Let's talk about routines

[Stringy]

Or lack there of. We have none now. The only thing predictable is after she's up in the morning for a while she takes a pretty significant nap vs the rest of the day when they are short.

I'm going to make an effort this week to nurse both sides in a feeding because I feel like we've been snacking and snoozing forever. So maybe if we have a full meal she will go longer between and maybe nap longer. Who knows.

Eventually I'd like to try to get into the eat play sleep cycle, and work on sleeping in a crib or flat space vs arms or bouncer or swing.

Anyone have things like this they are working towards or thinking about? I have low expectations of it all working :-)

[carolinaheart]

We have a slight routine that fell into place pretty naturally. We wake up 6-7 and read and play a bit, followed by a pretty long mid-morning nap. Lots of playing in the early afternoon with occasional short naps (or longer ones if she suckers me into snuggling instead of laundry) then lots of cluster feeding and intermittent fussing after 5 until bedtime around 10. She set this, not me. To be honest I'm not even sure how to go about setting a routine for her. Haha

I'm also thinking about starting to do naps in the crib so it won't be such a huge adjustment when we move her there at night. Unfortunately,she very rarely just puts herself to sleep without being held.

It makes me feel better to see STMs thinking about the same things though.

[sandandsea]

We are sleeping and eating on demand and probably will continue that for a while. He's still a few days shy of a month. I try to fit in some mat and tummy time every day.
Basically we wake up, cuddle in our bed with ds1 while DH gets ready to take ds1 to school. Then I shower while ds2 is in the napper hanging out. Then we go for tummy time, maybe run errands, clean the house, do laundry, have lunch, go on a walk, and then leave to pick up ds1 at 4:30. Throw in a bunch of feedings and naps and cuddles in there.

I'm not too worried about scheduling as once he goes to daycare and in back at work it will all change anyway. I find it easier to adapt to their schedule than force them to follow ours.

[manybellsdown]

Jul 18, 2016 10:25:40 GMT -5 Stringy said:

Or lack there of. We have none now. The only thing predictable is after she's up in the morning for a while she takes a pretty significant nap vs the rest of the day when they are short.

I'm going to make an effort this week to nurse both sides in a feeding because I feel like we've been snacking and snoozing forever. So maybe if we have a full meal she will go longer between and maybe nap longer. Who knows.

Eventually I'd like to try to get into the eat play sleep cycle, and work on sleeping in a crib or flat space vs arms or bouncer or swing.

Anyone have things like this they are working towards or thinking about? I have low expectations of it all working :-)

Hmm, yes, pretty much everything you just wrote. That is my life right now, and those are my goals. Twins.

But I'm intrigued by your thoughts on nursing both sides. We only do one, and I hadn't considered changing. But I like the idea that maybe it's a way out of the possible snacking and snoozing cycle?!

[athn64]

I thought we were getting into a routine and she changed it on me. Only thing that stays consistent is that the girls don't nap at the same time, which means no nap for me.

[bighair12]

I am also doing demand. When she goes to daycare they will set a schedule and we will stick with it at home. That's what we did with DD1 and it worked.

[Stringy]

Jul 18, 2016 10:41:03 GMT -5 manybellsdown said:

Jul 18, 2016 10:25:40 GMT -5 Stringy said:

Or lack there of. We have none now. The only thing predictable is after she's up in the morning for a while she takes a pretty significant nap vs the rest of the day when they are short.

I'm going to make an effort this week to nurse both sides in a feeding because I feel like we've been snacking and snoozing forever. So maybe if we have a full meal she will go longer between and maybe nap longer. Who knows.

Eventually I'd like to try to get into the eat play sleep cycle, and work on sleeping in a crib or flat space vs arms or bouncer or swing.

Anyone have things like this they are working towards or thinking about? I have low expectations of it all working :-)

Hmm, yes, pretty much everything you just wrote. That is my life right now, and those are my goals. Twins.

