newborn schedule and routines

jeggomyeggo

FTM here. Though ive used my instincts for most everything so far, routine and schedules are mot something I grew up with and so I'm clueless in this dept. My LO is 9 weeks old. We baby wear, EBF, but don't bed share.

Here's what's happening: since last Thursday, She has not been napping during the day and wants to "pacify" by breastfeeding almost all day. When I ask others for help, they all recommend getting her on a schedule of sorts.

Q1: At what time or after what event should I be looking to "put her to bed" and start our bedtime routine? We don't currently have a bedtime routine, by the way. She loves bathtime, but I don't see that it really relaxes her. It makes her more alert with the cold drying off stage and definitely is not a great experience getting her dressed, so I usually do this in the morning rather than at night. That's more convenient too, bc we can bathe together. Any time I've tried to follow her cues and get her to go down for the night, it's turned in to a two hour ordeal that ends with her getting to stay up later.

Anyway, second Q: when do you run errands with a newborn? Should I respect her naps and keep her at home until she's awake? She typically naps most mornings until noon. It could be a great time to grocery shop, but I don't want to throw her off her schedule or interrupt her. She and I had appts Thurs and Fri and guests over on Saturday. Could this have caused the lack of daytime napping? She sleeps at night okay, usually waking every 3 to 4 hrs.

All ideas are welcomed. TIA

ncbelle

Sounds like maybe she's having a growth spurt - lots of nursing and not much napping.

I'm firmly in the "follow sleepy cues and that's when nap time is" camp.  At that age, my kids napped in while worn always anyway, so I just went where I h

jeggomyeggo

ncbelle:

Sounds like maybe she's having a growth spurt lots of nursing and not much napping.I'm firmly in the "follow sleepy cues

TiffanyBerry

Every kiddo is different.

While I fully believe in following sleepy cues, my daughter would hardly display any, and they were so subtle that it was (and still is!) incredibly easy to miss them.  Not to mention that by the time she showed sle

blu-eyedwife

For us, we started a bedtime routine around 4 weeks.  Obviously at that age it was more for us than him, but probably helped him get sleep cues as he got older.  It wasn't a schedule, there was no "Oh it's 6:30, time for bed!"  But when

sbartschke

DD started falling into her own routine after her 2 month growth spurt. The constant nursing is classic growth spurt behavior in our house. We put a space heater in our bathroom for bath time, and light a lavender candle. We have 2 sets of light, only