6 weeks old - bedtime routine?

[maldivemoment]

Hi all

Just after some general advice. Our 6 week old baby is finding nightime difficult, with regards to settling down for the night and I think it may be because he is over tired. I know every baby is different but generally how much sleep should a 6 week old be getting during the day? Also, is it too early to get him into a routine in the evenings i.e bathtime, dim lights, etc? He is still waking every 2/3 hours during the night for a feed (breastfeeding) - I'm assuming this is normal?
Finally, when would you settle him down for the night, after his 7/8 o'clock feed or wait until the next one to put him into his moses basket?

As always, all advice appreciated! Many thanks

Our DD (now 12 weeks) has had a bedtime routine since about 5 weeks when we had real difficulty settling her at night. She has her last feed around 7pm (on demand, but usually this time - in fact, I think she hears the 7pm pips on the radio, she's so accurate!). Then she has a play/ chat for half an hour or so. Once she starts yawning and thumb sucking, we take her upstairs for wash/ bath and pyjamas. She has a little 'story', a play with 'bedtime bear' then grobag. DH then swaddles her (light blanket) and takes her into our bedroom. He turns off the lights and shushes in her ear while rocking. Before she falls asleep, but once calm, she goes into her moses basket. We have the monitor on but rarely have to go in again - we did for the first week or so though, if she cried we went straight back in and started again. Usually it was because she'd got her elbows out of the blanket and couldn't find her thumb. We swaddle her with her hands by her face.

DD has lots of sleep during the day. She usually plays after a feed, but when I see her yawning, or if she starts to whimper, I swaddle her and put her in her bouncy chair. Again, hands are always by her face. This is usually 4 sleeps a day (one long morning one and 3 short - 45 min/ hour ones).

I think all this works because she's a thumb sucker. We're very thankful!!

Good luck.

We started about that age and settled DD in her cot at around 7pm after a feed, bath and then last feed in her room with the lights dimmed. It works really well because now she knows it's bath-feed-bed and if she's fractious or overtired in the evening we just bring the evening routine forward half an hour and she goes to bed nicely (now 14 weeks).

I think at that age we started doing a wind down routine from 6pm with his older brother.
That consisted of a bath, then into sleepsuit etc. I would then give him a BF and keep tanking him up til he was ready to sleep. I think at that age it was anything from 8.30pm to 10pm. When ready to sleep I would put him down where he would be for the night (so in our room in a crib) with lights out etc. Would then get a couple of hours before he needed feeding again in the night.
Gradually the time he went down in the evening got earlier and he slept longer.
Now at 8 1/2 months he goes down about 6.45pm/7 ish and generally only gets up once iabout 4am ish.

Also at that age both my boys had about 1 1/2 hour to 2 hour wake cycles. So they would sleep then only be up for that long before needing a nap. They would then do longer during the night ( about 4 hourly)