routine??
So I saw this post on the 0-6 mo board, and I'm confused.
DS is almost 2 months old adjusted...by no means is he on a schedule. I suppose our routine is to give him prilosec, put his PJ's on and change him, feed, burp, and put to bed.
But, how do you put babies this young on a schedule? I mean, DS eats when he's hungry - on demand. Even if he's slept a long time (day or night) and we think he needs to eat - if we wake him up, he will not eat because he's too tired. It has to be on his terms.
He does sleep well (like 5 hour stretches) but it would be nice if we could put him to bed every night at the same time. But sometimes his last feeding is at 9:30, other times it's 11:00, midtnight, or whenever he happens to get hungry.
Tips? thoughts?
Re: routine??
We just started a routine, but only because Reese fights sleep like its her job! We give her a bath, then bottle, and then read a couple of books. We always end with the same book, in hopes that she'll eventually know that after that book, she goes to bed. I rock her until she's drowsy and then put her to bed. We try to have her in bed by 8, but it doesn't always happen that way!
In all honesty, part of the routine is for my sake. I'm going back to work in a few weeks and I think it will be easier for all of us if we have somewhat of a routine.
We basically picked an evening feeding time (usually based on how long it had been since her last bottle) that would be "bed time". A little while before we thought she'd get hungry we'd give her a bath, massage with lotion, put her in her pjs and if she was hungry, we'd feed her and if not quite ready, we'd read her a book. She'd still get up for feedings, but we considered it bedtime b/c she'd get her bath and be in her pjs.
Eventually she started getting on a more regular schedule and bedtime became more consistent.
We always kind of followed the routine that was set in the NICU. When DS first came home he would eat every 3 hours. He would wake up to play a little before eating then eat and sleep. As he got a little older we kept the same routine, but every 4 hours instead of 3. When he was about 7 months old actual (about 3 months adjusted) he started going to bed at about 8 and sleeping until about 6:30 (on his own). That was when we really started more of a set routine. Wake up, play, bottle, play, morning nap, wake up, play, eat, play, eat, nap, play, eat, bedtime routine, bedtime.
As DS got older he just kind of set his own routine. I think it is more important to have things have things happen in the same order than at the same time.