Routines

[July02]

Hi, how long did it take your little one to get into a routine?! Currently have a fantastic 7 day old little man and were all over the place! Is this normal?

[Pjmontgo]

Yes! I fed on demand and it took a while to get in to a routine. You are still getting to know each other so don't rush it! Just enjoy all the tiny baby snuggles. They get big so quickly!! I started a proper bedtime routine around 10 weeks but had friends who did it sooner.

[craftingfoxcub]

Haha, yes, that's totally normal. I didn't find a routine helpful at all. It just meant I had unfulfilled expectations about how things would be and the baby would act. As these we're pretty unpredictable for the first few months I didn't really go for a routine until 6 months, and then I varied it to work with what the baby needed at every new phase. Babies move towards sleeping more at night and less in the day gradually, too, and sleeping through the night, which everyone is obsessed with, often doesn't happen until 2 years, as babies wake for all sorts of reasons, like adults, and most are not developmentally ready to be able to self settle until much older than the authors of baby training books would have you believe. Going with the flow was, for us, the low stress option, and it has resulted in a very happy family here. So, don't worry about routine, it happens, but it can be baby led.

[Hidden]

Hey there, we formula fed and found that he soon settled down into 4 hourly feeds fairly quickly. I don't recall us doing anything in particular to instigate this though. We did have periods where this varied with growth spurts etc...

In hindsight I would certainly prepare bottles in advance (maybe 3 or 4 each time) which is perfectly acceptable providing you follow the correct procedure and don't keep them beyond that day. Most of our stress when our son was small was around making a bottle, cooling it down and arguing over the temperature!!!

Enjoy your baby boy 😊

[Jennie1987]

Totally normal! We found ours was slipping into her own routine roughly around 5 weeks and so we reinforced it from about 6 weeks to keep it going! We do the feed, play sleep method which works well for us. Obviously still needs to be a bit flexible and times vary as to how long each section is week by week enjoy whatever you decide to do! Every baby and mum different and wonderful in their own ways!xx

[LottyB]

7 days! Aww, cute! Congratulations. I breastfed on demand the first 13 weeks, so there was no routine. We then very gradually introduced bottles so my supply would adapt, but she was still very much fed on demand. Then she stopped sleeping very well and I bought every book imaginable and read so many websites with often contradicting advice on what to do. So I made up my own routine, and it worked from day two. For a week now we've been doing a very strict four hour routine fir bottles with porridge 1.5 hours after morning bottle and lunch after the 11.30 bottle. (Niamh is coming up six months)

I would totally just go with what baby wants at the moment. Which I know is super hard when you're so tired! It does get easier, I promise. 😘 baby will settle.

Keep going, I'm sure you're doing great. Xx

[July02]

Thank you all! We have a little lady too who is two so struggling to let him find his own way or I'm struggling to see his own way as we have the little lady too! Were formula feeding too and his feeds are everywhere from 5 hours to one hour to 3 hours!

[July02]

Eeeek! Another possible 10 weeks of this madness! I must of forgot this part of parenting with our little lady!

[claire16c]

We didn't get into a pattern until about 4 months or so. I agree with craftingfoxclub. If you go with the flow then there's nothing to get stressed about 'not happening'! X