February mamas: what's your routine?

Question

I'm a FTM to little 7.5 week old Henry. My in laws have been here the last 3 weeks and try as I might I cannot get them to be considerate enough to let me try and establish a bedtime routine (don't ask 🙄). They leave in a few days (thank god) and I want some inspiration. How do you prep your LO for bed? What time do you do things? And how long does your LO sleep? Mine tends to cluster feed from 7-10 then sleep for a few hours but I would love dearly to stop the 3 hour feeding extravaganza. Thanks everyone!!

Answer

My son is also 7.5 weeks old. We don't have much of a routine yet. For the most part, we just follow his cues. We'll start to "train" him when he's a little bit older, likely around 6 months. We do baths every other day in the morning before his dad leaves for work, and we change him into his sleeper when his older brother gets ready for bed (around 6:30). Other than that, the only routine I can think of is BF, break (change diaper and/or play) BF, nap.

Answer

My little peanut is 6 weeks (born two weeks early at 6lbs) and we're exclusively breastfeeding. We start winding our day down with a split feeding between 5pm and 7pm. About a half an hour on each side. In between I change his diaper and swaddle him, let him kick around on his mat. On bath day we do a bath around 5:45/6. We aim to get him down by 7 (with some rocking and singing, usually take about 30 minutes for him to fall asleep.)

Mom/Dad get time from 7-10pm to eat, spend time together and get things done around the house.

At 10/10:30pm we wake him, unswaddle and do another split feeding. For one of the feedings we're usually having Dad give a bottle of about 3oz expressed milk. Before the second feeding we move into a darker room, I usually play calm music, and we check diaper and reswaddle. Babe usually falls asleep after second feeding and we put him down. There is a loud fan for white noise in the room.

If he doesn't settle easy, I rock the bassinet, or pick him up and rock him in my arms and sing, or give him a top off of about 10 minutes on one breast. Usually works like a charm.

On the best nights he's sleeping from 11/11:30pm till 4am, otherwise 3/3:30 is pretty average. We do a twilight feed, 30min to an hour depending on his hunger. Then he'll sleep till 7am. (Mind you, sleeping stretches vary with baby weight and how long their little bodies can handle before eating again. Because my little guy came early and was tiny, it has taken him longer to get those nice long stretches of sleep).

I picked up this routine from the book, "The Contented Baby", by Gina Ford. We don't always follow the book's routine exactly (you must account for actual life!) but I've found it to be a great foundation to help structure the baby's (and mom and dad's) day.

Answer

I start my LOs bedtime routine around 7.30, on bath night she goes to daddy for cuddles whilst I full her bath up and get her pjs (on the radiator) and stuff ready, the ideal temp is around 36-37degrees (I did it at 39 and she skier longer)she plays a little first then o WA her with bedtime bath, take her out (screaming ensues) massage her with bedtime lotion warm pjs on and cuddles with mummy and I feed her, she's asleep by 8.30 I take her to bed at 9 and, with the Warmer bath, she sleeps til about 1.30am

I only bathe her twice a week so on not bath night I do everything the same minus bathing her and just start getting her ready 10-15 minutes later if I break routine I tend to have a bad night with her waking up more and being unsettled for longer

Answer

We are combo feeding and follow the eat-play-sleep routine during the day. It is working SO well for me as a new mom - I am learning his cues so much better!

At night, as long as it has been past 2.5ish hours since the last feed, we give a bath, feed from breast and then bottle from daddy around 8pm. Then we swaddle and read a book and "shush" him to sleep. He will be 6 weeks tomorrow and slept 6 hours straight last night!!! Highly recommend the bath and "five S'S."

Answer

Im not sure how it happened because we don't have a schedule or a routine at all... I exclusively breastfeed and I feed her on demand, and at this point ( 8 weeks ) I have no idea how many times or at what time I feed her! Lol... But yeah many many times a day! All I know is I feed her around 9-10pm change her diaper and rock her for around 20-30 min and she falls asleep, then sometimes she wakes to eat at around 4-6am and other days she sleeps until late in the morning, and stays awake all day! Only one nap a day! Yeah I'm a very lucky mommy!! The bad thing is since she is awake all day she wont let me do anything! Lol

Answer

Me and my hubby have dinner at 7:30 - 8:00 and shes just there sitting on her swing lol smiling at us then I changed her diaper and onesie I go to bed with her I turn off the lights and just leave the night lamp so that way she knows is time to sleep I only do that at night so that way she knows is the night time and it's time to sleep... before she would wake up every 2 hours to eat now she's 6 weeks and  can stay all night sleeping but I get up at 3 am give her a 3oz bottle idk if she's hungry but I do it anyways and then she sleeps till like 6:30 - 7:00

Answer

We get ready around 730-8 ish. Whatever room were in I make sure it's dark, then I feed him on one side, change him and get him in his swaddle. Then we feed on the other. After that we just hang out for a while till he wants to feed again before 9. Most nights were in bed right around 9 pm. Then he sleeps for 3-4.5 hours! He will be 7 weeks  Saturday. Nothing to fancy! Add a bath in there every few days. He does awesome about going to sleep on his own. About the only time he doesn't take his binki.

Answer

We are still establishing a solid routine. This is what we do pretty much every night. We start bedtime around 6:30-7 pm. If it's bath day I give my daughter her bath. Otherwise Daddy gets home around 6 pm  and he gets her in her pj's and spends  time with her while I cook dinner. She cluster feeds between 5pm and 8pm. At around 8:30-9 I do her last feeding and rock her to sleep.