Tuesday, 10 July 2012 9:07 a.m.
Congratulations on your baby :) Those first few months can be so stressful though. I worried about the same things as you, and I'm not sure what others think but the best thing I found was to stop listening to the "helpful people".
We stopped looking at the clock, and my anxiety lessened. If she was hungry then we fed her, if she was tired then we would try and settle her for a sleep. Going for a walk helped if she couldn't settle. If she was wide awake and happy then we kept her up. She has never been much of a day sleeper, even when she was very young, and I worried about it, but she has slept through the night from about 5 months. We would rock and cuddle her to sleep overnight after her feeds, and she does self-settle now. We found that if she had finished her bottle after a night feed and couldn't settle that she was often still hungry, and needed more. I figured that if she was on the breast alone she would drink as much as she needed, so why would the bottle be different.
We didn't actively try and establish a routine (it didn't really occur to us to try), she just sort of found her own pattern and we have gone with it, tweaking it a bit here and there as she got older. It could be a different story if you have an older child though, and everyone's circumstances and babies are different. Trust yourself, and go with what feels right for you and your family. Sorry for the novel, best of luck :)