Babies, routines and rituals

Babies and children thrive on routines. It gives a sense of predictability and safety. You can implement a daily routine with your baby from one month old. I recommend repeating a cycle of activities from morning to evening : sleep, change diaper, feed, awake time, sleep and repeat. Delay the feed by 5-10 min (Note : for a full-term, healthy baby) so that your baby does not associate waking up and needing to immediately eat - that will come in handy at night time.

Before bedtime, you can implement a ritual from 2 months of age : choose 2 activities that you will be doing every time before putting your baby to bed. It should be a winding down, quality time activity. Fore example : massage, song, reading a story, saying good night to a teddy bear. The ritual should be different for nap and bedtime, and it should last max 10 min.

I also recommend having a morning ritual which will indicate to baby that the day is starting and that this wake is not a night wake, after which they would be expected to go back to sleep. For example : say hi to your baby in a cheery voice, take your baby to the window for some natural light exposure, change their diaper and get them dressed. Delay the feeding by 10 min at least (Note : for a full-term, healthy baby) and then get going with your daily routine.