and 12 hours!! wow, we cant even imagine....