am i getting her into a bad routine?

[olivo]

my dd is 9 weeks old and is sleeping really well but i am wondering if we are getting her into a bad habit by her not sleeping in the evenings as everyone elses los seem to. at 6.30 ish she is bathed and then fed and she comes downstairs with us and lies, sucking her thumb, dozing etc, till about 9.30 wheni feed her again and put her to bed. she usually sleeps till about 3, feeds again and sleeps till about 7.30 am. in the day she has a short nap about 9.30, and sleeps again for about 3 hours around midday.

the evening routine suit us really well as we are finally able to have dinner together (and eat it hot!), sometimes i will have a bath etc, watch a tv prog, but am i being selfish here - should she be in bed at this time? i did try it a few weeks ago but she didnt settle and we spent several evenings going back and forward upstairs - at the moment it is more calm all round!

any advice would be great.

[hauntymandy]

if the routine suits you then its right!!! enjoy your baby. do what you think is right and what suits you and your family.
Parenthood is such fun and only stressful if you allow it to be.

[lulumama]

such a shame to get hung up on whether a routine is right or wrong....you have a newborn..it;s a wonderful time...learning about your baby and being a family is great....

if all is calm.....relax and enjoy....the problem with trying to fix a routine..your baby grows and changes so rapidly and their needs change ...and then you have to start over........!

listen to your baby's cues...and take it from there

sounds like you are pretty sorted..

[foxtrot]

IME as long as you are putting her to bed to go to sleep you should be fine (i had problems because i let DS1 fall asleep on me, and because he wasn't used to falling asleep in it he hated his bed until he was 3)

[Trinityrhino]

don't even begin to think that you have to chasnge what you are doing, i have done exactly the same with both my children and will do the same with the one I am expecting, at this agethey need to be with you. If it is working wekk for you then carry on, there is plenty of time to think later on about slightly changing her routine if you feel you need to
Enjoy

[olivo]

thank you for your reassurances. a few 'aquaintances' have been feeding my 'am i doing the right thing?' paranoia by seeming surprised that we dont put her in her bed - to be honest, we love watching her doze and she is good at putting herself to sleep when she does go to bed, so we'll stick with it. thanks again.

[jambot]

I suppose it depends on the individual family situation and what your own routine is, but personallly my DH and I really valued the time to ourselves in the evening. If you don't put your DD into a routine of going to sleep in her bed at a reasonable hour, I believe you're going to battle when she's older. Do you really want a toddler running around the house until 10pm at night, finally going to bed but being tired the next day? Know everyone is different, but our 19 month DD is in bed by 7 at the latest and DH and I have the whole evening to be together, do chores etc.
Know you're happy with this now, but think you should think long-term.

[tarantula]

As long as you are happy then there is no problem. 9 weeks is very young and you need to enjoy your baby. I honestly dont think there is a 'correct' time to put a baby to sleep unless they have to be up at a certain time in the morning.
we always had a similar routine and still do. Dd is 2.10 and goes to bed at 9 and wakes about 9 (tho at the moment its more like 8 and 8 as we are having problems with the hour change). she generally goes to bed without a fuss. Lots of people think thats late for a toddler to be up but it suits us and personally I really enjoy my evening time with dd which I think is very important.