How early can you introduce a routine?

[WhoahThereCrazyHorse]

I'm talking a loose bedtime schedule, nothing crazy! And if you're a believer in children going to bed at 7, would you make that bedtime right from the off, or work towards that later?

[GeraldineH]

We started from the very start and it has worked very well for us, we now have two preschoolers that sleep 7pm-7am every night.
We started when they were newborns, slowly nudging them into a feeding routine (breastfeeding) and we started straight away doing bath, cuddles, story and then bed at 6-7pm. Of course, when they were tiny they only went to bed for a little while and then it'd be time to feed again but it gave the day structure and means they have never known any different. As they got older the bath/cuddle/story was a cue for them to know it was bedtime. I think its the best thing we ever did, its allowed us to have decent nights sleep with them both in bed at a decent time so we can have some time together in the evening which I think is important.

[WhoahThereCrazyHorse]

Thanks Geraldine, I've started bath and bed at 6-7 for 7 week old ds so it's good to hear from someone who has succeeded in this. Just need to sort the larger issue of him refusing to settle in the middle of the night now!

[lola88]

I started at 7 weeks it's worked in the sense that DS goes to bed with no fuss at 7 every night in his cot but he still doesn't sleep through the night at 10mo.

[Jen547]

We have done bottle-bath-bed@8 for DD since day one when everyone said "she's too young there's no point 'forcing' routine on her", but now she's months and sleeps like a dream and naps at regular times in day. I'm SO glad we did it as she was in a routine without even knowing it so she now just does it without hassle!

[Jen547]

*3 months. Sorry for typo ☺

[naturalbaby]

I started trying from day 1 with ds3. Ds1 and ds2 I started a decent bedtime routine around 12 weeks.

[catwoman101]

We do a routine with our 8 week old of naked kick around, bath, feed, read and bed at 7. Sometimes she goes down beautifully and sometimes she still thinks it is day afterwards, but the key thing is not to expect it to work all the time, so you don't get stressed when it doesn't, and as long as you and the bubba enjoy the routine, all is good. good luck!

[bubbles1231]

we started the routine from day one too, just to keep ourselves sane- it gave our day structure

[StetsonsAreCool]

We started about 10 weeks-ish if I remember right.

We've had spells where she hasn't gone down as well, and other times where she's woken through the night, but it always comes back in the end. Although I'm not feeling too quick to take the credit - I think she just whatever the hell she likes like with everything else. At 2.6, she now often asks to go to bed around 7pm, and we have to wake her in the morning if we have any hope of getting out to work!

[TackyChristmastreedelivery]

Started with routine type stuff on day 1 with both. Ds1 cracked it by 7 weeks and then lost it at 2 yrs. Back again around 3.5 ish.

Still waiting for ds2 to show any urge to cooperate in any way at all. She's nearly 4.

She has won any battle we have ever fought. One.of the wild ones, my dd2

[kdiddy]

Started with wind-down, bath, feed, bed at about 6 or 7 weeks old. Had no expectations of it working at all then, but we wanted to give a little bit of structure to the end of the day and also it helped give us the illusion of control! Having said that it definitely helped in the end and DS has been generally very good at going to bed at bedtime (he's 10mo now, and has been fine at bedtime since about 4 or 5 mo?).

Obviously he still woke in the night for feeds etc., but part of our routine was not to bring him out of the bedroom once we'd put him to bed. So all feeds etc. were done in there and he only came out in the morning.

Still works well. Naps, on the other hand, are a bloody nightmare. But you didn't ask about them!