Forum home Archived Birth Clubs My baby was born in Mar 09

enough's enough im trying a routine!

After leaving Max do his own thing ive decided he might benefit from a routine as he gets so bloody grizzly some days and it's because he's over tired, his favourite hobby is sleep fighting!!

I got a book from the library that had an interesting section on napping, thought you may find it helpful:

generally-

-first nap should be 2 hours after getting up and last 90mins
-second nap around lunchtime for 2 hours
-third nap late afternoon for 30 mins

Baby shouldn't be awake much longer than 2hours before taking a nap and last nap should end 2 hours before bad.

So far today, Max has slept for 30mins and grizzled the rest of the morning!! lol! got a feeling this is going to be a waste of time but worth a shot for a contented baby!xx

Replies

  • Good luck! I've tried many a times to get Riley into a routine but he just sleeps when he wants!
    The nap times you gave are interesting though I might try and put them into practice as I so want to get him into a routine when he decides he wants to!
    xxx
  • I generally let Amelia nap when she wants too but she also fights sleep and gets very grizzly. I have to rock her sleep during the day and she generally will wake again when I put her down. She's also a very nosey baby so when we're out and about she won't sleep as she thinks she'll miss something!! I must say if we are home she will sleep as you've put above but that is very rare.
    Amelia too gets over tired and the amount of times she fulls asleep whilst having her bedtime bottle.
    Good luck with your routine - Try not to get too worked up about it, I used to fret if Amelia wasn't doing something the book said she should be - A relative of mine reminded me that babies can't read!!!
  • Interesting, pixiebob. Until today I would have said that sounds about right for Peter's very new routine. He sleeps for 30-45 minutes between 10 and 10:30, 2-3 hours from about 12:30 and sometimes for half an hour in the afternoon (we're working on that one). But today he had four shorter naps instead. I'm trying to keep him on a schedule as much as possible, but some days they really just do their own thing, don't they?

    Marnb, I am so sorry! You have my every sympathy. Occasionally Peter just refuses to sleep at all during the day and it is absolutely exhausting! I hope Emma starts napping for you soon.
  • Its strange how all babies are so different Riley can't last more than an hour and half without having a power nap at least. Everyday can be different, some days he can pretty much sleep all day just waking for feeds, and as soon as we go out anywhere he falls asleep. I don't like to stop him from sleeping though or he gets grumpy!
    xxx
  • Well, id say that today's been quite succesful! Im totally exhausted as it's so much easier to just cuddle him and let him fall asleep in the pram but after a bit of back patting and ssshing he's had a nap in the morning and one at lunch time in his own cot!!

    They were only for 30mins each and i followed his lead as to when he wanted to sleep. The afternoon nap he really put up a fight against so i let him sleep on me and he slept for a good 2 hours.

    Ive just put him to bed and instead of crying for an hour he cried for 10mins and is now flat out(touchwood!)

    Im going to stick with it-the main thing im trying to do is not keep picking him up when he grizzles, i do when he really starts crying but when he's just grizzling i either leave him or pat him.

    Just the sleeping through the night to tackle next-ha ha, yeah right!!x
Sign In or Register to comment.