bedtime routines for babies

[mustardtomango]

I'm just thinking about this for our tiny baby, don't think we need it yet but it's such a nice idea think we'll start soon. Can anyone share what they do? My thoughts are...

Change nappy
Change into night time onesie
Move into dimly lit bedroom
Feed with no noise /quiet noise
Maybe read a book to him whilst feeding (the same one every time for the moment?)
He falls asleep and I wait till properly gone
Lay down (currently he just lays on me but want to actually use the bedside crib)
Dummy just purchased with idea we might use that for a couple of minutes if he slumbers in the transfer to the crib

What do you think? Not bothered if it doesn't work perfectly, he's only 6 weeks, but would like to at least be aiming for something. I think he's starting to like routine

Thanks in advance xx

All sounds good...in theory!

We started to give our son a bath at around 8/9 weeks each night at the start of the bedtime routine then pretty much did what you've said above.

We gave up with stories because he was either crying too much through tiredness or too sleepy to listen, and it's only now at 8 months that he seems to find being read to a relaxing start to the bedtime routine!

Sounds ideal to me, and is pretty much what we did with our DS - except ours was thirty years ago! The only thing he didn't (ever) have was a dummy. He had a blanket with a satin edge, and liked a particular corner of it, which, as he got older, he called his 'bit'! This comforted him when he was tired, right up to age ten or more. He also had a toweling soft toy in bed.

Many families have constant radio/TV on all day, which we never did, only putting them on when we actually wanted to listen/watch. I have always felt convinced (though there is no evidence to support it, that I am aware of) that a quiet, peaceful environment, where a child can hear, and be heard, leads to good concentration, speech, and eventually good school results. Frantic, non-stop noise, which many people like, I think leads to the opposite result, and I saw plenty of that in my twenty years as a primary TA.

Good luck, and enjoy! Make the most of him. I (dad) kept a 'diary' on his behalf for several years, and we still sometimes share items from it when he visits us. If you have queries in the future, come back if you wish with a PM.

That's lovely... I've been keeping a kind of diary far out little one, not every day but everyone few days so we capture this time.

I laboured over the dummy thing (not sure if that's what you meant, but still). We tried it earlier to just see which one he prefers-ready for potential emergency time - but even just looking at him with it in was strange.

What time are, or did you, start the routine each day? Ds feeds (and our eating schedule I guess) mean that I taken him up at 9pm. Is this way too late?

You'll be lucky to get him to bed any earlier at this stage IMO.

Just to mention, the SIDS guidance does mean he should be in the same room as you til 6 months, that includes naps and evenings. Lots of people (me included) put babies to bed from 3-4 months onwards but 6 weeks is a bit too young to leave them I think. Maybe do the routine, settle to sleep in Moses basket and then carry downstairs to keep him with you?

Personally I wouldn't start with a dummy unless all else fails. They can be great, but they can cause problems with sleep too - do you want to be replacing it every hour?

Do whatever works for you always knowing that things might change from day to day!

We started following a sort of routine at about 5 weeks. Half bottle downstairs. Bath and nighttime baby grow. Remainder of bottle then into Moses basket which was downstairs with us at this stage for about 7pm. We generally kept the tv off after she got to about 8 weeks - plenty of chat time! One last feed at 10-11pm then all upstairs.

Dd would make Gina ford proud - not that this was ever the intention but she did fall into this pattern. Now at a year old it is finely tuned

And re dummies. My dd has one following advice from a paediatrician as she had terrible reflux. It wasn't something we fancied really and I still don't like the look of it. However, other than nights when she was very poorly the most I have replaced it typically is 3 or 4. Usually once.

Our 12 week old has a routine which works well. We get 5-6 hours sleep through from midnight. We have warm bath and bedtime baby lotion massaged in afterwards. Lights in bedroom low whilst we have a feed then cuddles in bed. I bring his mattress from crib into bed so it's warm when he goes in. When he's almost asleep I transfer to crib. He normally babbles a little but seems (touch wood) to know this is bedtime and drifts off. We also don't play and only use hushed voices after the bath to keep things calm. Good luck :)

barberry, sorry prob didn't explain well - when he goes up to bed at 9pm so do I and good to know I'm not out of sync on the timing

Def don't want to create a dependency on dummies, but yesterday he managed 9 hours of fighting sleep, by the end of it we felt it would have eased his pain (rather than ours which was my worry about getting one - I don't want to use it for our convenience). Course he was asleep when by the time we got one at 10pm...

Oh apologies. I misunderstood. I thought he was sleeping well and you were just going to introduce it for transferring to the cot.

9 hours fighting sleep... God yes, use the dummy, a thousand times over!

I have found our routine has altered slightly over time.

As a tiny, he hater bath time so bathing him right before bed was a bad idea. In fact, we found it far easier to take him in the shower with either DH or myself while the other one dried and dressed him.

As a pp said, DS was a refluxer and his consultant recommended we try a dummy however DS was very adamant in his refusal of said dummy.

I don't mean we've constantly changed his routine as I do believe consistency is key but it has altered slightly as time has passed. For instance we ended up moving it from 7 to half past for a short period and now it's back at 7.

We now do bath at 6 and he plays quietly for a bit before bottle and bed at 7, sometimes 6.45 if he's really tired.

Should add at this point that this has all been over time - DS will be 1 at Xmas.

I'm sure people will disagree with me here but I really don't think at such a young age you can plan a routine as such, I think baby and you will fall into a routine which you can tweak to make suit your evening. I'm not even sure if I've explained that all that well.

Are you breastfeeding? A lot of breastfed babies won't even accept a dummy.

Your routine sounds great but I personally think your baby is a bit young yet. And as someone else said, to reduce SIDS risk, you should have your baby sleeping in the same room as you for 6 months.