Routine is best for my baby (Your Baby and Sleep in general)

Member Name: xjenniex2008

Product:	Your Baby and Sleep in general
Date:	20/11/08 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Full nights sleep

Disadvantages: None

I believe a routine will help a baby sleep more, I don't believe it should be strict and set to certain times. If you follow the same pattern each evening your baby will soon catch on that its bedtime, and therefore time to sleep.

Our daughter was born on the 30th December, we brought her home the same day and the next night was when we started with her pattern. We bathed her, fed her, wrapped her up and put her in her moses basket. This went on for weeks. By 6 weeks she was sleeping through the night from around 11pm-8am having a bottle and then sleeping in bed with me for a couple more hours and we also introduced baby massage. By 12 weeks old she was sleeping 7-7 in her own bedroom. Don't get me wrong, she had terrible colic and we would have 7 hours of screaming every evening before she eventually went to sleep and there was even nights of no sleep at all.

She is 10 months old now, and is still in a routine. We recently went on holiday to Florida, we got there at 9pm our time which was 4pm their time, I kept her up until 8pm their time before putting her to bed and she was straight into a routine sleeping thorugh the night and in her own bedroom in a strange house. This made me so happy, I was dreading how she would be. It didn't even bother her if we stayed out at a theme park until late or we went out for dinner until late she either stayed up with us or slept in her pram - so for those who think routines restrict your life and you have to live your life by your baby's routine you're mistaken. We did have a nightmare on our return but within a week she was back to her normal bedtimes.

Getting Alice into a routine is the best thing we have done, you just need to listen to your baby and understand why they are getting upset. If their bedtime is usually 8pm but they are grumpy at 7pm - put them to bed you may be suprised. The first time I put our daughter to bed early I expected her being up in the night and was amazed the next morning when she had slept for 12 hours. Now she goes to bed at 6.30pm and doesn't usually wake up until after 8.30am.

I will definately be doing a routine with my next baby

Summary: Definately reccomended