routine for 16 week old

seth is now 17weeks and we still battle with sleeping during the day. he only sleeps for 30min at a time (time 4 naps per day) so it is quite stressful when you take 30min to put/rock baby to sleep and in 10-15min he is awake.

our night routine is settled, i bath him between 7-7h30 at night and then a feed.he will sleep untill 10pm,wake feed again ,then he sleeps untill 5h30am.

I also bought rice cereal but we still struggling with the bottle and formula milk the pead suggested that i wait on the cereal a bit cuz baby need milk more than solids now.
they will only need the iron from 6mnts.

everyday i try to do things the same time just to get the routine settled ,but i am going back to work next week so we will have to start from scratch again.

Got a bigger teat, now he drinks 120ml
Iv spaced his feeds 4 hourly (started yesterday) & it seems to b working, he's less grumpy & he does sleep better!!!
I was amazed yest morn when he slept for 2 hours, coz normally its 30 min (x4naps, so he was only getting 2 hrs sleep during the day) Last night he only woke up once, at 1:30 for a feed, was sooo happy. he also slept longer.
I noticed that in the morn he stays awake for one hour, then he wants to sleep, but I'll make sure that he dsnt stay awake for more than 90 min.
Wish I had the baby sence book....
Am still nervous bout solids. Bought him rice cereal last week, still hvnt given it to him. Will pluck up the courage before this month ends

This is perfectly normal behavouir for a baby that age - they have no idea how long it is betwwen feeds and quite frankly, they do not care. All thy care about is that they are hungry and want to eat now, or tired and want to sleep NOW.

I used to write everything down and you will be amazed at how much routine they actually have after monitoring for about 2 weeks.
But you need to start off with observing the sleeping patterns, once you get that sorted the rest kinda falls into place.

As mentioned earlier, a baby that age should not be awake for more than about 90 minutes, give or take 5 minutes or so.
So even if LO does not seem tired, start with your "winding down" process after 90 minutes awake, in the beginning this may entail you sitting rocking for about half an hour, but LO will soon get the idea.

And leave her to sleep, this is when they grow, if she is hungry, she will wake up. Okay there are various views on this, but I found (with both boys) that if I woke them for a feed, they would be seriously grumpy.

Brandon was a bit harder than Liam to get the whole sleep / food thing going, but he was my first child and I had no cooking clue what I was doing.

But with Liam, it was a breeze, once i had figured out his sleepy signals and worked with the Baby Sense "awake time" rules.

And yes, it does sound as if he is switching day and night - try to keep noise at normal levels during the day, don't close curtains, so he is aware that it is day time.
Then at night, try not to have TV blaring, close curtains, have a sleepy time routine (eg. bath, bottle, bed) to differentiate between day & night.

And as for the feeds, yes try a bigger teat - it may be taking too long for him to drink as the flow is not fast enough for him. That might also reduce his night time feeds, as he would be getting more during the day.

But really, as tedious as it may seem, write down when he does what, how much he drinks per feed etc, it really helps, cos you will be able to monitor exactly how much sleep & food he is getting in a 24 hour period.

That said, you need to remember that the only predictable thing about a baby is their unpredictability

My LB (will 18weeks on Monday)also does not have a routine. He sleeps whenever he likes. He is awake an average of 2 hours per time. At night he goes to bed between 8 to 10 pm, wakes up between 12 and 2, and wakes up again between 3 around 5.

He went down from 150ml to 100ml. I just changed teat from no1 to no 2, and he drinks close to 150ml again, at 4 hour intervals. But the 4 hour interval just started Monday this week, he was on 3 hourly, but decided to make it 4 so that he finishes the bottle.

I have tried the sleep routine, and I have not succeeded so far.

I tried giving him cereal last evening, I managed to get in only 2 teaspoons. Will try again tonight.

You are not alone.

Hi There

My baby is now 5 and half months old and still does not have his daytime sleeps at the same time everyday. It depends on what time he wakes up in the morning. Then his sleeps and feeds follow suite.

It sounds like your baby has his days and night mixed up as he should only be having 2 or maybe 3 night bottles at 4 months. Having said that what I suggest you do is start timing his feeds. My LO fed every 2 hrs until he was about 4 months and thereafter settled into feeds every 3 hrs. It was only when I started solids that his daytime feeds became 3-4 hourly and his night time feeds were dropped altogether once he was established on solids at about 4 and half months. You need to time between your babies feeds so if he wakes at 5am then he should have a bottle at 5am and then his next bottle should only be at 8am and so forth, If you start doing this then he should be getting sufficient bottles in the day and he will not need as many night time bottles. I would not feed him any less than every 2 hrs though. As for your baby drinking 90mls per bottle, my LO was the same up until 3 and half months and this was because I did not think about putting on the bigger size teat. Are you still using no 1 teats, if so you need to go to the shop and buy the teat that is correct for your baby. If you are using No: 1's then he is proberly sucking his little heart out and gets tired at 90 mls and looses interest and therefore needs to feed more often cause his feeds are not big enough. Mine was only drinking 120ml at 4 months and has only just increased to 150ml but all babies are different here. Just ensure your teat size is correct for his age and you will proberly be able to stretch longer between feeds.

As for sleeps it works the same as the feeds, you need to time his awake time and when that time is ending you need to be firm in putting him down for his sleep. A 4 month old should only be awake for 90 mins at a time according to Baby Sense book but here again all babies are different. Mine has had 2 hrs between his sleeps since he was about 12 weeks old. You need to see what works for you but I would not let me be awake for longer than 2 and a half hours at a time. How do you put your baby to sleep? What works for me is putting him in his pram and rocking him in his pram until he falls asleep, I then push the pram into a quiet room and he will usually sleep anywhere from 40 minutes to 3 hrs depending on how tired he is. You also need to be firm in putting him down at night. He should proberly be going down for the night at around 6-7pm. This may take some time and patience to establish so once you put him down at this time and he wakes then you need to treat it like night time. Have no eye contact, no bright lights, don't talk to him just pop his dummy back in and rock him back to sleep in the pram if this works for you. I usually put my baby in his cot for the night after I have rocked him in his pram and allowed him to fall into a deep sleep so I usually leave him for about an hour or so in the pram and then transfer him to his cot for the night. This works for me.

Good luck.

Ladies I am going MAD!!!!! He is unpredictable, literally on a daily basis I dont know what to xpect. Ima at my whits end, I need help.
He dsnt sleep the same time each night, dsnt wake up the same time each morn. Iv try to make him sleep the same time each night & wake him the same time each morn. This works for a while as he will stick to that routine but his nap times will differ!!!!
He never sleeps at the same times or for the same length of time. Last night he only slept 11pm!!!! He just wanted to play!!!!
i cant plan my days, Im completely at his mercy, Im frustrated.
A friend suggested I feed hiim every four hours. He only drinks 90ml, Iv never noted after how long he eats, I just give it to him when he is hungry/I think he's hungry.

Iv also noted that he drinks three bottles during the day & about 4/5 during the night (like when he wakes up to eat.
He eats more in the night than he does in the day. Is this normal???
Any tips????