Routine for breastfed baby at 11 weeks
- Thread starter LdeJ
- Start date
barbwong_130
Registered User
I looked at Gina Ford?s routines but the main reason that I didn?t use them is that they don?t work for me. My husband rarely comes home before 7:30 to 8:00 pm so there is no way I wanted my baby to sleep as early as Miss Ford recommended. Also I like to go out and have lunch with my friends. I didn?t want my baby to have to sleep in its cot at home every day. So I let the baby sleep in the pushchair wherever we happened to be.
Routines sound great until you are forced to keep them. I would take all routines with a pinch of salt. You want to have some idea of what your baby will do but not be ruled by a timetable that may not be what you want in the long term as babies are constantly changing.
Best wishes,
Barb
Routines sound great until you are forced to keep them. I would take all routines with a pinch of salt. You want to have some idea of what your baby will do but not be ruled by a timetable that may not be what you want in the long term as babies are constantly changing.
Best wishes,
Barb
rani
Administrator
LdeJ,
Have a read through this article on Baby Routines
http://www.geobaby.com/articles/baby/baby-routines/
Have a read through this article on Baby Routines
http://www.geobaby.com/articles/baby/baby-routines/
I am using Gina Ford's routines, however I totally agree with the above posters that it will depend on both the baby and the mother/ primary carer if it will suit you or not, I can well imagine that it might not work well for everyone.
I fully intended to demand feed, at least for the first 3 months, but we were given the book by a friend who uses it and started using the routines at 2 1/2 weeks old for the following reasons:
1. Our baby was very 'sleepy' to start off with. We were having to wake him up anyway while demand feeding to feed as he was sleeping longer than the 4 hours during the day and 6 hours during the night, that is reccommened as the maximum for new borns.
2. He was continuously sleeping except for the times we woke him, as mentioned above, for most of the day / night, but then having all of his awake time in one stretch, up to 8 hours at a time, even with regular feeds during that time, and as you can imagine howling that whole time, which was exhausting us all.
The benefits of using the routine for us is that he has developed very good sleep associations. He will self settle in his cot for naps and evening sleeps and only wakes up once overnight for a feed. At 6 weeks, he is already looking like getting close to dropping that overnight feed.
It has trained him to spread his sleep out properly, so that he is not fretting for long periods at a time as he was before.
For myself, I am very structured usually in my working / personal life, running to a strict schedule of meetings etc, so a routine is actually a relief for me.
For example I know with certainty now that he will definitely be asleep between the hours of 11:30 am and 2 pm, so I can plan my day to run errands or make appointments to get a hair cut etc, during that time while he is asleep at home.
With regards to outings during the day WITH him, I just relax the schedule to do that. When we are at home, we stick fairly strictly to it, so that he establishes the routine, but he is fine if we vary it a bit on the days we are out. I don't ever let his routine restrict mine at all.
So say for the scenario of going out to lunch with friends mentioned above, I'll just take him with me asleep in his pram to lunch and if I'm still out for his feeding time, do that while I'm out as well. In my case I am breast feeding, so I find it really easy to just feed him where ever I am.
Actually, again, in a way I find the routine EASIER to manage outings with him, as both he and I know what and when to expect. With demand feeding you do still need to handle your baby feeding and sleeping while you are out, so I don't see that it is more inconvenient.
As I mentioned above, I am only outlining why it works for us, I am not trying to advocate that it is the best way to do things. Give it a go if you think it might suit you, but keep in mind, especially with an older baby, I imagine, that it will take a week or so to establish, the routine does not just magically 'click' into place.
Good luck.
I fully intended to demand feed, at least for the first 3 months, but we were given the book by a friend who uses it and started using the routines at 2 1/2 weeks old for the following reasons:
1. Our baby was very 'sleepy' to start off with. We were having to wake him up anyway while demand feeding to feed as he was sleeping longer than the 4 hours during the day and 6 hours during the night, that is reccommened as the maximum for new borns.
2. He was continuously sleeping except for the times we woke him, as mentioned above, for most of the day / night, but then having all of his awake time in one stretch, up to 8 hours at a time, even with regular feeds during that time, and as you can imagine howling that whole time, which was exhausting us all.
