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 🫠.
Hi! I'm a fan of routines bc it makes things more predictable for baby (and eventually us), and baby will go through different phases of fighting sleep etc so they don't always know their bodies best yet and might not show early cues. Then by the time catch the sleepy cues might be a bit late and baby might be overtired But I am also not super strict like force baby to wake up at same exact time everyday. I have about a 30 mins range between 730-8am where I'll gently start to rouse baby like touch / stroke / pat him and he will wake up. From there I follow roughly same wake window everyday and over time, he now naturally wakes up between 730-8am (without me waking him) and sleeps between 8.30-9.30pm. Also at the start for his first nap timing, if I find that he looks very tired, I'll just follow the lower end of wake window. E.g. for 7 months it's between 2-3hours, if he is very tired then first nap is 2 hours after he wake up. His naps range between 45 mins to 1.5 hours, so everyday there is just a bit of variation but nothing too drastic. I didn't sleep train and baby falls asleep and can transfer within 10 mins usually!
having a routine is impt but honestly didnt establish one