Sunday, February 1, 2009

On the road to a routine

Grace is almost four weeks old and so far I've been winging it as far as bedtime goes. She's been going to bed when I feel like it -- so selfish on my part! It's been hard because sometimes she's ready to sleep when I am, but often she is not. She's sometimes wide awake!

Finally I can see that I need a bedtime routine to get her sleeping comfortably at a good time. It will be good for me, too, so I can get to know her signals better, and also so I can have a bit of free time. This is what I'm trying out now:

5:30pm - Keep Grace awake and active; give her a small feed if necessary

6:00pm - Bathtime (every other day)

6:30 - Feed

7:00 - Bedtime

after 7:00 - Sarah's time to eat/do other stuff

10:00 - diaper check/change; feed; Sarah's bedtime

Tonight is the first night for this routine. We didn't do too bad. She was sleeping by 7:10. She woke up crying once 15 minutes later and I went in and put my hand on her without talking or eye contact. She's sleeping now, so I hope this is working. I think it'll take a couple of weeks to get us both used to this, or else we'll have to alter it or try a different sort of routine.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think your attempt to form a routine is a good idea. Do what works best for the two of you but continue to have a routine. Eventually it will work out. In time of course :)

Keep up the good work, mom!
Gisela

Rebecca R said...

All the best!
PS. Let me know how you managed to do this cos we are still giong with the flow here LOL