To routine or not to routine???

I'm very keen for routine myself. I just find that otherwise you're always guessing whereas with a routine you know what they need generally because they're in a pattern so when they cry you know "yep, he'll be tired" or "yes it's time for his feed" etc.

In terms of getting better rest. I found that when I gave DS a dreamfeed at 11pm-ish he would sleep through till 7am (took me a week for it to make any difference - he'd still wake up later in the night for about a week). I haven't weaned him from that dreamfeed yet because he's been sick and teething - when I do he should sleep 7pm to 7am.

My son still has two sleeps per day and they don't normally start dropping a nap till a bit later - maybe 1yo at the earliest? But every baby's different.

A routine might help - it helps me - but it also might be a big headache for you. Others might have some ideas for you!

I am pretty keen on routine aswell - makes life so much easier for you and bubs.

My DS is 6 1/2 months and if he wakes before 6, I tend to treat it as a night feed and keep the lights off and feed him in my bed. He usually falls asleep and will wake at his normal time which is between 6 and 7. It does make it difficult when he have somewhere to be in the morning though.

We tend to put him to sleep at around 7ish, but that could vary if he has a big afternoon sleep which he has been doing lately.

Sounds a bit like us. We don't have set times for things, we go with what she wants but we have a pattern, as I only feed her 1 side at a feed I get her up she has a play for about 30 mins then she has a grizzle so she has her feed and will be up for anywhere from 30-60mins after the feed then she has a sleep for about 1-1.5 hours and then we repeat. I usually change her nappy before I put her to bed.

I was feeding 2 sides but she was getting too much fore milk, although putting on great weight it was upsetting her tummy! So feeding 1 side also helped me break the feeding to sleep habit.

Our bedtime is the only thing that remains the same each night. Same time regardless. At about 6.15pm I will give her a bath and then she has a feed usually in the bath, sometimes she'll want some more after I dress her and she goes down for the night about 6.45/7pm.
She was waking about 3-4 times but recently cut it to 2 and then the following week 1 so she does 7-2 and then 2-6.30/7. Usually if she gets up before 7, like HM I treat it as a night time feed and she'll usually sleep until 8 and then we start the day.

With naps during the day we used to be down for 2 up for one but now she is up for about 1.5 hours and down for about the same.
Sometimes she has about 2-3 naps during the day, sometimes I can get a 4th one out of her but I have to get her down before 4pm or it's a no go! And she'll stay up until she goes to bed which sometimes means an over tired baby!

Thats why I am in 2 minds about it since babies can't tell the time and I don't want to necessarily set a routine thats for me rather than for him and if he is tired, then he needs sleep, if he is hungry, he needs feeding.
I just wondered if it might help to make things more consistent. I do generally do the same things in the same order each time he wakes. I suppose its more when he wakes earlier than normal like this morning when he woke up at 5.30am. I fed him like a would a night feed but he didnt want to go back to sleep so I got him up. By 7.30 he was ready for bed again and went back down for 1/2 hour.

I never had a routine as such but I did follow feed play sleep (actually still do). But when Jackson got to about 7 months old he started doing things around the same time each day (feed, naps etc), so I guess we do have a routine cos the same stuff happens around the same time daily and we've just stuck with that cos it works.

In saying that, Im not strict to the clock, mainly cos I also like a degree of flexibility as much as I like structure.

The only real strict routine I have is bed time and things do happen to the clock so bed time is by 7.30pm. Sometimes he's asleep and in bed by 7pm when we are super organised.

i like having a bit of a routine but i think people misunderstand and think that a routine is up at 7, feed at 7.15 etc etc. that can be a guide but life is rarely like that and it is more like the pattern your days follow. by 8 months you probably have a pattern going on. Saying that you have some influence, you can stretch them a bit or put them down before reeeally tired to try and change things if needed. i had to do this for ds1 as otherwise he'd be asleep all day.

5.30 wakings can be a bit of a phase. Maybe he'll get through it in his own time, i too would treat it as a night feed or quiet time in cot. too darn early!

Do you mean he is dropping to one sleep a day some days? that is pretty young to be down to one (but possible too!)   

He has dropped down from 3 naps to 2 naps most days. Even though he seems tired when it gets to about 4pm, he still won't go to sleep so I am seeing if I can stretch him out a bit for his second nap so then he is waking up nearer 4pm and can last through quite well until bedtime.

Hopefully the 5.30am was just once off, although his waking has gotten earlier and earlier. I've always thought that 6.30/7am is an okay time to start the day. I will see how he goes over he next fews day and maybe tinker around abit with sleep times by stretching them out by half and hour or so.

I do wonder if I introduce a dreamfeed if that might mess things up or not, all a guessing game really. I don't mind getting up to him once a night to feed as he always goes back to sleep after that and at the mo I think he is still waking up due to hunger and not a habit (yet) as he feeds from both sides. He is a solid wee boy, over 10kgs so there is no worry about weight gain but if he is hungry there is nothing I can do about it.

Thanks for all the replies, its always interesting to hear what others are doing and good to get advice.

I don't do a clock-based routine in terms of wanting my baby to feed or sleep at certain times of the day and then "getting them back" to those times by holding them out for 15mins or something from feeding etc. It's more activity based and the time will start from whatever time he wakes up. I very rarely wake him and if I do, it's only the afternoon one I wake him from so he won't end up having to go to bed late.

My routine is based on Plunket's feed play sleep routine too. Started off with 3hrly feeds, moved to 4hrly feeds when baby was starting to refuse the 3hrly feeds (so let him decide) and now feed him after solids plus the dreamfeed I mentioned.

I give him solids after every nap, let him play and keep him up until I know he'll be tired (you get to know it by their tired signs and if they are a struggle to put down - might need to be up more - my baby is up usually for 3hrs to play but currently 2-3hrs because he's sick). Then I will give him a story, breastfeed, song, tuck in and white noise while he goes to sleep with dummy in and holding a little blankey.

Because he usually wakes around 7am-8am, he usually has a nap between 10-11am and then sleeps again between 3 and 5pm. I don't let him sleep longer than 5pm and so I try to get him down for that 3pm nap or 3:30pm at least. And I have a bedtime routine following dinner at around 5/5:30pm then bed at 7pm.

But if he woke up at 9am because he was waking up at night due to teething etc. I just go with the flow - sometimes he has one long nap and one very short nap or just one long nap during the day but I always get him back on time in the afternoon - just adjust things to figure out what I'll do. Or if he refuses his afternoon sleep, I'll put him to bed early, eg. 6pm. So it's quite flexible. Personally, if you stick to the clock too much I think you do make life hard for yourself.

That's the first time I've heard that dreamfeed's introduced later can interrupt sleep - might be true but maybe worth investigating?

Thats the kind of routine I'm thinking of Nathansmummy. I'm definetly not keen on clock watching as someone said before babies can't read clocks. So we pretty much do an activity based routine at the moment. And when I think about it, he often has naps around the same time each day.

My problem this weeks has been nightwaking. I havn't started doing a dreamfeed although he has been waking at around 11.30/12am for a feed anyway, no matter how much he has had for dinner and then again at 3.30/4am for another feed. I have tried settling him without feeding but it doesn't work. I don't use a dummy. I am not sure what is going on with him at the moment. He hasn't woken for a feed twice a night since he was really little and I keep thinking "can he really be hungry again?". I don't think its teeth as there are no signs of teething.

Yeah I was thinking that this morning about it been a growth spurt. He has been eating quite a bit more over the past few days as well.