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Dear Daisy, It is your first day at school...

Bedtime military operation

I've been hearing about and reading a lot about routines this past week or so around bedtimes.The lovely Jenna from Tiny Footsteps has been posting about a trial she has been doing of making the environment quiet and serene and then implementing bath, little massage, bottle and bed and it seems to be going quite well. Her little girl is only a week or so older than Daisy so I thought maybe I should give it a try. 

Daisy has always been a good little sleeper, going from 10 until 1 and then until 7 ish but this past week or so it's been more like 10 (If she will go- sometimes I fight her until like midnight!) until 1 and then 4 and then 6.30 and then she will doze until around 8 if I'm lucky. Although you could say this is good for a relatively young baby I know she can go with just one wake up like she was doing for the first 5 weeks of her tiny life! But saying that I also know they have growth spurts and she definitely seems to be growing so if it doesn't work then so be it :) it's very early days for a routine, but on the other hand if it works then brilliant! And its perhaps a good start to make..

Day 1: Tuesday 
9.30-4.30 (7hrs) only managed two ounce of milk before bed as had fed her an hour or so before bath but the bottle knocked her out flat so no need for Frankie Frog. Woke at 4am feeling full full full waiting for her to wake- she woke up trumping at 4.30. One positive with being so full is she is so content during and after her feed! She gulps away like she has never been fed!
5.00-9.10!! Good going! 


All in all a pretty good first night I think. I just hope it wasn't just because she awake a lot today! 

Day 2: Wednesday 

9.10pm- 3.10am (6hrs) Giving her a bottle tonight was a bit of a fight, she wanted to mess about even though her eyes were so heavy and she wanted to drift off. Her new favourite thing to do is to fight the urge to sleep! She is not really used to a bottle as she is just breastfed usually, rather than expressed milk, She has slept a lot today so I did wonder how she would get on! So less of a lengthy stint as yesterday but when she woke for her feed it was as if she had never been fed so obviously needed to wake, I don't mind that :) 
3.30- 8.00 am



Day 3: Thursday 

9.00- 4.30am (7.5 hours) 

Well tonight the few hours leading up to bedtime was a struggle, so much so I has to leave the room, count to ten and go back in! She screamed and screamed for hours, really pained. Turns out she must have had some wind trapped as I found out when she burped in my face and then covered me in milky sick!!! Nice.  After that outburst though she fed again and dozed off. It had to be the most unsettled she has ever been so I didn't hold much hope for the night. But hey who would have known we would have the longest stint of the week so far, just shows what they're capable of!


I didn't manage a bedtime photo tonight as it really didn't cross my mind whilst wrestling wind but this was the afternoon when my little Joey wouldn't be put down!! 

4.45- 9.20am!!! 

All in all I think routine works for us! I'm sure we will have off days but they are tiny, helpless people after all and we all have days like that! 

My sister is a stickler for routine and it appears to work well with my niece and she is such a content little baby. If anything trying this out has given me some structure to an evening, although it feels a bit military preparing for it after tea at least I have the quality time with Daisy when bathing etc and I know she is going to bed clean, smelling beautiful, full and feeling safe and happy! I will keep going trying to implement it nad maybe the night feed will stretch out further with time. 

Lots of love,
Hayley xxx

4 comments

  1. Aw, I'm so glad the routine seems to be helping. Must admit, I quite like the military operation bit as I'm a bit of a control freak and it's probably the one time in the day that I feel a little bit in control of my destiny (even if I'm not) haha! xx

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    1. I seem to have a night owl tonight though that really doesn't fancy sleeping!!! Grrr! We can't have it all! Xx

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  2. Wow those are some lovely long stretches, long may it continue! :) xx

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