Routine for newborns

futuremom2b

Help!  What is your routine for newborns?  My girls came early (delivered a week and half ago) and the exhaustion is already setting in.  So, what exactly is your routine with babies so young?  Do you always wake the 2nd one up when the 1st one cries to keep them on the same schedule? If so and you're alone, how do you feed, burp, change both of them?  Then do you put them down for their nap fairly quickly or what? And how do you and DH handle the night feedings?

Thanks everyone!

kiki408

Our girls are almost 3 weeks old and eat 2.5 ounces every 3-4 hours. 

When DH is here, we both take a baby. He feeds, burps, and changes his...I do the same with mine. This way, we get them both done quickly. This is typically the way it goes at night, unless either of us recognize that the other is super tired and, in that case, we try to let each other sleep through a night feeding here & there.

If I'm alone, I feed, burp and change the one who fusses first (or the one I wake first, depending if they wake on their own) and then do the other one right after. It takes much longer this way, but there's really nothing else I can do. I have not tried feeding them together while propped in their boppies, but I know that's another alternative.

LoveTravel

Congrats on your newborns!

 I know other MoM have a better established routine than I do/have, but I'll just tell you mine

 My mom was with me for the first week and a half- during the day I would nurse them every 3 or 4 hours (sometimes more often) I would nurse one at a time burp/change him and unto the second baby.  For us, it was improtatnt to have them on the same schedule.

 In the evening we did not wake them up, but once one baby was up I would nurse burp/change and put him to bed and then wake the second one and do the same routine. 

It happened that both babies would wake at the same time then I would feed the first one, it sucks that you can't attend to both at the same time so you do what you can- it did happen that after I was done with the first and was starting to nurse the second that the first would cry he'd usually stop mid-way thru feeding and by then end would be sleeping again and if not I would tend to him afterwards.

After my mom left I was on my own, it helped me ALOT to have them on the same schedule and for the fair amount of it, it went well as long as both babies were not crying at the same time, but it does happen so I try and just stay calm that way I find it easier to deal with it on my own, it can get overwhelming though, I do have sisters and my MIL and have called them up after they were done work since I needed a break from it all, sometimes a nice shower would help to get me back "on track"

 As far as night feeding, I'm nursing and DH works 10 hours a day so I would handle it by myself- he helps burp/change in the evenings and weekends

 Now that they're older and STTN I don't wake the other baby up to nurse him I usually wait, but I couldn't imagine not having them on the same schedule since I sometimes just go to sleep after feeding one and the other will wake up so...I don't think I could of managed not having them on the same scheduled when they were newborns...

Hopefully you'll be able to find a routine that fits for you and your DH GL!

 

Polofsky

my babies are 8 weeks old and this is what worked for us so far. Once the first baby woke to be fed, we always woke the 2nd one. If me and DH are together one of us does the diaper change while the other heats up the bottles (I pump) and then we feed them together. If I am alone, I change them both, heat bottles and then feed them while they are in their boppies...or I have been able to sit on the couch cross legged with one in my lap and the other propped up on pillows beside me and feed that way. I let them dictate naptime but once one goes down I work hard to get the other one down, I rock them, put them in my sling and walk around a while until they get drowsy or tummy time for some reason almost always knocks them out within 1/2 hour. Tummy time is the most reliable during the day to get them both to rest at the same time. As far as night feedings go, we do them all together, except for the 5am...I do that alone (Im on maternity leave) so DH can get some rest before going to work.  Hope this helps...