Routines are really good for babies but actually babies don’t have the ability to get into a routine until ‘round about eight weeks of life so if you’re thinking about routines before that, just go with the flow and feed your baby when your baby needs feeding.
When your baby’s ‘round about eight weeks of age your baby will start feeding less frequently, will have more wake times and will also have more regular naps. This is a chance for you to start making routines so you can organise your day.
Babies really don’t know the difference between day and night and you need to teach them this difference. So in the day make the environment really bright, do lots of things, lots of singing, going out, lots of stimulation.
Then when the evening comes just calm it down a bit so actually reduce that stimulation, make things quieter, make the environment darker. If you can every night do the same thing. So give your baby a short bath, then a feed in their bedroom and then pop them into their cot – not when they’re asleep but actually just when they’re drowsy because babies need to learn to settle themselves to sleep and without being allowed to do this they will keep waking up wanting you.
A really good tip to keep your baby nice and calm and quiet if they’ve woken up in the night is actually to keep them the same environment – so don’t feel you need to take the baby downstairs where it’s all stimulating again. Keep them in that room and they will learn to go back to sleep.
If you can see your baby getting into some routines what would be really useful is actually to write these down so you can check what times your baby’s having a nap, what time your baby’s due a feed and this can be really useful actually reinforcing those routines for you.
About video: Health visitor Penny Lazell explains how to get your baby into a routine. http://www.nhs.uk/video/Pages/how-can-i-get-my-baby-into-a-routine.aspx
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