Quick and Easy Way to Establish a Baby Routine
What can you do to establish a baby routine that is quick and easy to acclimate to?
My advice for a new mom or expecting mom would be to ask why you want to establish a routine. Newborns are insanely difficult to ‘train’, but you can definitely get them used to a routine if you are doing activities in patterns (ex: milk, play, read, nap). Once your baby is a little older, establishing a routine comes quicker than before. They are able to recognize these patterns. You are also able to see how long they are able to stay awake before their nap time. Then you can schedule your routine around nap time. This becomes a little trickier when they start dropping naps. Sleep regressions can also make your mornings a little more difficult to predict. But moms, this will pass. Your baby might have a chaotic personality that changes daily, but as they grow older they are able to understand and follow routines.
- Establishing a routine takes time, dedication, and patience. Just like any other type of routine or schedule, you will have to put in the effort.
- Don’t overwhelm yourself. Be realistic.
- Start with a few actionable steps a day for your routine and keep adding on activities. Use what works and go with that and drop or adjust what doesn’t.
- If you want your baby to go to sleep earlier, you have to wake them up earlier or cut the naps down. Don’t wake them up hours earlier the next day to start your routine. Baby steps for your baby’s routine!
- If you’re dropping a nap, make sure they are getting enough activities throughout the day. You will eventually have to fill the void of time when they were sleeping with something else.
Why You Want a Routine
Everyone on social media will tell you to start training your baby to do this or do that. Sleep training, quiet time, daily routines, milk routines, and more types of routines! I think there is definitely some merit to why you would want a routine, but man, social media definitely takes parenting too seriously and tries to make a mom into a drill sergeant.
Benefits:
- Allows for stability in a baby/child’s life because they know ‘what comes next’
- There are some studies that show positive cognitive function linked with routines
- More emotional support if the routine allows for enough daily sleep
- The baby can learn to adjust and can gain independence from different activities led throughout the day
- Helps to develop relationships with their caretakers or anyone they are interacting with
Why a Baby Routine Isn’t for Everyone
Like mentioned before, social media might make you feel like you need a routine. Routines have so many benefits! But I want to let you new moms or expecting moms know that you don’t have to do every single type of ‘training’ or ‘routine’ for your newborn or baby. For example, my baby wouldn’t sleep well through the night between 0-4 months old. We stayed up until around 2 am when she decided she was ‘down’ for the night with maybe one or two wakeups. She would then wake up at 8-9 am. According to social media sleep training people – I WOULD BE A FAILURE.
Go with the flow, in my personal opinion. If I tried to make her follow a strict routine I would only disappoint myself when she didn’t follow through. This is a way to burn out with a newborn. Babies are easier to go with the flow since they tend to get into a routine easier and sometimes even on their own!
If you find that you are putting in a lot of time, effort, and mental energy into forcing a routine that isn’t working, I would readjust. Is this routine beneficial for your baby? Is this something you really need to get down now so when baby number 2 comes you have something established and something concrete?
There are so many different personalities in babies. They aren’t little aliens, they are people too. These little babies have huge personalities and they are always changing too. Treat them with that in mind. Just as you have preferences, babies do too (as crazy as that sounds).
Example of a Baby or Toddler Routine
If you want to compare this to my newborn’s sleep schedule and see how much my baby (now 14 months) has adjusted (to maybe give new moms hope if you have an exceptionally stubborn child), check out the post here.
My non perfect 14 month old schedule
7:30 am- 8:30 am: Wake up time. I change her diaper and put her in the living room where she can play with her toys or use screen time (YES THE HORROR) while I get a few things done.
Within 15 min of her waking: I used the bathroom, brush my teeth, and get her breakfast ready.
8 am -9 am: Finish breakfast and let her play. I also brush her teeth during this time. Diaper changes as needed throughout the day.
9:30 am: Snack time
10am-10:15 am: I give her 5-6 oz of milk. She plays with her toys.
11:30 am: Nap time (around 4 hours of awake time prior). Her nap time ranges from 1.5 hrs to 3 hrs since dropping down to one nap.
1:30 pm: Wake up from nap and give her food or milk. Whichever I give, I wait 30 min and then give her the other one. From now until bedtime she is able to play with her toys. We read books, we blow bubbles, we dance.
3 pm – 4pm: Give heavier snack.
5pm – 7pm: Wide range but we eat dinner at different times everyday which is NOT IDEAL for a routine. She gets put in her highchair and right now hates eating meats so her mealtime is usually shorter.
7:30 pm – 9 pm: Winding down with pajama change, brushing her teeth, and milk.
9:15 pm – 9:45 pm: Trying to get her in her crib. This has been a huge challenge for us. She usually falls asleep on us and we transfer her to her crib. We are trying to get a routine where she is in her crib in her own room by this time to allow her to self soothe. She has been crying a lot, so we go in and let her know we are around, but we do not take her out of her crib. She’s usually asleep for the night until she wakes up in the morning.