Baby Routines

I’ve seen this post floating around so I thought i’d share the bedtime routine that we have for Millie and that she’s had for quite a while. I’ve read a few other Mum and Baby routines and they are all different depending on the family but I think that routine is so important! Not just for baby but for Mum and Dad too! When Millie was tiny (4-8 weeks old) we weren’t putting her to bed until 9:30pm/10pm but this was just knackering us as we’d be awake again at 1am/2am to feed her again! We knew that this had to change so we began talking to Lisa aka The Blissful Baby Expert. Lisa has been there for us whenever we’ve had a question, worry, problem with Millie and has helped us develop the routine that she’s in now! 

I never knew that babies could get over-tired. I never knew such a thing existed especially when all babies seem to do is eat and sleep but what we were doing with her routine was making her over-tired and we were struggling to get her to sleep! After many a battle and finding the right thing for us, we now have Millie in a good routine that works for both us and her. She also sleeps in her cot, in her own room now and has done since around 5 months old. 
- She wakes up around 7am and we get her out of bed at 7:30am unless she’s crying. She has a 8oz bottle and then some breakfast, either toast, a croissant, porridge or muesli and a bit of juice. I’ll get her dressed and then sit and play with her for half an hour.  - She goes down for a half an hour nap between 9 and 9:30am and I have to go and wake her after half an hour, although she has started to wake herself around the 25 minute mark knowing that it’s only a short nap. - She has some sort of snack around 10/10:30am either fruit, a breadstick or some vegetable crisps or rice cakes with some juice. - 11:45/12pm she has lunch which is a meat based dish with a yoghurt for pudding and of course, some juice.  - She’ll then go down for her long nap around 12/12:15pm until about 2/2:30pm and this happens everyday. I try to plan my day around this nap or else she’s absolutely vile. She’s like me and needs her sleep!  - She has a snack, normally a biscuit and some milk around 3:00pm which keeps her going until dinner. 

- Dinner is between 4pm/5pm depending how much she ate at lunchtime and this is a carb based dinner so pasta, risotto etc with a pudding or fruit or a bit of chocolate. - Bath time is between 6:15/6:30pm and we put In the Night Garden on for her to wind her down. Once this is finished the TV goes off and we give her a bottle. - 8oz Bottle is around 6:45/7pm and she usually falls asleep on this so we wind her, have a cuddle and then put her down to bed.  - We are still giving her a DF as the times we’ve tried to not give it her, she’s woke up screaming and it takes about 2 hours to get her back to sleep so around 9:30/10pm before we go to bed, we give her 2oz and just do it whilst she’s asleep with the lights dimmed. 
She’s sleeping through the night from around 9:30pm as that’s when we give her the DF but we really want to drop this so if you have any tips, please let us know! Although, I don’t know if I could deal with the crying to try and cut it out so for now, we don’t mind giving it her as I imagine she’ll grow out of it once she’s having enough food and milk during the day. 

Do you have your little one in a good routine? Do you just do it day by day? I’d love to know! Leave your routine links below and i’ll check them out!