Sleep routine

[dennya]

At what age is it good to start a good bedtime routine with a baby and try to get them sleeping at a specific time each night. Any tips on how to achieve it? My dd is 6 weeks tomorrow.

We started a bedtime routine from about 4 weeks old of bath, bottle, bed. At first it was about 10 at night but over a few weeks brought it forward slightly till at 9 weeks was going down about 7.30pm and sleeping through. DS is nearly 7 and bedtimes are never an issue, good luck!

My dd is 14 weeks but was prem so is 7 weeks corrected if that makes sense. We started a bedtime routine last week and it's worked about 9/12 times so far. We bath her at 7-7.30pm, then a feed til 8ish, then cuddles until she is fast asleep, then put her down in her moses basket. When it works she sleeps til we wake her at our bedtime 11-midnight when we change her nappy and feed her again. She then sleeps for about 6 hours, though this morning slept til 7am. On the nights when it hasn't worked it's been that she is wide awake in the evening rather than anything else. We never leave her to cry. If she wakes and cries then we cuddle and feed as much as is required. I was very against routines but our routine just sort of evolved when we started to bath her every night. We still have no daytime routine as I just think dd, dp and I would find it impossible to stick to anything.

I think try to work out what would fit around what your dd already does/behaves like in the evening and what kind of routine you would like. There is no harm in doing the same thing at the same time every evening, eg bathing. If it works then that's great but if not I would keep trying onre element of routine, again eg bathing, and leave the rest another week and then try again. If your lo is not ready for a routine then I wouldn't traumatise yourself and her by trying to force one upon her.

We brought forward the time i and he went to bed by 10/15 mins at a time till we got to a point that I felt it was worth getting up again! carried on doing this till we got to desired bed time, then had to move even earlier as boy was consitantly grumpy fro teh last half hour of teh day. Started from about 10pm at about 4/5 wks old, were at 7.30 by 8 wks. Now hes 5 month and is asleep by 8pm most nights, sometimes we have to go into him after " bedtime" sometimes we don't.
he still doesn't sleep thro, but thats a whole different game and bed time seems to have no bearing on that.

it can be comforting to start a bath feed and bed routine whenever you like - but don't expect them to go to sleep immediately! we have given dd3 a bath feed then bed at around 7pm since she was very tiny but she still yells when she gets put down and I always immediaetly get her up as I can't bear to leave a baby crying.

still, she likes the bath and feed bit

with dd we didn't do a routine until she was 6 months and didn't actually get her going to sleep at the time we wanted til 1 year, with ds i tend to just give him his bath and change him into sleepsuit when dd is being gotton ready for bed, he feeds while she has a story and he's asleep by the time she heads up to bed... he's 3 weeks!

i'm not really pushed about him going to sleep but it's just easier for us to get him ready at the same time, even if it means waking him and it means he'll be well used to the bedtime routine by the time it becomes important. already he seems much more settled a baby, sleeps for longer stretches and tends to do things like naps and feeding at the same time every day, i know this will change over time as his needs change but i definitely intend sticking to the bedtime routine with him, i can't face another year like we had with dd!

Well its 5 past 8 and hes asleep , I've just gone in to him coz he wailed, but it was just one wail and he settled him self.
FWIW - in teh early days our routine was
nappy chnage and into sleep suit done by daddy, wrapped in his sheet and handed to mum for a quiet feed on the bed in the dark, then put into his cot and I stayed with him till he was asleep, this might mean holding his hand, or repeatedly replaceing his dummy or having a hand on his chest ( which he finds soothing). Once I got to the point of leaving the room after he was asleep we agreed that if either of us went into him becasuse he was crying we would- give him back his dummy, sooth him with a shussh noise, place hands on chest but not pick up UNLESS he was pulling his knees up in his windy pained way.
Now some months on we still do the same, but have introduced a bath at the start of the routine and I don't stay with im if he isn't asleep at the end of teh feed. We didn;t do evening baths to start with as he found bath time quite traumatic in those days, now he loves it in teh bath but still screams the house down while being dried.
when we are away we can drop the bath and he still recognises the routine , even when hes very tired and cranky we get him into his sleepsuit and having a feed and he starts to relax, put him into bed and hes spark out.

I think you can start a bedtime routine as early as you want (like bath, feed, sleep) But you might have to adapt the time when he is going to bed as he is getting older.
We used to put ds2 in bed at 5.30 (yes 5.30pm!!!) for his night and slowly move it to 7.00pm when he obvioulsy started to be OK with it. The specific time that we had for him at 6 weeks wasn;t the same than the one at 3 months or at 12 months but the bed time routine stayed the same.

I never put ds to bed when he was little, he just used to lie on my lap in the evenings and cuddle and feed as much as he wanted.

I am just posting about it to show there is a different way, for anyone panicking and thinking "OMG I am meant to have my 6 week old baby in a routine "

Dennya if you want to try to start a routine now then try it. Some babies fall happily into a gentle routine from a young age. However if you are happy just responding to your baby's needs as they arise then that is fine too. Do what works best for you and your baby.

i have a 9 1/2 week old baby boy and he has a total routine. he always wakes at same time every morning without fail (i'm sure he has a clock in his head). has his dinner time nap at same time and bath and bed at 7 7-30 then bed. i always said i wouldn't push a routine at an early age he just fell into it himself.

at 6 weeks though i would try but if it doesnt work dont be disheartend. try again few weeks l8r and he will fall into one himself.
hope this helps.

just wanted to add that you may find the bath, feed, bed thing doesn't quite work if your baby's like mine. my dd gets so excited at bathtime that i now do bathtime in the morning as part of her wake up 'routine'. just thought i'd mention that!