Bath time nightmare!

[eallison88]

Hi all, I'm after some suggestions...

My 8 week old boy loves having a bath. WE dont have a night time routine as such, but are trying to build in night time cues. We bath, change into bed clothes and grobag and have a story then a feed. Timings a movable feast, depending on our evening.

Anyway, I'm here because whilst he enjoys bath time (smiles, splashing, content), as soon as we get him out of the bath he screams until I feed him (bf) - so story isn't happening as he feeds to sleep. I'm not bothered about no story so much, but wondering how I cake make getting out of the bath less traumatic for him.

Ideas?!

Don't bath at bedtime,, it is clearly WAY too much fun. I used to bath mine in the morning, mainly as something to do. I used to get in with him (he had one if those seat things) we could easily loose an hour in there!

He's now 4 and bath is part of the bedtime routine but it wasn't for quite a while!

You could make your bedtime routine a quick baby massage or a bit of naked kicking before milk and cuddles??

Bath time is fun time for my 4 month dd so I tend to bath a couple of hours before bed & only every 2/3 days.

Have you tried heating his towel, babygrows and dressinghim in the bathroom - he may be cold and this should keep him warmer ?

My DS used to do that - Everyoen says he was probably too tired and so started doing it earlier each night and he was much happier. Just an idea to try.

I think perhaps we were making him to warm... didn't immediately bundle him up tonight, instead lay him on his towel on the bathmat in the bathroom and dud a bit of massage. A bit of crying but no screaming. Then we took him into our room to dress gin and he screamed. So tomorrow we'll try dressing him in the bathroom. And perhaps a bit earlier.

Thanks all!

I don't think you need to worry about not doing a bedtime story at 8 weeks old!

This is so normal! My dd still does this sometimes and she's 11 months. I think they get tired quickly after being in water and are desperate for a feed. My advice is to drop the story for now and bring bath time forward slightly. It sounds a little late for him x

We had this too. I tended to feed her just before the bath so that she wasn't hungry. Gave us a few extra minutes to wrestle with the baby gro before the next bout of tears!

Instead of a story, could you sing to him?

We croaked away in a dreadful glass shattering chorus to our kids from the start, but they enjoy it. It's part of the bedtime ritual now and a cue to settle down and think of sleep.

also ... Then we took him into our room to dress gin

I did skin to skin to bf after a bath, DD loved it so I carried on doing it for months...!