Routines

Shelley5185 · Aug 18, 2011 9:55AM

A friend of mine has given me the baby whisperers book on sleep and now i am really confused.com.

I t goes on about an early routine of Eat, Activity followed by sleep and recommends a 3 hour pattern. The problem is my baby wants a feed every 2 hours and won't usually sleep for longer than an hour unless she is in the car or we a walking her in her pram.

I have also read that if a baby isn't getting enough food during the day they will be hungry at night. Phoebe still wakes for 2 hour feeds through the night so now I'm worried that I am not giving her enough. (am breastfeeding)

I expressed 3oz yesterday fir hubby to feed during the night. She took it all and slept from 3 till 6am :roll:

The HV is really pleased with her progress as she is now weighing in at alb 4oz and she was back uo to her birth weight within 2 weeks.

I would really love her to sleep for longer periods at night.... any suggestions?

ZLS23 · Aug 17, 2011 10:08AM

Hi there

I also have this book on loan and have had a bit of a read. However, we don't really have a routine as such at the moment, still think she is a bit young to be honest. Although not breastfeeding, I am feeding (bottle) on demand.

Jazmine is pretty good in the day, has 2 good sleeps in the morning and a longer sleep in the afternoon, for instance, she went down at 1.40pm and is still asleep now - 3.15pm. Last night she slept from 9.15pm till 3am, then 4am to 7.15am.

I have been literally writing everything down, sleep times and feed times and how much we give her etc. I keep looking back, but there is no real pattern yet, except for the fact she sleeps about 3-4 hours at a time (somethimes a bit less). She does seem to be going a bit longer at night, but think that's coz we have upped her last feed a bit.

I think right now we are just going with the flow to be honest and hope she settles into a regular routine in the next few months.

Zxx

roo85 · Aug 17, 2011 3:18PM

when I had my first baby I read all the books friends gave to me, like the baby whisperer and gina ford. I got myself all worked up about not having my DD in a routine until another friend said to just go with the flow and follow your baby as every baby is different. As soon as I stopped writing everything down and worrying about routines, I felt so much better. I know the HV advise to write it all down and I did religiously with my DD up until about 6 weeks old - it didn't help me relax at all and was a bit of a waste of time (although fun to read back on now as a memory!).

This time I have been very much taking Finley's lead, although he is a nightmare feeder mind you (as I've said in previous posts not sure if it is his tongue tie causing him to feed so often or that he is a lazy snacker!) Even though he feeds a lot and does not sleep that well, I am really happy just going along with him. This new born, lack of sleep stage, really doesn't last long and soon enough a year will have whizzed by!

My DD never followed one of those books but she was sleeping through the night at 10 weeks, and is amazing at bedtimes now. From about 6 months she got into a really solid feeding routine when she was weaned, then at about 9 months we started a proper bedtime routine.

Everyone is different and if you want to follow a routine then go for it, just don't let others make you feel under pressure to get your baby into one. They are still very very young to be sleeping longer at night time.

xxxxxx

now_mrssparks · Aug 18, 2011 9:55AM

freya has pretty much fallen into a pattern of feeds, we used to feed on demand (bottle) and she now feeds every 3 hours or so during the day and longer at night, we adapted her routine around her,

she has a bath between 6-6.30, cuddles, then a feed in her room so shes nice and relaxed then she falls asleep between 7.30-8. she sleeps through till about 4, wakes for a feed and a change then sleeps through till 9.

just follow her leads and adapt around them

xx

Routines

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