april baby routines-please tell me yours!

[ck2b]

My DD seems to have no routine - well she does but it varies either side of a set time by about 2-3 hours so it varies greatly. I am trying to establish something a little bit more consistant but I am not sure how to sta
I tried to wake her a little earlier today to try and get her to go to sleep earlier ( currently it's at about 1am-the only consistant thing!!:sleeping:) and now she has been asleep since 3pm and it's 7pm. Now she will never sleep tonight!!

So-was wondering what the routines are for April babies now they are hitting the 3 month mark and do you guys wake them to keep them in the routine ( I hate waking her!!).

ETA-I know there is another thread about April baby routines but that was posted in May and so much changes in those few months!!

[LilMrsC]

Charlotte has had the same routine for a while now.

Feeds (she is bottle fed) at 8am, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm and a top up feed at 10:30pm. She goes to bed every night at 8pm and we get her up for the 10:30pm feed. Although we dont wake her up if that makes sense. We keep the room dark and her as relaxed as possible. She then sleeps through the night til about 8am. We bath her at night at 7:30pm so she goes straight to bed after her bath. She sleeps for about half an hour before each feed during the day and for about 30 - 45 mins after each feed. We have playtime at about 11am everyday and go for a walk about 2pm everyday.

Haha reading it back makes my day sound like groundhog day. Obviously some things change but that is the routine for most days. :yes:. It took a while to get like that but its is pure bliss now that it is like that. HTH Hun.

[mysonroger]

it might be a bit too early to expect a young baby to conform to a routine. i sort of have a routine, but its not bound by any real set times.....just that my DD (11 weeks old) feeds every three hours roughly during the day, stays up for one hour before i put her down again. that one hour staying up includes the feed.

there's a nap in the morning, and one long stretch of sleep during the middle of the day, lasting up to 4 hours, another nap in the arvo, and then we wake her each night at 9.30-10pm, bath her , feed her and she sleeps till 7am. don't ask me why i leave the bathing till so late, i guess it can be chaos in this house earlier in the evening, and this suits us better. its very relaxed.

but then there are days when this all goes out the window because of that little thing called 'life'. fortunately for us , no matter what sort of **** day we've had she always sleeps solidly through the night.

[ck2b]

thanks for that LilMrsC
I kind of have the same thing with DD but she sleeps for hours at a time during the day and trying to keep a tired baby awake is impossible!

Eg if she wakes for a feed at 7am then she will sleep until about 1030am and then she is back to sleep by 1200 and might sleep for another 3 hours ( these times change as I said in OP but the pattern is the same).

She'll wake again for about 1 to 1.5 hours and then she is back to sleep again and this sleep for at least 3 hours which puts it anywhere between 6-730ish which is when I want her to start going to sleep! She would then feed, bath and be asleep about an hour later only to wake up around 10pm and then stay awake until 1-2am which she will then sleep through until she wakes for the morning feed and we start again.
How can I change this- she seems to want to sleep a LOT!! I have tried doing things with her to keep her awake like walks etc but then she falls asleep everytime.

Anyway - anymore routines would be most welcome so I can try and work out some mind of pattern that suits us both!

ETA - I am not looking for a really strict routine thing - I bought some books in routines and they are far to structured for my liking! ( no offense to those who they work for though :)

[mysonroger]

it could be that that 10pm period of being awake is her unsettled period, which a lot of babies experience at some point during the day, usually the evenings. i went through that every day with my other DD until she was 16 weeks old, and it was exhausting.

if it is , then its just one of those things that you have to sit out and wait for her to outgrow . or maybe after she wakes at 10pm, give her a feed and have her up no longer than an hour, that way she doesn't get over tired...and then try to establish sleep associations to settle her, like wrapping, hushing, etc...

are you sure she is winded properly? could that be it.

[sparkleymum]

We have he EXACT same routine as LilMrsC expect an hour earlier.

7am feed
11am feed
3pm feed
6.30pm feed

Sleep 8.30am for 30mins
12.00 for 2 hours
and night sleep from 7pm till 7am.

Bath is usually before the 6.30pm feed but I only bath him now ever 2 or 3 days, when I was establishing the routine with him at about 4 or 5 weeks old I did the bath every night, it made him associate it with bedtime, once he was well into the routine himself I didn't have to do it every night anymore.

[sillysideup]

HI ck2b - good to hear from you again.

My little Georgie is only two days older than your bubs and she basically follows the Sleep Feed play routine. Her routine depends on what time she has her night time feed (yes she still needs one). It happens anywhere from 2-4am but usually around 3amish. Then wakes 6 - 7amish has a feed (150mls) and is then wake for 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Until she starts to sound grumpy again at which time she goes back to bed. And we follow this routine several times during the day until she goes to sleep at 7.30pm. I was doing a dreamfeed at 10.30pm but found it make no difference (in fact the 4 nights she did sleep thru were the first four after I cut out the dreamfeed!!).

I like this routine (if you can call it that) as it is flexible and fits around bubs needs and wants. But really each to their own - it's what works best for you and bubs.

Georgie has at least one big sleep during the day (up to 3 hours) and some days still has two big sleeps. But she is still sleeping at night - I can understand how frustrating it must be to have bubs awake just when you want to go to bed. What happens when you try to keep her awake??

Someone suggested the sleep associate thing. That is a great idea. Evidently all babies need something to associate with going to sleep. Eg teddy, music, dummy. Even if you don't give them one they work out their own (holding the their cot blanket or touching the cot). we gave my 4 year old a teddy which she had in her cot from 3 months. That became hers and she still take him to bed (he is getting a bit old and over loved). My 2 year old unfortunately needed the dummy and mummy (that was hard one to break). This time I'm trying the teddy thing again and music (portable and easy to replace).

Good luck with it all. Try to remember it is only a stage and as hard as it can be it won't be happening in a few months time. You'll work it out and it will be a memory soon :yes:.