routines, sleeping, feeding, questions...??

[Suzie and Faith]

Hello!
Well Faith is nearly 8 weeks and we don't have any routine. Now this doesn't bother me too much but I need to check a few things I'm doing are ok.

This morning, for example, she was awake at 5:30am, she took about 120ml of milk and then stayed in bed with us.
She slept then until about 8am. Between 8am and 9am she took all except a few drops of a 180ml bottle. She then napped for 45 mins. I then bathed her and changed her. She wanted some more food and took another 60ml.

By this time it was about 11:30am and then she fell asleep and has been asleep since - that's 4 hours now!!!

Is any of this wrong? Should I be waking her?

I really have no idea about baby things i have no idea what I'm doing!

I do try and bath her and put her to bed of an evening, but the time varies and i only do it when she seems sleepy.

Am i better to use a set time every night and do it that way?

ARG. Any advice would be great

 

[daftscotslass]

Sounds like you're doing just grand Suzie, going with the flow was what worked best for us! I think something clicked around the 8-10 week mark for us and all of a sudden she was going down for the night at the same time (7.30-8pm). Then she started to drop feeds - first the 2/3am one and then the 10/11pm one. Now she's going 8pm-5/6am, having a bottle, then going back to sleep for an hour or two. If she's content, don't wake her. The mugginess today meant that Becky slept for just under 3 hours (she's just woken up and is hoo hooing on my lap) which is normally unheard of for us! She's also been all over the place with her feeds the last few days because she's been more thirsty so I wouldn't worry about that either.

We now do bath, bottle and bed at the same time every night but used to go with the flow like you're doing now - she dropped into the routine herself. You could always try doing it at the same time but do what you feel is right. Sounds like you're doing a grand job so make sure you give yourself credit and try not to worry!

 

[Jade&Evie]

I've come to the conclusion that babies will sleep as much as they need to regardless of what we want!

Evie has been asleep pretty much all day but she'll probably sleep through the night too! Sheis still sleeping for about 16 hours a day

 

[Sherlock]

Sounds fine to me too

The only thing I'd maybe want to try is slowly start to establish a bedtime routine and have bedtime about the same time every evening. But I'd look and see what your LO is doing and follow her lead with it. If she is yawning most nights around 8pm, then try bath and getting her ready for bed at 7.30pm. Then a feed and cuddle before bed. If she wakes in the night then decide if its because she is hungry or needs changing etc. If not hunger maybe try settling her back down without a feed.

I know I am breastfeeding but I slowly did this with Galen over a few weeks and followed his lead in the evenings till we got into a decent routine. He now goes to sleep between 8-10pm and sleeps for 8 hours usually. If he goes down at 8pm, he is usually awake at 4am ish. If he goes down at 10pm, usually closer to 6am. If he dreamfeeds around 11pm he's good till 7-8am most of the time now. However he can still wake 3-4 times a night and be fussing and wanting to feed also. But I stick with the 8-10pm window. Slowly I'll make it closer to 8pm more often and see how we go.

Around 10-12 weeks or so is when babies can start going longer at night without feeds, but often bottle fed babies do this sooner as formula is heavier and more filling.

 

[drea b]

sounds fine to me. I agree with the others about a bedtime routine - once we started doing that I found she really went into her own routine.

 

[keli]

I have no set routine just following Coopers lead. He feeds when he wants and sleeps when he wants

 

[debecca]

Sounds like you're doing great Suzie. Our routine changed daily due to Flod at 8 weeks but settled down by 10 weeks. I agree with the others about bedtime, I think that's what worked for us in the end - we picked a time it would suit US for her going to sleep and she quickly adopted it. Now we do:

7.30am - wake and eat 5oz. Play lots til...
10am - kip for an hour
11.15am - eat 7oz. Stay awake until...
12.30pm - sleeeeeep. This is usually her longest sleep.
2.30pm - wake up, play for a bit.
3.15pm - eat 7oz.
5.30pm - go to sleep for half an hour (? - no idea why she does this with bedtime so close)
7pm - eat 7oz.
7.30pm - bath then bed. She goes off straight away.

