What's your babies bedtime routine and in what order / time?

[ILikeYourSleeves]

Hi, I am just curious to see what others do in the run up to putting their baby to bed at night. My 9.5 month DS is starting to get a bit unsettled when I'm putting him to bed and I wonder if I'm giving him his dinner too close to bedtime? I am used to settling him with a breastfeed just before bed but he's often not that interested in it (perhaps as he's not hungry enough?) so therefore doesn't settle and ends up wailing after being in bed for 5 mins. He only just got his first teeth and I did try to brush them after his last feed but that TOTALLY wakes him up so I am doing this before his last feed now.

So our routine is roughly:

5pm- dinner
530pm- play
6pm- run bath and brush teeth while waiting for bath to fill plus naked kick about
610pm- bath
620pm- massage and bedclothes
630pm- milk feed

What you all do re your routine? And when do you clean the teeth and when do you give the last milk feed? Should I give the milk feed before bath etc?

Thanks

[MuffinMclay]

2.3 yo and 6 mo here. My routine tries to accommodate both.

5pm food for ds2
5.30 dinner for ds1 (ds2 munches on breadstick and watches)
6pm gather stuff, bath ds1 (and ds2 if he has pooed that day)
6.30 feed ds2 (ds1 potters around and looks at books)
6.40 stories for ds1 (ds2 sits on my knee and watches)
7pm (latest) both put in bed, stairgate closed, I walk away.....

[geordieminx]

Mt ds is a bit older than yours - 15 months but he has had pretty much the same routine as yours since about 6 months.

We tend to have dinner a bit earlier - say 4/4.30 ish? I only have 1 ds so this is easy for us, obviously with 2+ it gets more complicated.

Dinner at 4.30 means he is ready for milk at 6.30 and always in bed by 7. We have play time from 5 til 6 as thats when Daddy gets home

[Seona1973]

I had to stop giving dd a night-time bath at that age as it wound her up too much before bed. They dont actually need a daily bath and my dd and ds only have a couple a week unless they get really dirty. They have dinner at 5pm, pj's on around 6.30/6.45 - ds usually has a lidded cup of milk around that time too, upstairs for teeth, stories, etc and ds (22 months) is in bed for 7.15pm (ish) and dd (4.9years) gets a bit extra time and we leave her room at 7.40pm.

[mumblecrumble]

5.30 - tea
6.00ish - some chilled out playin
7.00 - watch balamory and cuddle
7.30 - change and loook at books together
7.45 ish night feed
8.30 usually asleep

dd is 11mths

[carmenelectra]

Sleeves, my routine is quite similar to yours.

My ds2 is almost 11 mths.
530pm -dinner
615pm bathand crawl around(or these days trying to walk around!)
645- nappy and pyjamas on and read books
700- milk
730 ISH - BED

As for the teeth, he has 2 at the minute and two coming through at the top. I tend to do his teeth just one a day at the moment cos he just grabs the tothbrush off me and grips it like a vice! I usually do them after breakfast, but i do occasionally do them while the bath is running.

Wouldnt give the milk feed before the bath as he would probably fall asleep

[NumptyMum]

Oh my word, we never get DS to bed this early!! However perhaps it might be worth us trying. I'm back at work p/t now, so dinner at 5 would not be possible, so our routine more like this:

5.45/6.00 food
6.30 DH & I eat our food, DS plays
7.00 bath or massage (not exactly relaxing as trying to pin DS down, he's now walking...)
7.30 bf
(if DS has been to nursery, he feeds to sleep as only having 1 nap a day, otherwise if he's had 2 naps routine continues...)
7.45 stories with DH
8.00 into bed, DH pins him down/fends off tears with cuddly toy antics until DS gives up and goes to sleep... (DH is the sleep master in our house, I'm rubbish at getting DH to sleep).

[NumptyMum]

Forgot to add, DS almost 12mo.

[diddle]

Right here we go.
I have 2 Ds's ds1 2yrs ds2 10 months
DS2 is also teething, so not every night goes to plan, like today he was so tired at 6 he went to bed early.
Bath every other day.

5.30 - Teatime for both boys
6.00 - bathtime every other day, both bathed together, if not bathing then playtime and tidying up at end.
6.30 - calm down time, both boys have milk and we watch "me too"
7.00 - bed for both

ds2's gums are so sore at the moment that i haven't started brushing them yet. he's got two little bottom teeth and 4 coming at the top.

[diddle]

the one thing that made a differenc to my 10 month old settling is not bringing up enough wind before bedtime, so once i lie him down he screams.

[cafebistro]

My Dc's are 3 and 6 months.

5.00 DS teatime
5.45-6.15 Bathtime. Not every night though...maybe every other night. I bathe DD first and then get her dried and dressed while DS plays in the bath.
6.30 DS milk
6.45 DD breastfeed
7.00 Both in bed

[barnsleybelle]

We don't have any play a such after tea as i find it stimulates her.

Routine for 11 month old

5.15pm tea
5.45pm quiet cuddle and story books on couch
6.00pm Run and take bath with ds.
6.10pm Into dimly lit bedroom, lullaby tape on. dried, creamed, baby gro and sleeping bag on
6.20pm Bottle feed, takes around 4-5oz
6.30pm Bed. Sometimes babbles a bit for 10-15 mins, but doesn't cry.

I find if she sleeps less at daytime nap i have to bring bedtime forward to around 6pm, otherwise she cries. So far, an earlier bedtime doesn't equate early rising..

[emma1977]

Routine for 8 month old

7.00pm Tea
7.30pm Gentle playtime with daddy
8.15pm Bath
8.40pm Milk, story and teeth
9.00pm Bed (usually straight asleep)

[pudding25]

3mth old

5.30 feed
5.50/6 bath
6/6.15 story
6.15 feed
bed by 7pm

Well, this is what we have been doing for a while now but in the past week, she has been kicking up a fuss over everything - fun...