But I'm intrigued by your thoughts on nursing both sides. We only do one, and I hadn't considered changing. But I like the idea that maybe it's a way out of the possible snacking and snoozing cycle?!

It's not based on any science or book. Was just a thought. If it's possible to wake her!

[Stringy]

Just to clarify I'm also letting it be mostly on demand- but as a second kid she does have to confirm to some things already in place.

This may be the second kid but sleep was hell with the first so I'll do anything to make it better. Think car naps only. It was awful.

[csat]

I haven't really done anything in particular but we've fallen into a loose EASY routine which is often more like EAESY since it sometimes takes her so long to fall asleep, even though I know she is tired.

Her night time is usually from around 8:30pm to 7am, waking up anytime between 12:30-3:30am and if earlier again around 3:30-4:30am. She's ready for a morning nap by 9am and then depending on the success of that nap will nap 2-3 more times. At least one nap will be really short like 30 min. The day tends to start falling apart around 5pm, it's possible she could use another cat nap between 6-7pm but she rarely gets there and we do a lot of walking around and bouncing during that time. I also give her a bath most days around 7pm mainly to do something she will tolerate other than walking/bouncing.

I'd love for her to fall asleep more easily on her own but there isn't much we can do at the moment.

[chriskoo]

We don't have much of a routine just yet. DD is 3 weeks tomorrow, still feeding every 2-3 hours around the clock, although she wil go a bit longer at night.
One pattern that I have noticed is her cluster feeding/comfort nursing every late afternoon/early evening -- she pretty much wails unless she's on the boob. Hopefully this just corresponds to some sort of growth spurt and will pass.

[amiet79]

No routine for us really. He goes to bed around 7:30-8:30pm, gets up around 12 am, 3 am, on and off until we get up around 7-8 am. During the day he sleeps randomly and he has to be held for all of his naps, which is hard since I have 2 other kids to tend to.

Based on my other 2 kids, I'm not expecting any sort of routine until he's close to 3 months. DS1 starts Kindergarten in the fall, so I'm hoping we have some sort of routine around then.

[vivela]

I've made a general plan to try to put LO to bed on his own when he falls asleep the first time at night. But it isn't hard and fast, especially since his only really regular stretch seems to be from about 2am to 7am or so. So by the time he falls asleep then I'm ready for bed too.
He's not such a bad sleeper for his age so I am hoping we can just gradually transition him. I'll be curious to see how different methods work for different people on the board!

[woodengirl07]

My LO does not usually

[woodengirl07]

My LO usually goes to bed between 9-10 and is up for the day at 5:30-6:30. (With 1-2 wake ups)

[greysonsmom]

The only consistency is that she goes down for the night around midnight and wakes about nine with one to two wake ups.

[virginiaorjohn]

We have zero routine here. 17 days old and we are drinking through a fire hose as they say. I would like to institute some routines around the 1 month mark though.

[vivela]

Jul 18, 2016 22:27:23 GMT -5 virginiaorjohn said:

We have zero routine here. 17 days old and we are drinking through a fire hose as they say. I would like to institute some routines around the 1 month mark though.

Love this... Perfect way to describe it! 

[frecklesnbrains]

Routine? Hahaha, that's comical. 8 weeks here and we're still figuring things out day-by-day.

[titania]

Jul 19, 2016 2:38:18 GMT -5 frecklesnbrains said:

Routine? Hahaha, that's comical. 8 weeks here and we're still figuring things out day-by-day.

This makes me feel so much better! DD is 9.5 weeks and I keep feeling behind on developing a routine, but every day seems so different when it comes to when she sleeps especially afternoon and night.

Morning is a bit more predictable... In general she takes a nap about an hour after she wakes (6-7am ish) and then it seems that no matter what time she woke from that nap she is tired again at 10am, but from this point on she will only sleep for 30min increments if not being held. Sometimes she will take a paci and go back to sleep after waking up. After that 10am nap all bets are off as to when she will sleep and eat until she goes to bed with us at 10pm.