She wakes once in the night at about 1.30am (for 4oz) but that's it now and then she just repeats this over and over...

But as I say it takes a while for them to establish their routine.

 

[Charlie:-)]

Reading everyones replies I can only repeat what has been said, but sounds like you are doing brilliant

Maia now has a bedtime routine which we seem to have had established for at least 3 weeks. She has a witching hour around 5-6 and wants to go to bed around 7pm so we get her ready for bed within the hour and feed and cuddle then she goes down.

I usually let Maia take the lead with our day and I find that she gets tired after about an hour of been awake and will usually fall asleep soon after that. If she goes longer than 2 hours at night bedtime then she is very irritable and much harder and takes longer to go down as she is over tired. During the day if I know shes getting sleepy and has been awake for roughly an hour I will put her down in her cot, sometimes she will go down sometimes she doesn't and then stays up for a bit longer and might fall asleep on me or on her play gym.

 

[Zodiac]

As with everyone else, I think at the age she is, just follow Faiths lead for now.

My LO was 6 weeks premature, and he slept absolutely loads for the first 3months. I'd take him to mum n baby groups & he'd sleep thru the entire thing

He started to be more alert & awake after that tho & once he was awake more in the daytime I did start getting him into a routine for bedtime.

Now I still follow his lead thru the day. He generally has a total of 2-3 hours sleep throughout the day, but times vary depending on what we're doing. 1hr here, 2 x 30mins there etc.

But he goes to bed between 6.45 - 7.30pm every evening now and sleeps through til 6.30 -7am.

 

[LilysMummy]

Am I the only one with a 6month old not in a routine haha! She really doesnt want one, tried made us both cry lol so she goes to bed around 9 lol oh well still hope for me yet

 

[ozzy]

sounds like your doing great. You do get a routine eventually and you also get to know when LO is tired so i give his last bottle about 7-8pm and he sleeps till around 7. I dont bath him before bed as he gets a little grumpy and has about 20 mins nap before his last bottle and still goes down for the night too. I use bath time as more of a play time rather than winding him down for bed. good luck x

 

[abcd1234]

I agree, sounds like you're doing a good job and i think we just have to follow what LO wants.

I tried a bedtime routine with Tally from very early on, now i try and bath and change her between 9 and 10 then we lie on the bed and she feeds until about 11 and she'll sleep (length of sleep is becoming more and more variable though, i blame hot weather) I tried settling her earlier and she was having none of it so for now i just go with her and what she wants, when she gets older i'll try and salvage some of my evening as atm she spents from about 7pm attached to me.

We also have a morning set-up where she gets up whenever she's ready, gets a nappy change and feed and then if she's still awake afterwards we get dressed for the day, is she sleeps again i just do it the next time she's up.

Because shes still so young i cant really have anything set but Faith is quite a few weeks older so she may be more ready for a light routine to be in place

 

[debecca]

I agree, sounds like you're doing a good job and i think we just have to follow what LO wants.

I tried a bedtime routine with Tally from very early on, now i try and bath and change her between 9 and 10 then we lie on the bed and she feeds until about 11 and she'll sleep (length of sleep is becoming more and more variable though, i blame hot weather) I tried settling her earlier and she was having none of it so for now i just go with her and what she wants, when she gets older i'll try and salvage some of my evening as atm she spents from about 7pm attached to me.

We also have a morning set-up where she gets up whenever she's ready, gets a nappy change and feed and then if she's still awake afterwards we get dressed for the day, is she sleeps again i just do it the next time she's up.

Because shes still so young i cant really have anything set but Faith is quite a few weeks older so she may be more ready for a light routine to be in place

Connie went to bed at 11pm for AGES - it's only in the last month she began to move her bedtime back and now 7.30pm is what suits her best. I think it's pretty normal also for breastfed babies to be attached to yuor boobs in the evening - they're 'tanking up' ready for the night, so it's a good sign she's knowing night from day!