Help - bath/bedtime routine hell

[lchats]

We are have got ourselves into a rut & just don't know how to break the cycle.

Our Ds is 3 months and in most ways is the ideal baby, but every night as soon as her bath is over she screams the house down - almost like she's in pain, thus will continue intel her feed just before bed, we've tried:

• feeding her half her feed before her bath do she's not hungry
• warming the towels, bathroom etc so she's not cold after the bath
• changing the time of her bath so shes not so tired

I fear she has got herself into s pattern where the end of the bath triggers her crying, but I dont know how to stop it : (

It's become a really traumatic event - any advice?

Sorry for all the typos on phone and couldn't review message

does she need a bath every night? I used to bath in the morning or at a time when the kids werent overtired - I didnt bath every day either.

There is 'evening crying' which disappears eventually.
She might be knackered after her bath and it being the end of a busy day and just wants to go to sleep. Is she having a nap around 4.15pm or so to keep her going?
Here's our programme which is basically Gina Ford's bath and bed: DD2 of 4months has 2oz of formula at 5.20, bath at 5.45 and 5oz formula at 6.15 . I have her in her cot at about 6.45pm. My times are long drawn-out as I'm also putting our 18mo to bed around the same time. If you're only dealing with one baby, the bath would be at 6pm and that first half of feed at 5.30 if you're aiming for a 7pm sleep time
It WILL get better as she gets older!

What are her sleep patterns like? Could she be over tired? My DD (5 months) used to scream her face off in the evenings until I realised she was over tired - she now has an afternoon nap from 2-5 and then needs to be in bed by 7 at the latest. She has her bath immediately after her 5 o'clock feed.

I'm with you Craving, DS is 2.10 our bedtime routine starts with his tea at 4:30 - ridiculous but necessary!

If it's traumatic then I would drop the bath - why do it if it isn't helping?

Our DD - 4mo - has a habit of doing this after a bath and, like you, I've mucked around with split feeds, warm towels etc. It doesn't make a huge amount of difference. At the moment we are still going with it as it is part of the routine that tells her it is bedtime (bath at 7.15 or 7.30, bedtime straight after) and I would like to keep that going.

I agree with craving, does she have the late afternoon nap to take the edge off? DD has one at around 6 just for 15 mins which does help.

Also, I'm starting to suspect that DD knows that the bath means a bottle and bedtime - she just can't quite understand that there is this nasty 10 min gap between getting out of the nice warm bath and getting into her nice warm bed, 10 mins where she gets manhandled into clothing and has her hair dried, IYSWIM?

my ds went through a phase of this - I think he just didn't like the water for a while. What we did was put him in it without water but a few toys for a while until he stopped associating it with something he didn't like. When we got one of those bath seats for him once he was old enough to sit up properly with support, he absolutely loved it.

He went through a phase a little later on of hating it again but now splashes about like an otter and refuses to get out!

My DD cries at the end her bath too. I think it's because she likes being naked and likes the bath and doesn't like her bath ending and having to get dressed. One thing that has helped a bit is distracting her by blowing raspberries on her tummy, her cheeks etc. until she's laughing rather than crying - might not help if you're trying to wind your LO down for bed!

Thanks all, she def loves the bath no issues there. We've tried bathing her at dif times with no real difference. She's never been a great napper, so it is possible that she's over tired. We'll try either bathing her earlier tomorrow or seeing if she'll nap a bit later/longer. Its very odd its like something is triggered off in her brain, wee can distract her but as soon as we start dressing her again the crying continues :(

god, I could have written this. DD is 10 weeks, and in the last few days as started screaming for anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour and a half in the evenings. She loves bathtime, so I thought that was winding her up too much, so we've dropped the evening one in favour of a morning one so she can play. Doesn't seem to have made any difference. We do seem to be struggling with her napping- she was previousy having an hour in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, but it all seems to have gone tits up in the last few days. And how the feck to you get a baby to nap when they don't want to...??

I'd drop the bath (only needs one once a week at this point) and go straight to the feed. It sounds to me as though the bath relaxes her but then she suddenly realises she's starving hungry as soon as she's out.

snowgirl, we find that distraction can work as well, if we catch her before the bottom lip starts wobbling too much!

lchats, I do find that I have to really force the late afternoon 15 min nap. Its either furious jiggling in my arms, or the better part of a 45 min walk, just to get that short nap, and she fights it like a little demon BUT without it the evening is unbearable.

And as for babies that don't nap, joan, oh, god, don't get me started... its a nightnare! DD is an inveterate catnapper and so the only way we can get her to have any decent sleep at all is to sleep either in the pushchair or in our arms. Which could be worse (I'm watching a LOT of telly and reading a LOT of books!) but is starting to get annoying after 4 months... The answer is definitely: you don't!