[Jewelsandgems]

DD2 is 7months, but we have DD1 who is 2.5:

1700 solid food whilst we eat our dinner with DD1
1730 gentle play with daddy while I load dishwasher (dd1 'helps')
1800 upstairs to our room, dim lighting and milk feed (I pop DD1 in bath and chat to her)
1815 bath every night with DD1
1825 creme, nappy on, babygrow (I get DD1 ready for bed)
1830 books with me, daddy, DD1
1850 lay in cot with door open (I put DD1 to bed at this time)
1900 close door.

Dreamfeed at 2200
She wakes in the morning around 0600.

I am amazed that so many of you put your little ones to bed so late! For me 7pm is my finish work time! And I am ready for a glass of wine and re-lax!

[soph28]

I have 3- ds (3yo), dd1 (2yo), dd2 (3mth)

5pm (ish) Tea time for ds and dd1

5.30pm Give DD2 a quick dunk in bath if she needs it, then top up bath and get DS and DD1 into it and get DD2 into sleepsuit and nappy while other 2 are in the bath.

6pm DS and DD1 run around naked, doing gymnastics and pretending to be horses

6.15pm I give DD2 a feed

6.30pm Put DD2 in bed then get other 2 into PJs etc. Have CBeebies on.

6.45pm Give DD1 a bottle of milk and cuddle

6.55pm Take DS and DD1 into their room for a bedtime story and into bed.

7.05pm Go and put DD2's dummy back in if she is crying

7.15pm Go and tell DS and DD1 off for playing/making too much noise etc. They are usually asleep by 8pm if not before.

[LANDGIRL71]

Soph28 - my house sounds pretty much like yours except with a 3 yr old and 6 month old!! Thank god I'm not the only one who has to keep putting the dummy back in

[elmoandella]

5pm dinner
6.30pm bath
7pm milk
7.30pm dd bed. 1 yo
9pm ds bed 2 yo (late to bed as doing night time nappy free and gotta wait till his milk makes him pee.normal bed time 8pm)

dd has had same routine since she was born. ds has always gone to bed a bit later so he doesn't get up too early.

[LaVieEnRose]

I can't believe you can all just put your babies down awake and they just drift off to sleep! We have to walk ds around for about 10-15 minutes until he's asleep then put him down. And he's 9 1/2 months so getting bloody heavy!

[elmoandella]

lavie, that was me with ds.

learned the hard way for dd arrival.

[LaVieEnRose]

He sleeps well(ish) once he's asleep. We're going to have to bite the bullet and do the pick up/put down thing

[yomellamoHelly]

Have 4 1/2 year old and 20 month old.

5.30 pm- tea
5.45-6 pm - bath (brush teeth while in bath) - ds2 goes in first and comes out first
6.15-6.30 pm - out of bath and pjs
6.30 pm - milk for ds2 and 'special time' for ds1
6.50 - 7 pm- bed for ds2 and storytime for ds1 (and milk in bed)
7.10 - 7.15pm - say goodnight to them both (they share)

If I'm running late they get less time in the bath.

[MatNanPlus]

LVER whay about walking till DS is quiet;/sleepy eyed then into cot, if he gets upset the you pick him up, walk with him and when he is calm and sleepy eyed again pop into the cot, repeat as many times as is needed but it will be less times in a week - he will eventually have to fall asleep in the cot due to being tired but he must go into the cot awake albeit with sleepy eyes?

or

rather than walking him, sit on a chair or the bed and rock then when he is calm and sleepy eyed pop him into the cot and pat until his eyes close, then after a few nights pop him into bed and pat till eyes closing then pop into cot and sit quietly then move away then you get to the pop into cot and leave the room.

But whatever you decide to do you need to be consistant, he will make some complaints as he doesn't understand why the 'normal' way has been changed / is no more, but, he will get into the new way as long as it stays constant.

[Ambi]

5-6pm dinner
8.30pm bath
8.45pm bottle
9.00pm bed, sleeps til 7-8

I will be bringing it forward a bit now I'm starting back at work.

[emma1977]

I quite like putting ds to bed later, as he sleeps 9pm to 8.30am. I'm really not a morning person (and I also go to bed quite late), so that suits me fine. However, it will have to be brought forward a bit when I go back to work if I stand a chance of starting before 11am!

[ummadam]

7m old DS has been in the same routine since 3months. when we did a week of PU/PD for cot refusal. In his own room since 6months.

5.30pm tea (solids, usually starchy food like potato or pasta with cheese and has the meat/fish at lunchtime)

6.00pm playtime with mummy - usually quite boisterous to wear him out!

6.30pm cuddles and the last half hour of cbeebies bedtime (yes I know, no tv under 3 etc etc but this is the only time he sees the tv on and we use it as a bedtime cue and wind down)

7pm on mummy's hip and talk through putting the toys away, close the curtains in the bedroom getting pyjamas ready, running bath. Usually gets very excited at this.

7.10pm Daddy home, does quick cuddle and bath then dry, grobag, lights low. bedtime story with daddy in his room. 6oz EBM while mobile plays

7.30pm into cot, mobile switched to lights not music. kiss goodnight, main light off. Turns over onto his left side, puts blanket over his face and falls asleep - stays that way until 6am unless he is ill (when he turns into chucky and howls in my arms all night)

In reality I would like to put him down maybe half an hour earlier but that extra half hour means he gets to see his dad before bed and will be easier to keep the same routine when I go back to work as he will be at nursery until 6.30pm 3 days a week