[Stringy]

Jul 19, 2016 10:06:05 GMT -5 titania said:

Jul 19, 2016 2:38:18 GMT -5 frecklesnbrains said:

Routine? Hahaha, that's comical. 8 weeks here and we're still figuring things out day-by-day.

This makes me feel so much better! DD is 9.5 weeks and I keep feeling behind on developing a routine, but every day seems so different when it comes to when she sleeps especially afternoon and night.

Morning is a bit more predictable... In general she takes a nap about an hour after she wakes (6-7am ish) and then it seems that no matter what time she woke from that nap she is tired again at 10am, but from this point on she will only sleep for 30min increments if not being held. Sometimes she will take a paci and go back to sleep after waking up. After that 10am nap all bets are off as to when she will sleep and eat until she goes to bed with us at 10pm.

Honestly this sounds the same as us. Just trying to figure out when and how to get in a rhythm.

[titania]

Stringy I have been reading things online that have really made me feel like a total schedule slacker. It is SO nice to know that others are just figuring it out too! I know eventually we will get there, so I think my solution is to just stop googling and relax a bit! Easier said then done!

[vlinder]

This thread makes me feel so much better!

[packerfan4life]

This LO definitely has more of a routine than DD1 which I'm not sure if it's more personality or the fact that she's the second. But I really am not setting any schedule and just go by what she wants to do. She tends to be awake in the morning and evening. She spends most awake time feeding and still is sleeping much of the day. I have to get her to bed (quiet and dark) by 10 or she'll get really fussy.

I'm really not worrying about any sort of schedule and will just see what happens when she starts daycare. Luckily for figuring out feeding routine when the boob is not available my H will be off the first week and a half I'm back to work so I should get some idea of what I need for bottles.

[Stringy]

I always forget that feeding counts as awake. Cuz for a while I was thinking the 10 min spend awake without eating is really not a lot. Has increased this week.

We are 5 weeks this week.

[Stringy]

So I downloaded an app called baby tracker. I had tried this in the beginning but stopped tracking feeds. Today I tracked eating sleeping and playing. The cool thing is it will line the days up to look for patterns. I can't help it. I like data.

[ArgyleEnigma]

I didn't even know we were supposed to have a routine. We're taking it as it comes and will continue with that unless it becomes problematic.

He does have patterns of his own, particularly at night, that are working for us.

[sandandsea]

Jul 19, 2016 15:43:28 GMT -5 Stringy said:

So I downloaded an app called baby tracker. I had tried this in the beginning but stopped tracking feeds. Today I tracked eating sleeping and playing. The cool thing is it will line the days up to look for patterns. I can't help it. I like data.

Yes. I use baby connect and love it. I've used it from day 1 this time. It's also fun to compare ds2 to what ds1 did at this time.

[happyday]

With this one being my second - her routine is wake up... Get dragged around on errands to keep big sister occupied. Eat every three hours. Sleep when I can in the car seat.

I have noticed her best naps are in the evenings when I can get her in my room (away from her sister) in the dark/quiet. She always wakes up around 6 and fusses and eats for a couple Hours when we are trying to put dd1 to bed. Sigh.

I've been swaddling and Putting her in the bassinet around 8pm and it seems to be going well. That generally means a wake up around midnight, 3 or 4am, and then up for the day around 7 or 8am.

[birdhut]

I really like this thread because it reminds me that it's still too soon for much of a routine. I like to see what others are doing too.
She usually wakes between 6 and 8 then eats and sleeps/eats on and off until 12-1:30 range when she'll knock out for like 3 hours. And then she likes to go to bed or take a nap around 6 and is usually down for the night besides feeds by 8 sometimes later if she's having gas trouble or something. We try to have a bedtime routine of bath every other night, pjs, book, song and eating/going to sleep. That's about as good as it gets right now