Should we have a better bedtime routine by now? 3 months

[owltrousers]

Hello!

My DS is 3 months old, in the evening we give him a bottle about 6.30-7pm and then he's asleep for the night at about 7.30pm. We let him sleep in his bouncer in the front room with us until we're ready to go to bed (usually around 10.30pm) then we pop him in his cot in our room for the night. He'll sleep til 3-4am usually, has a feed and then will sleep again until around 8am.

Its the evening bit I'm worried about, should we still be keeping him downstairs with us? We usually have our tea after he's asleep and although we clatter about in the kitchen and watch TV he doesn't seem disturbed by this. I've heard other parents discuss ''bedtime routines'' such as a bath, a story... but we don't do any of that every night, he just drifts off in his bouncer.

Should I try to change this, or do you think if it works for us - its ok?

I've realised it sounds like we don't bath him we do! its just not part of his bedtime routine.

Advice for SIDS prevention is same room as you for all sleep for at least 6mo

'should' means comparison. If you and partner and baby are happy, keep doing what you're doing but do bear in mind baby sleep can and does get worse as well as better-are you aware of the four month sleep regression?

Don't worry about it, just go with whatever works for you. It's recommended that they always sleep in the same room as you at this age which makes a bedtime routine kind of difficult unless you want to go to bed at 7.

We did start a routine at this age with both our children as they wouldn't settle with us having dinner and watching TV in the background. We put them in our room with a monitor and checked regularly on them - I guess it just depends on how you feel about doing that.

What you're doing sounds fine op. As pp said he should be with you for all sleep for 6 months following sids safety guidelines.

We had a bedtime routine (or hour long hoopla) in place that worked a treat until regression hit at 3.5 months. Now all ds requires to dose off (6 months) is for us to take him through to the bedroom when he's tired and sit by his cot for 20 minutes while he falls asleep.

In a nutshell , do what works for you , you may need to change things when regression hits though.

You're clearly doing a grand job. There will be lots of mums on here cursing you right now 😂

*doze

@ThaiRedCurry yep I'm cursing.

OP enjoy your awesome sounding routine!

My only concerns is that I am not sure if bouncers are good for sleeping in.

I think that’s great! You’ve got him in a routine of falling asleep early and at the point he starts to sleep in his or your room in the evenings you could introduce the bath or story if you felt you wanted to but it’s not essential. My DDs routine was getting into her sleeping bag and having a feed as we did baths in the morning and it’s been fine.
Also until 6 months my DD napped in her bouncer as it lay fairly flat and my health visitor was in agreement with it.

DS is 5 months and has only just started going to sleep at 7.30-8 like our older DC do rather than random times, don't worry about routine too much yet unless it naturally happens and works for you.

He's still downstairs with us in the evening and will carry on like this until he starts waking easily enough to be disturbed by the TV/us talking etc.
With DD2 she was down with us in the evenings until about 8 months, make the most of the cuddles in the evening!

thanks everyone! you've made me feel a lot better.

I am aware of the 4 month sleep regression - not looking forward to it! 😔

That sounds absolutely fine. You don’t need solid bedtime routines until they’re at least one, maybe even two.

Baby 15 weeks and I do the same only my baby naps and wakes- mostly wakes- but bedtime and night feed very similar.

That sounds absolutely fine. You don’t need solid bedtime routines until they’re at least one, maybe even two.
@Mousefunky- really? I was stressing because everything I read said sleep schedules at 3 months! Apparently if this is not established you will have all sorts of problems- according to sites purporting to have the authority on baby sleep.

Was stressing thinking my baby would never go to sleep at a reasonable time.

Then I decided to just continue what I'm doing- baby feeds too much at night to go to bed at 7 and generally goes about 11 for last feed and asleep at 11.30.

Then thinking I need to establish by six months?

Then along comes you and says a year?

Just do whatever you like. There’s no perfect way.

Oh gosh 3 months is still so young.. ours were in their Moses baskets around 8pm downstairs with us at that time until we went to bed. When they were 5ish months old they would go in their cot after their feed at 730 but I was so tired I would go too 😂

We didn't have any kind of bedtime routine until around 6 months. Even then it was just a straightforward bath-feed-bed. At 15 months DC1 still has pretty much the same routine and happily goes to bed every night at 6.45 and sleeps through until 6.30am

You are living the dream OP.

DC1 pretty much screamed 5pm - 9pm for the first four months of their life, it nearly broke me. The 4 month sleep regression was actually an improvement!

That sounds fine!
You just do what work for you and your baby. If you're all happy then that's what matters!
There's so much stress on the 'correct' sleep for babies and what we should be doing but there isn't one correct way. I've come to realise it's much better to just do it your own way and if whatever you're doing is working then that's perfect!