The importance of routine
Routines can be a hot topic in the parenting world.
I feel like it is almost a spectrum when it comes to everyone’s style regarding routines.
You have your very structured type of parent, who watches the clock and counts the minutes – Loves and thrives off good routine and structure. Or the parents who find routines hard to live by, who tend to be very go-with-the-flow and enjoy the unpredictability of every day.
And then, most of us, just sit somewhere in the middle of these two.
But the things is, Our babies DO thrive of routine weather we are routine based people or not. Let me explain in more detail…
From 3-4 months of age, our babies are biologically wired to be CYLICAL, (to follow similar patterns/cycles around the clock). Their biological clocks are constantly syncing to the natural day and night cycle, and our babies’ hormones regulate toward those day and night cycles.
There is nothing we can do about that.
So, what this means is, there are times within your babies’ day where they may struggle to fall asleep because their body is signaling “AWAKE” with the alert hormone, cortisol. And at other times during the day, they may be experiencing bursts of their “SLEEP” hormone, Melatonin so that naps happen easily. This can often be your solution to lenghty settling.
When night is nearing, our babies’ bodies start producing more and more melatonin. The light (sunshine/UV) they have been exposed to during the day has given them “serotonin” which then gets converted into melatonin in the dark. And generally, cortisol starts making the decline as night nears.
From around midnight, melatonin starts decreasing and cortisol is on the rise gearing up ready to make your Babe alert come the morning.
Not only do routine support sleep hormones, but I also find that creating routines for our babies, a lot of the time, means we sync up their milk feeds a lot better too because food obviously impacts their biological clock and stimulates different hormones that will either help or hinder sleep during the night too…
When we can work along with our babies’ biological needs, this eliminates a lot of unsettledness. And when they naturally gravitate toward a cyclical nature, why not support that?
As you can see, there are so many benefits to being more routined with your baby’s sleep. And I feel as though I have only just brushed the surface, I would talk about this for hours.
But without boring you too much, Let’s get onto the specific stuff!!
You don’t have to follow routines RIGIDLY; you don’t have to count minutes.
You can follow these as roughly as you like BUT they WILL benefit your Babe, I promise.
Try out a routine, fairly consistently for a good couple of days before making slight alterations - if you need to increase or decrease awake windows etc, do so slowly so that you can see what works and what doesn’t.
Under 9 weeks old overview:
Your Babe’s biological clock doesn’t exist yet. This is why we often feel as though our babe has their day and night confused…
Keep on top of days feeds - don’t exceed 3-4 hours between feeds.
Allow short amounts of nappy free time and some chats during their awake windows during the day.
Sleeping no longer then 2 hours at a time during the day. This may cause more wakefulness at night and result in lost daytime calories.
Can demand feed overnight, unless been told otherwise by health professional.
All this will help encourage things to become more predictable when the development of their biological clock starts taking place.
Normal to see cluster feeding in the afternoon and/or evening which helps establish breastfeeding. Witching hours (periods of unsettled and wanting closeness) between 5-10pm is common here. Soak up snugs.
9-12 week routine might look like this:
7am awake and feed
8:30 nap #1
9:30 awake
10/10:30 feed
11am nap #2
11:45 awake
12:30 top up feed
1:30 nap #3
2:15 awake and feed
4pm nap #4
4:45 awake and feed
5:30 bath
5:45 feed and bedtime
May continue to cluster feed here
12-16 week olds over overview:
Biological clock is beginning to establish
A good time to start focusing on a routine
1.5-2 hour awake windows
12-16 week routine example:
7am awake and feed
8:30/8:45 nap #1
10:30 awake and feed
11am feed
12:15/12:30 nap #2
2pm awake and feed
4/4:30 nap #3
5pm awake and feed
5:30 bath
6pm feed and bed afterwards
3-4 hourly night feeds
4-6 month old routine overview:
Sleep cycles change and progress with the “4-month sleep regression” so sleep becomes more mature and the need for the catnapping to end increases.
Biological nap windows are well and truly happening.
The third nap needs to be decreasing promptly.
4 month routine example:
7am awake and feed
9/9:15 nap #1
10:30 awake and feed
12pm top up feed
12:30 nap #2
2pm awake
2:30 feed
4:30 nap #3
5pm awake and feed
5:30 bath
6pm feed and bed afterwards
3.5-4 hourly night feeds
5 month routine example:
7am awake and feed
9:15/9:30 awake and feed
10:30 awake and feed
12noon top up feed
12:30/12:45 nap #2
2:30 awake and feed
4:30 nap #3
4:45/5pm awake and feed
5:30 bath
6pm feed and bed afterwards
4 hourly night feeds
6 month old routine example:
7am awake and feed
9:30 nap #1
10:30 awake
11am feed and then solids tastes
12pm top up feed if needed
1pm nap #2
2:30 awake and feed
4:30 nap #3
4:45 awake
5pm feed
5:30 bath
6pm feed and bed afterwards
4 hourly night feeds
7-12 month routine over view:
The third nap drops around 6-8 months
7-8 month routine example:
7am awake and feed
9:30 nap #1
10/10:30 awake
11am feed and then solids
12:30/1pm nap #2
2:30 awake and feed
4:30 nap #3 (if needed, only 15 minutes)
5pm solids (if up to it)
5:30 bath
6:15 feed and bed afterwards
4+ hourly night feeds
9-12 month old routine example:
7am awake and feed
7:30 breakfast
9:30 nap #1
10/10:30 awake
11am lunch
12:30/1pm nap #2
2:30/3pm awake and milk
5pm dinner
5:30 bath
6:15 feed
6:30 bed
Toddler routine overview:
The morning nap drops around 16-18 months old
Usually see the need for the morning nap to slowly decrease before dropping it completely.
12-18 month old routine example:
7am awake and breakfast
8am feed
9:30 nap #1
10am awake
11/11:30 lunch
12:30 nap #2
2:30 awake
3pm feed or snack
5pm dinner
5:30 bath
6:30 feed and then bed afterwards
18 months to 2.5 years:
7am awake and breakfast
9am morning tea
11:30 lunch
12:30/1pm nap #1
2:30/3pm awake and afternoon tea
5pm dinner
6:30 small milk in cup/sippy
7pm bed
From 2.5 to 3yo:
Continue trimming down their one nap of the day. Or bring bedtime temporarily ealier while they adjust to no nap at all.
