Help with bedtime routine

[Cathster]

DH and I are having a bit of trouble forming a consistent bedtime routine for our 7mo.

We used to bath her every night but she gets so riled up afterwards and throws such a paddy when we dry and dress her that we changed it to every other night.

So the nights we don't have baths we have the routine-

Bottle downstairs
Massage and changed into pjs in bedroom (she still hates this bit!)
Cuddle, book and favourite nursery rhyme
Sleeping bag and bed

This works quite well. Somehow when it's bath night it all just gets messed up, as by the time we have bathed her and started massage and dressing she is in full meltdown mode and we can't calm her down enough to do the book and nursery rhyme without adding an extra 20 minutes on of cuddling, walking and rocking so she's really miserable when we put her in her cot!

What do other people's bedtime routines look like? Any suggestions?

How about changing bathtime to mornings?

I'd not essential to bath them everyday - you can just top and tail and maybe do one bath every three days if she finds it too distressing.

Does she like the massage? If not I'd drop that too. Sounds like she might just be over tired and just benefit from a wash, lullaby wash cuddle with dimmed lights.

How long from being awake from afternoon nap before going to bed?

She absolutely loves bath time, it's getting out that's the problem! all the massage really consists of is putting bedtime lotion on her so we could drop it easily, she doesn't like it much but we have fallen for the "this bedtime lotion will make her sleep better" line so kept persisting with it.

Her nap times are all over the place at the moment, but generally it's between 2-3 hours awake time at the end of the day, tonight was 2 hours as she hasn't napped much and was so tired by 6pm bless her.

Maybe we will try bathing her in the morning for a week or so and see if that makes a difference.

If mine are too tired they go into full meltdown mode after bath so I started doing it earlier so dinner between 5 and 6, bath at 6ish, into Jammies and then downstairs for bottle by around 6.30 or so. Then they play (they are a bit older) read watch TV etc until baby goes up about 7/7.30 into grobag, story, couple of songs and into bed.

Bath is clearly way too much fun!! My son needs a long time in the bath before he is happy to get out. I would agree either bath in the morning or start much earlier so she is bored before you get out of the bath!! I would also be tempted to try bottle in pjs so she had something nice after the coldness of getting changed???
K

Thanks for all the tips! I was out last night so missed bath time but DH bathed her an hour before bed instead of the usual half hour, and apparently there was no crying at all so I think we were bathing her when she was too tired. He also gave her the bottle afterwards in her pjs. Will try the same approach and see how we get on tomorrow!

I really wouldn't worry about a rigid routine at this age, or any really. Flexibility is key to having a baby that will sleep well when out/on hols etc ime. I would do the bath in the morning as it sounds like this is the root of the issue and not do the massage if she's not into it. Pjs, story/song, milk, bed (with rocking or whatever needed) sounds sensible and works everywhere and anywhere.