Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Routine

Before Katie was born we were given a really good book as a present. It suggests putting a baby in a routine as early as possible to keep parents and baby happy. We think this is a great idea, but we know some other parents disagree.

For us it has worked. Katie is a really happy, contented baby. Of course she has her moments when it all seems to go out the window, but on the whole she is great.

So what does it involve? Well since we brought Katie home from hospital she has gone to bed at 7pm. Between 7pm and 7am we keep the room dark and we try really hard not to talk to her or give her too many cuddles. Even when we change her nappy and feed her, it is all done quietly. We both find this difficult but Dad more than Mum. We often end up telling each other off for breaking the rules! How strict are we! No push-overs in this house!

Through the day - Katie is on a 3-hourly routine. So every 3 hours we wake her, change her, feed her, play with her and then it's time to see if she'll sleep. It's a set order for a reason (comfortable for feeds, doesn't associate feeding with sleeping etc) and it seems to work.

She sleeps really well at night - regularly from 11pm until 4.30am. We're trying to stretch this to 5am at the moment- we're getting there.

2 Comments:

Blogger Ryan said...

Info like this is pure gold to us expecting parents. Keep it coming! We're looking at keeping to a similar kind of routine, as some of our books recommend, but occasionally we'll read or be told that parents should always respond with cuddles, feeding, soothing, etc when a baby cries at night. It doesn't help when two different books or magazines give two different views and both claim that their's is the 'definitive' view! I'd much rather people said 'this worked for us' or at least backed their "views" up with stats! It's great to hear of your real-life successes and suggestions, because that's worth more than a stack of books!
Love to you guys,

8:16 PM  
Blogger Will said...

Very glad to help - We'll probably talk about our theory on cuddles soon too!

8:21 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home