We were surprised at how many people feel that putting a newborn into a routine was sheer cruelty. We were given a book by Bump’s Aunty Sue (The Contented Little Baby Book by Gina Ford), which gave us guidance on how, in a kindly way, a newborn baby could be guided into a routine that would encourage them to quickly learn the difference between night and day, and sleep from 7pm to 7am once weaned. It also stated that a baby should only be waking at night for feeds in the early weeks.

On the other hand, the NHS recommend that a baby should dictate its own sleep and feeding times, and will find its natural routine at around sixteen weeks – meaning many babies could be partying at night for four months! So we decided to try Gina Ford’s methods, if the baby was responsive.

The idea that trying to get a newborn into a routine is cruel seems to stem mostly from misunderstandings - either because of methods that were used in the past (eg. feeding only every 4 hours on the dot), or sometimes due to outright misrepresentation of Gina Ford's methods. The CLB routines do NOT advocate leaving a hungry baby to scream until it is a feed time! If a baby is hungry, it should be fed immediately. The purpose of the routine is NOT to make the baby wait until the correct time, but rather to ensure that it doesn't get hungry by feeding it appropriate quantities at appropriate times of day. The CLB book says that one of the problems with feeding on demand is that a baby does not always demand food when it needs it. According to Gina Ford none of the babies she has put into her routines has ever suffered from colic.

As for sleep, the routine suggests waking the baby at certain times during the day and providing stimulation, thus encouraging the majority of sleep to happen overnight. The routine acknowledges that different babies need different amounts of sleep, but gives a general guide to help ensure enough sleep is taken, as well as allowing for sufficient waking time during the day, and getting into a proper day/night rhythm as soon as possible. This was somewhat more difficult to implement than the feeding times, as Rachael seemed to need more sleep than the routine suggested, and sometimes she refused to co-operate. But we stuck as closely as we reasonably could to the routine.

Except when teething or ill, Rachael only ever woke us overnight for feeds. At eight weeks of age, she could sleep from 11pm to 7am, and by six months she was going the full twelve hours. On the odd occasion that she wakes us at 6.30am, we’re complaining! She never experienced colic, and rarely cried for more than a few minutes a day during the early months. Of course, many babies do sleep well at night even without a routine, but a recent survey revealed that many mothers of eighteen month olds only get five hours sleep a night. On the other hand, we get raised eyebrows when we tell people that Rachael sleeps for twelve hours.

Having said that, she has recently been waking several times during the night, but she does manage to get herself back to sleep within a minute or so without any intervention.