The benefits of using the routine for us is that he has developed very good sleep associations. He will self settle in his cot for naps and evening sleeps and only wakes up once overnight for a feed. At 6 weeks, he is already looking like getting close to dropping that overnight feed.
It has trained him to spread his sleep out properly, so that he is not fretting for long periods at a time as he was before.
For myself, I am very structured usually in my working / personal life, running to a strict schedule of meetings etc, so a routine is actually a relief for me.
For example I know with certainty now that he will definitely be asleep between the hours of 11:30 am and 2 pm, so I can plan my day to run errands or make appointments to get a hair cut etc, during that time while he is asleep at home.
With regards to outings during the day WITH him, I just relax the schedule to do that. When we are at home, we stick fairly strictly to it, so that he establishes the routine, but he is fine if we vary it a bit on the days we are out. I don't ever let his routine restrict mine at all.
So say for the scenario of going out to lunch with friends mentioned above, I'll just take him with me asleep in his pram to lunch and if I'm still out for his feeding time, do that while I'm out as well. In my case I am breast feeding, so I find it really easy to just feed him where ever I am.
Actually, again, in a way I find the routine EASIER to manage outings with him, as both he and I know what and when to expect. With demand feeding you do still need to handle your baby feeding and sleeping while you are out, so I don't see that it is more inconvenient.
As I mentioned above, I am only outlining why it works for us, I am not trying to advocate that it is the best way to do things. Give it a go if you think it might suit you, but keep in mind, especially with an older baby, I imagine, that it will take a week or so to establish, the routine does not just magically 'click' into place.
Good luck.
Oh, I meant to mention how we handle Daddy bonding time. We have worked that into the routine too.
My husband typically gets home from work around 8 / 9 pm, so even with demand feeding, would be too late to spend time doing 'play' activities with our son, or even see him before he fell asleep.
What we do is Daddy looks after him between 7 am {when bubs wakes up} and 8:30am when Daddy goes to work. At that time of the day our son is really active, so it is a much better time for him than the end of the day, for them to 'play'. He also has a bath or shower together with our baby then {instead of in the evening which Gina has} so they have skin on skin contact and lots of cuddles.
In the evening my husband will wake him up for the 10pm feed and takes care of nappy changes, burping and putting to bed cuddling then.
My husband typically gets home from work around 8 / 9 pm, so even with demand feeding, would be too late to spend time doing 'play' activities with our son, or even see him before he fell asleep.
What we do is Daddy looks after him between 7 am {when bubs wakes up} and 8:30am when Daddy goes to work. At that time of the day our son is really active, so it is a much better time for him than the end of the day, for them to 'play'. He also has a bath or shower together with our baby then {instead of in the evening which Gina has} so they have skin on skin contact and lots of cuddles.
In the evening my husband will wake him up for the 10pm feed and takes care of nappy changes, burping and putting to bed cuddling then.
I just bought Gina Ford's book too. My bub is at 8 weeks. Since baby has already developed a certain 'routine' himself over all these weeks, I'd like to know how I should adapt to the new one step by step. The problem I come across is whether I should wake him up and how I can put him to bed at the recommended times. And I have difficulty understanding the terms 'full feed' and 'half feed' etc. as when I breastfeed I really cannot control how much I'm offering to the bub, and whether he's willing to take 'half feed' when he's genuinely hungry and asks for more. Any advice please?
Like gidget, my hubby works till late at night too, so there's no way bub can go to bed that early as Gina Ford recommends. I myself find it difficult to wake up at 7am. I wonder if I can still work out the routine if I push forward her recommended times by 2 hours...
Like gidget, my hubby works till late at night too, so there's no way bub can go to bed that early as Gina Ford recommends. I myself find it difficult to wake up at 7am. I wonder if I can still work out the routine if I push forward her recommended times by 2 hours...
At about 3 months, I put my baby on GF's routines...loosely. She was a cranky baby from the start and refused to sleep, so the structured naps/bedtimes worked for us.
I was, and still am, breastfeeding and just ignored everything GF said about feeds and fed on demand.
The only way to know if it works for you or not is to try it.
I was, and still am, breastfeeding and just ignored everything GF said about feeds and fed on demand.
The only way to know if it works for you or not is to try it.