Routines???

[Colleen1988]

Hi everyone

My baby boy is 3 week old...

Ive tried getting him to feed every few hours, bath bottle bed at 7pm every day! Dark room at night not a lot of interaction and bright and loud in the day..

Nothing seems to work with him, he does his own thing! He's doing well weight wise and there are no concerns with his health.

What do you all do to try and encourage routine or do you all go with the flow?

He literally doesn't have a set time for anything, it's differwnt every day which means it's hard to organise to do anything xxx

 

[Rooster30]

At 3 weeks old, I really wouldn't worry about routines. I didn't start my baby on a routine until 6 weeks and even then she was 8/9 weeks old before she started to get into the flow of a bedtime routine.

Maybe just leave it be for a little bit and try again in a few weeks time?

 

[Colleen1988]

Yeah that's what im thinking becUse im driving myself mad with it... I know he's happy and healthy it's just so hard when your so tired and you just don't have time to do anything for yourself! I'm still in my bloody pjs today haha xxx

 

[kitten2014]

coleen I know what you mean about not being able to do things, our lil miss started on a routine at around 8wks also and started following EASY during the day and like you same times wakeup and sleep...I got frustrated whenever she didnt follow it so let it slide and went with the flow...for example if she had a bad day of naps she'd have earlier bedtime and vice versa...now however she has started to set her own routine and for the first time can say she does 7-7 (give or take 15-30mins either side) and feeds five times around 7.30. 10ish, 1ish, 3ish and 6ish and generally naps four times sometimes three if she does well at the naps....she started doin it though and once I saw a pattern emerging I encouraged it....

 

[Colleen1988]

Thanks hun, I really hope Isaac does this to! I'm just so worried that if he gets himself in a bad routine now he won't get out of it but I guess he's to young to even know what he's doing right now and im sick of driving myself mad everytime he doesn't want a full feed or everytime he falls asleep when he's due a feed lol! he's only 3 week bless him xx

 

[kitten2014]

yeah take it from one who's been there, at 3wks OH and I were taking it in turns during the night, she had no bedtime routine at all, it was only at 8wks that started taking her into nursery in carrycot at 10pm and then gradually worked towards 9, 8 then 7ish as we do now...I also was the furstrated one sitting there with a bottle imploring my lil miss to take more and getting frustrated tears when she didnt or when she didnt sleep enough or too little and learned that best to go with the flow - they do eventually set their own routine...I also didnt believe this when heard other ppl but our lil miss has...also you need to get used to goin with the flow as the routine you establish will change when ill/teething/growth spurt etc etc and Ive experienced all of these now and can tell you the rule book has to go out of the window when this happens...for example our lil miss usually only takes 45mins 1st nap so was all set and prepared to take her swimming but she then decides to sleep for 1hr 15mins! Unheard of at that time of day! Brilliant but the rest of the day is affected now...now of course she's only been sleeping 6mins and is now babbling away and munching on her hands...take each day as it comes and always remember each day the slate is wiped clean or any negative experiences that you remember but luckily they dont lol...

 

[Pumpkin9]

Definitely just go with the flow hun and don't stress yourself out about a routine yet - it's so easy to worry but it will happen when babies abit older so don't feel like you need to be doing something. I found the best advice I ever got was, keep trying things baby will start to do things when they are ready and if it doesn't work first, second or third time just wait and try again abit later.

Seriously made my life so much easier referring back to that all the time!! And have others have said, very often they dictate their own routine or own way of doing things.

 

[russellmuscle]

I think the first few weeks its getting to know babies cues and cries.

We did a routine from 5-6 weeks, he slept through from 7weeks.

Good luck xxx

 

[kumber]

We didn't do any routine with ds 1 beyond getting him washed and dressed in the morning. He settled into his own routine and didn't get into it until about 10-12 weeks. Don't stress out over routine hun, there's plenty of time for that when they're bigger and you'll just end up making it harder for yourself by focusing on routine at this age.

 

[Colleen1988]

Thanks everyone im going to try and chill out a little bit xxx

 

[Belfa]

They go through so many growth spurts at this stage that they knock themselves out of any routine that they make anyway. My LO is 3months and we've only had a routine that didn't falter for a few weeks x

 

[kitten2014]

Not to mention the impact of teething, our lil miss set a routine for two weeks and then started teething, well its completely changed now...for example she was getting close to 3 decent naps per day now its 4 as she has trouble falling asleep again after first 45mins due to teething so routine changed again lol....so long as they are happy, putting on weight and you have some idea of the order of things (takes a lot of the guesswork out when you understand why they are crying!) then thats all you can hope for at this stage...

 

[Natalie_reid]

I have no routine as yet and baby is also 3 weeks. I feed on demand and sleep as much as I can manage xx