Routine for my LO?

Question

How important is it to have a routine for your LO? My LO is 8 months and I realised that these days she wakes up whenever, refuses to nap, and sleeps late. Perhaps it’s the sleep regression. However, I am wondering is it because we didn’t put a fixed schedule for her and we follow her cue. I read if LO is sleeping let them be, they will wake up when they are ready. But I feel like when my LO sleeps late, she wakes up late and it affects her nap time which eventually led to her being overtired. I also worry when she starts school she have a hard time because she is not used to having a schedule. I now thought maybe I should have some sort of schedule for her to follow so that she knows within a time frame this and that will happen etc. like wake up by 8am etc. Now we have a schedule but it is very flexible following her cue. But the routine is same everyday. 12pm eat just the wake up and sleep time and nap time that varies way too much. It lack total consistency. Very lost on what to do…

Dawn · Answer

having a routine is impt but honestly didnt establish one

Anonymous · Answer

My lo doesn’t have any routine before she started school (because I sleep at 7/8am myself 😓). She sleeps at 12/1am (regardless naps or no naps, sometimes she stays awake till 4am doing nothing 😑) till next day 2-3pm and this routine continued all the way till 2.5yo. Surprisingly the day she started school, although she slept late, she was able to wake up at 7am then from then, she sleeps at 8-9pm till next morning (first few days confirm will cry during morning cause haven’t get used to it yet). Of course, I’m not encouraging you to not have a routine, it is still better to set a routine for them to get used to it first before they enter school (and of course it’s better for young kids to sleep early). If you wanna set a routine, I feel you can try the timetable method but follow the timings strictly especially for naps. Cause our LO’s sleep timings all haywire, you have to let them get used to the routine first. If you wanna follow the school timing way: wake lo up at 7/7:30am regardless what time they slept last night, then let her have their nap at 12-2pm, keep her awake till 6-7pm then put her to bed. Let her get used to sleeping and waking early then slowly twerk the timings. My lo now wakes up at 8am on weekends 🫠.