can you have a baby that sleeps well if there is no routine? i feel yes but i am open to ideas! my daughter is 4 months and wont nap long and i am told i need a stricter routine
I think it depends how you work as a family, we have a bath and bed routine but apart from that we just go with the flow, i know mums who have strict nap times but that doesnt work for us as a family, it maybe your lo just doesnt need to nap for long? my first use to nap for 2 hours at a time but my second only manages about an hour at most, i think unless they are waking and are obviously still tired i doubt a strict routine would alter that, however if they are still tired on waking it may help?
We have a firm night time routine - tiny feed - bath - rest of feed in the bedroom with the lights off - cuddles - swaddle - bed. But for the daytime, no way. My daughter would scream her head off if I tried to insist on set times for naps and waking. As a general rule, because she is 11 weeks old, I know that she will start to become sleepy about an hour to an hour and a half after waking so I tend to just watch out for signs that she is sleepy and then cuddle her and put her down. She sometimes sleeps for 10 minutes and then wakes, sometimes its longer for up to an hour and a half. I dont know if I am doing the right thing, im a first timer and a total worrier, but it seems to work for her!
that kind of sounds like me, i go with flow,but aim for 7-8pm bedtime. i do a wind down in room before a npa nd bedtime, rather than going straight to cot from stimulation which i think has helped. i just find it hard to sit there.shhhing/patting for ages 3-4x a day to egt her to sleep,esp as i have a almost 3 yr old too.
were the same, just go with the flow really. ive started writing down feeds and naps now to see if my son has a pattern that i can eventually work with but tbh at 10 weeks hes sleeping well at night, usually will go through from 10pm to 5am, wake for feed and sleep again till 7 or 8am. hes done this all on his own so im not fussed about daytime naps etc. i also refuse to wake him for a feed unless its a dreamfeed around 10pm so he sleeps longer. the rest is up to him and it works well for us. x
Having two girls now, routine has become more important but mine is still a 'flexi' routine. I always make sure breakfast is between 7.30-8.30am, lunch is between 12-1pm and dinner is between 5-7pm. After dinner comes bath/washtime (we alternate between full bath and just sponge down) and bedtime is between 8-9pm. If we choose to nap during the day I don't disturb and let them sleep. With DH working shifts our meal will again alternate between lunch/dinner time serving with a lighter snacky alternative at the other time. I won't really start getting stricter with timings until we are ready to start school (at which point it will need to include school runs and enough sleep to ensure they survive the day).
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