How did you establish a routine for your baby?

Question

My son is 3 mos old and he sleeps through the night but the rest of his day is a little choatic. My first problem is that I would like him to go to bed earlier. He goes down bewteen 10:30 and 11 each night and I have to wake him in the early morning to feed and get ready for the day. Last night I tried putting him down at 9:30 b/c he was so tired, but he ended up waking up at 4:30AM ready to eat. Also, I was wondering how many naps he should be taking and when? This is my first baby so I am learning as I go!

Answer 1

I let myself make his own routine. I adjust my schedule to his schedule. My son is 3 months old and goes to bed at 7 and then will get up at 3 and stay up for an hour and then go back to sleep. It's hard to really set a routine for young babys because their routines change all the time due to things like sickness, teething or even just going through a growth spurt.

Answer 2

Our pediatrician told us to put our baby on a four hour feeding schedule when she was two months old... We started out feeding at 10, 6 and 2 around the clock, but he told us to gradually taper off the 2AM feeding by making it smaller and smaller so that she would eventually "decide" it wasn't worth waking up for.

When I went back to work when she was 3 1/2 months old, we decided to try letting her sleep though the night and she usually does - 99% of the time. I wake her at 6AM for her morning bottle, BUT she usually still does not go to sleep until 10:30-11:00 at night and she is 5 1/2 months now. Our schedule is kind of screwed up though (not hers, ours) as we don't ususally get home until 9:30 PM with her because we have horses that we board elsewhere and she stays with her grandmother while we take care of them.

She usually will take a 30-45 minute nap after her 10 AM bottle, and an hour or so after her 2 PM... and she will dose for short periods off and on all day with a final "nap" of about 20 minutes at about 8:30-9 PM.

Hope this helps!!! This is our first one also...

Answer 3

I have a 20 month old and a 5 month old. The first year of life is chaotic. You have to go with the flow of things for the most part. You can try to put your baby to bed early for the night (as early as 7:00pm or 8:00pm is fine), try to put your baby in his own bed as if he sleeps with you then will be harder for separation at bedtime later on, but if your baby cries for a while then you'll have to stay up with him. A three month old should be sleeping less often than a newborn but should be taking at least 2-3 naps during the day and depending on your baby he might sleep through the night or may wake up one time or more during the night. Your baby will change his schedule just when you seem to become used to this.

Answer 4

condrats on your efforts! a routine is the key, not schedule. Babies can't run by a closk...they run by what their bodies tell them...

If you want him to go down earlier, be prepared to feed him still before you go to bed. 3 months is a little young to be sleeping more than 6 house at night... What we did with all 3 of ours was put them down at 8, feed at 10:30/11, & they would sleep until 6 or so the next morning. I don't recall ever having teouble with them staying awake after that last feeding of the night...

just be sure you have the diaper changing stuff rith there & the warm bottle. if you change his diaper it will wake him just enough to get him to eat- feed him right away & they will USUALLY go right back to sleep.

try giving him a nice warm bath at 7:30, feeding at 8 & then down for bed.

as far as naps go, those you can really play by ear. Each child is different...some will take many, short naps & others will take two or three longer naps. The older he gets, he will start taking fewer but longer naps. At three months I would guess that 6-8 naps would be typical. As he grows he will eventually cut back to 2 or 3 naps.

Being regimented will only cause stress for everyone...just follow the same routine every day...

-get up, feeding, changing
-play, changing, nap
-feeding changing, play
-nap, dad comes home, dinner at the table/feeding
-play with dad, bath, feeding,, bed
-late night feeding/changing, sleep for the night
)start over the next day)

Answer 5

Hi..I am a first time mom of a 10 month old daughter and what I have found is that you have to allow your child to set the routine that they are most comfortable with. Wait for signals from them and then act accordingly. Like my daughter will start to fret when she is hungry and will start blinking her eyes a lot more when she is sleepy and generally start slowing down.

One thing that you can do is that you can give them cues to help them. I try not to give her anything just before dinner / lunch time and when we sit down to eat, I put my daughter in her high chair and give her some of her baby food for her to experiment with. I know that more than half of it ends up on the floor, but it helps give her the sense of routine. Also when it is her bed time (and yes she does sleep between 9:00 and 9:30 PM :)) I put her down on the bed, turn off the lights, put on the night lite and then either tell her a story or sing to her. And she does go off to sleep in about 10-15 minutes after I do that.

So just work with your child... pick up their signals and try to help them develop a sense of routine instead of trying to impose your routine on them. I know this is a little tough, specially for working parents, but a little patience and a little effort from your side will really help your child (and ultimately you :))

Answer 6

it's hard to get them set on a routine. I'd work around his schedule until he's a little older. I work full-time so I got my daycare and father in law to try to cut out naps during the day. That was around 18months to 2years of age. Now we bathe at 7:00, quiet time afterwards to relax and then she's in bed at 800...then I have time to myself all night!
good luck...it's hard.