Starting a Routine...

RunningWife

Ok, so I've re-read the copy of Babywise that I purchased before DS was born, and am kind of wanting to start a routine with him (a loose one).

I'm not a Babywise advocate; there are things about it I like, and things about it I don't like...but right now I'm dealing with a baby who isn't that great a napper and is a snack feeder a lot of the time.

What I would like now is for him to wake up from a nap, eat an ENTIRE bottle, be awake for a while and then go back down for a nap...

He's basically 2 months old right now, so I'm not starting this from day 1, so I'm not really sure where to start. Do I hold off on a feed for a bit to make sure he's really hungry, then start a loose 3 hour feed schedule after that? I also know he may not respond to a routine at this point, so is there any point in this at all?

Any tips would be appreciated!

Tippy05

My son was the same way but at his one month visit his pedi suggested I put him on a loose 3 hour schedule.  Babies like to suck to soothe themselves so in between feedings we gave a pacifier.  LO quickly picked up the "schedule" within about a week. The trick for us was making sure he was able to get a full belly at each feeding (I EBF so I can't tell you how much he was eating but he was/is at the breast for about 15 minutes each side).  During the day it's pretty consistently 3 - 3 1/2 hours in between feedings.  The only exception is right before bed, I may give a couple of "back to back" feedings to make sure he's nice and full before bed.

Try it out and hopefully LO will take to it quickly.  Good luck!

boszeuleh

I'm in the same boat- also read Baby Whisperer and the E.A.S.Y. schedule. I was hesitant to put LO on a schedule just yet but definitely wanted to start somewhat of a routine. I started by just loosely following "sleep.eat.play." but didn't pay attention to specific times- just wanted him to get used to that order. We're doing a little bit better during the day but not so much at night- he's still up every 2-3 hours. Our times vary from day to day based on what time he wakes up each morning. I'm hoping he will start to consistently wake at the same time and then we can set a more permanent schedule instead of just the routine, but I'm sure it will continue like this until he is STTN and wakes at the same time every day.