Bedtime Routine Advice for Babies

[84Stephy]

What are all your recommendations for getting a Baby prepared for bedtime/routine to sleep?

[TooMinty]

Depends on the age of the baby!

[splendide]

We didn't have any routine until about 6 months. Then it was pretty normal I think - bath, pyjamas, story, milk, bed.

[LuchiMangsho]

With both boys we have had a 'routine' from early on. At some point after 6 pm depending when the last feed was (so after a 30-45 mins break), we did a massage in a dim room, a warm bath, bring back to dark
room, a nice big feed with a story and down for the night. And all subsequent feeds till the morning in the same dark room. We never took the babies downstairs. This is incredibly boring and it means one parent is stuck upstairs but both learned day from night very quickly and it's been worth it in the long run.

[LuchiMangsho]

With very small babies it is important to do the same thing every day, including the little details. It's more comforting for them if they know what to expect.

[84Stephy]

Our baby is 9wks on Sunday and the reason I ask was my mums was round tonight and she thought we were turning our living room very dark into night too early. From about 3/4wks we have been closing curtains, dimming down lights, turning down TV from about 7ish onwards, normally between 7-8pm. He normally has a bath between. 7/7.30ish then into our living room for a bit of chill time then a bottle. We live in a flat so don't need to go downstairs but do all our night feeds in the dark living room, even with a changing station set up too. I was advised by some friends to establish nighttime early but just making sure other people also do this, we are not the only ones. I'm sure it works. He seems to sleep much longer through the nights X

[LuchiMangsho]

Yes doing the right thing. It's fine. It's a bit PFB but my older one is 5 and I can tell you good bedtime habits are like gold dust.

[riddles26]

We had a routine of massage-bath-feed-bed from 2 weeks old. After the bath, all feeds were in the dark but we used the bedroom instead of taking her downstairs. When she was young (under 3 months), we didn't have a set time for this, would just do late evening (always after 9pm) when she was ready to go down for the night. I would go to sleep with her at that time.

As she got older, we established a bedtime and it moved to the 7pm mark after she was 5 months.

[GrumpetLikesCrumpets]

when do you eat? My DC is 8 weeks old and I'm struggling to get a set routine

[FATEdestiny]

When do you want to eat GrumpetLikesCrumpets?

We eat at 5.30pm as a family, because that's when DH gets home from work.

[TooMinty]

I don't think you have started too early with making it dark/quiet at night. I thought you were going to say you had a strict bedtime for a newborn with a bath/song/massage/story every night! Sounds like you have a better idea of what you are doing than I did this early on with my first...

[LuchiMangsho]

With a baby? Once the baby is down, around 7ish, I pop downstairs and either microwave my food and bring it up (I reckon 5-7 mins alone in a room is fine) or DH comes and sits up with DS2 while I eat and tidy up, then DH goes down to eat and does the same. For a few months we forego the family meal. I have a big age gap so I know that with DS1 who is 5 that the time for family meals will come.