Too early for routine?

I hear everyone talking about establishing a 'bed time' usually around 7pm. Our boys are 5.5wks. this is too early to worry about a routine other than what they are doing on their own, right?

We have just been following their cues. Feed about every 2-3 hrs...we try to have play/belly time in the morning and at night, but it's only for a few minutes (maybe 10). That's all they want, they usually just fall asleep after the other feeds.

Should we be trying for more of a routine? Or are they still too young? How did you know your babies were ready for a routine?

reb

 

I wouldn't worry about a routine at all at your babies' ages. I think, for my boys, the 7pmish bedtime started around 4-5 months of age. Up until that point, they just fell asleep for the night whenever they fell asleep. Then suddenly I noticed that I would put them down asleep after nursing them at 6:30 and they would sleep 6 or so hours and I realized that they actually had a "bedtime".

It sounds like you are doing everything just perfectly! I also had 35 weekers and sleep was the one area that I really noticed I had to pay attention to their adjusted age versus their actual age. It took them longer to stretch out their sleeping between feeds, their naps took longer to establish, etc.

 

I think its definitely possible to intriduce routine almost immediately fter birth. For example, you can work on getting a consistent 2 1/2-3 hr schedule for feeding, and attempt to intoduce a sleep-wake-nap routine during the day and a sleep-only routine at night. Sleep training is a useful tool, even at an early age... ps I'm doing it w/ Caleb since day 7, and I started w/my girls at 5 wks. I highly reccommend "Babywise" if you'd like to know more about scheduling baby... it is often criticized but worked wonders w/ my twins... they were STTN by 12 weeks and are well known as two of the most easy-to-get-to-sleep kids because of the routine and predictability of the babywise program strategies. It's a super easy read, too.

 

I would not worry about a routine yet. We started ours around 10-12 weeks and they just kind of fell into it. Right now you're in the survival mode, just keep doing what your doing. I found it was natural in the way that they started their routine. It will come...eventually!

To each their own, but I hated Baby Wise. I thought it was too strict of a routine and a little unrealistic. But I did follow part of it during the day, I did religiously feed them every 3 hours. I think that really helped them to start sleeping at night.

 

IMO they are too young for a bedtime routine. If YOU like to have a routine established and it helps you make it through the day then I would go ahead and start a bedtime routine. It's not going to hurt them. But if the routine is difficult for you to establish or adds any sort of stress to your day then I wouldn't worry about it, I don't think they are old enough for it to make a difference yet!

We only had a very minimal routine when the girls were 1 month old. We would put them down for the night after the 9 pm bottle. The only difference b/w the 9pm bottle and the others was that there was no playing after the 9pm bottle, it was just bottle and then down for sleep.

 

we always had a 3 hour feeding schedule (unless they were hungry earlier), but the bed time routine didn't stat until they were slleping through much of the night. For us, that was at about 8-10 weeks. They quickly started to sleep longer and longer, and by 12 or 13 weeks, were sleeping 12 hours. But we really had to follow their cues. We didn't do tummy time until 3.5-4 months.

 

QUOTE
We have just been following their cues.


Then you're doing a perfect job! The very best thing you can do for your babies is to feed them whenever they're hungry and let them sleep whenever they're tired.

Your days will get a lot more predictable as the babies get older. As their brains mature, predictable nap times will emerge, and you'll get more of a sense of their rhythms (sleep, hunger, etc). Don't sweat it! They will create their own perfect routine.

 

At that age I think our routine was just to stay consistent. We didn't make them go to bed at a particular time or anything.. Just kept things really strict about feeding time, nap time etc.....

 

We are feeding them by formula, and our baby nurse established a routine to feed both of them them together whenever one of them is hungry. Now it's every 3.5 hours during the day. We have their bottles ready ahead of time, and recognize their hunger cry and we change them IMMEDIATELY as soon as they start their hunger cry. Then we feed them IMMEDIATELY after we change them.

At night we dim the lights at around 8 PM. Their last feeding is anytime from 10-12 PM. During the night, we change and feed them when we hear their hunger cry, usually once a night around 4 am.

It's much harder to do a routine if you are breastfeeding.

 

QUOTE
It's much harder to do a routine if you are breastfeeding.


If by "routine" you mean "strict by-the-clock schedule with long intervals between feedings," then you're right. But there's really nothing hard about having a routine while breastfeeding. From the beginning, you can feed both babies whenever one shows signs of hunger (crying is a late sign, btw), and put them down to sleep at the same time. And as their brains mature, their own routine will emerge. For us, from about 4 mo adjusted or so, days were so predictable that it was almost boring. The difference was that I noticed & followed their routine as it emerged, instead of trying to impose a routine on a couple of newborns. (Even trying to do something basic like "eat-play-sleep" with newborns can be laughable sometimes - if they conk out after eating, as they so often do, good luck trying to get them to "play"! It's a lot of unnecessary pressure on the parent.)

 

I think you are doing a good job following their cues. At 5 weeks ours did not really have a bedtime routine, when they hit about 8 weeks we did the nighttime lotion, specific PJ's for nighttime, quiet voices, low lighting and quiet bedtime feed.

 

Wow! thanks everyone for your responses!!

Sounds like we are on track. They seem to be more alert around 9am and around 7pm(so we play with them then-with bath time around 4-when witching hour starts). We let them let us know when they are hungry (usually 2-3hrs-day and night). We also change them first and then feed, by then, they usually fall asleep.

I'm glad to kow that it seems to be going the way it should!

thanks again for your responses!!
reb

 

QUOTE(mama23boys @ Dec 25 2008, 04:43 AM) [snapback]1121798[/snapback]
I wouldn't worry about a routine at all at your babies' ages. I think, for my boys, the 7pmish bedtime started around 4-5 months of age. Up until that point, they just fell asleep for the night whenever they fell asleep. Then suddenly I noticed that I would put them down asleep after nursing them at 6:30 and they would sleep 6 or so hours and I realized that they actually had a "bedtime".

It sounds like you are doing everything just perfectly! I also had 35 weekers and sleep was the one area that I really noticed I had to pay attention to their adjusted age versus their actual age. It took them longer to stretch out their sleeping between feeds, their naps took longer to establish, etc.



Totally agree with both paragraphs :good: They are very young and their adjusted age plays alot into the sleep maturation process. Give it time...it will come!