Share your Routine hints, tips and tricks

I follow the 'awake' times found in the Baby Sense & Sleep Sense books. (for B's age its 2 hours) As a newborn I stuck to the awake times religiously till I figured out what her queues were for a nap.

Possibly the most important thing with a newborn is to establish a clear difference between day and night. We started from day 1 and never had a problem with B mixing up the two. Tips for this: Days should be light, nights dark. Keep lights at night to a minimum. Noise during the day (tv, radio, dryer) quiet and calm in the evening. Have a bedtime routine that's predictable. During night feeds keep interaction to a minimum, no playing, chatting or bright lights. When baby gets up in the morning (at a decent hour!) greet him/her, chat and play a bit.

All babies go through growth spurts and during the early weeks I would suggest feeding on demand whether breast or bottle. Personally I wouldn't start sleep training before 6 months.

We started off by establishing a solid bedtime routine. It starts anywhere from 18:30 - 17:30 depending on when B had her last nap. It starts with a bath, feed while singing a song or telling a story, we then put her in bed with her dummy and a burp cloth and leave the room. It takes anywhere from 0 - 30min for her to fall asleep. As a baby she only slept swaddled and on her side.

Here's our days: it differs depending on how long she naps

07:00 wake up(she isn't allowed to get up and out of bed before 06:30 at the earliest)
Somewhere between 7 & 8 she would have a few sips of milk
08:00 breakfast
09:00 nap (she naps anywhere between 45min - 2 hours)
Play from 9 - 11
11:00 bottle feed & nap
12:00 lunch & play
13:00 nap
Play from whenever she wakes up - 15:00
15:00 bottle feed & nap
Play from 17:00 till bath starting at 18:30, then feed and
In bed no later than 19:30
Then somewhere between 12:00 - 3:00 she wants a bottle and sleeps till 7

Being a new mom is a daunting thing (to say the least!)

Lets share the routine that worked for us from those early newborn days for new mommies and the not so new mommies who find naps and bedtime a struggle.

If you can pinpoint specific times, please add that too.