When did you start a bed time routine?

[CJ1990]

Just wondering,

We have a 5 week old and so far has been going up to bed when we do - about 10. The last few nights I have bought it forward to 9.

She’s just so awake up until 10, it seemed pointless fighting her to go any earlier! But she’s pretty much on my schedule at the moment and she doesn’t have set nap times in the day...

Just wondering when everyone put their little ones into a proper sleep routine? And if so what it was? :) obviously can’t carry on with no naps or routine for ever! :)

I started from a few weeks old, if not before (for my sanity more than anything - to gain a sense of control!). Bath, quiet songs in a very dim bedroom then a bottle and into his Moses basket. Seemed to work for him and I've had that same sort of routine since (stories now instead of songs). Right from day one he slept/fed in exactly 2 hour stints so that was very helpful of him!

3 weeksish i think? DS sort of settled himself into it so we just reinforced it - now he gets grumpy as hell in the evenings when it isn't followed

Not until way later, I think it's quite unusual (But not unheard of) to have a routine early. DS was about 4 months before he started having an early bedtime and proper routine.

I noticed with my DC that they started to fall more deeply asleep (in general but particularly in the evening/night) at around 12 weeks. At this point I started to put them down in their cot at whatever time it was in the evening that they fell asleep (usually around 7-8). Sometimes they woke and I carried them to sleep again (I used a sling), sometimes not. Eventually this became a routine and I added a bath/story at a suitable time beforehand as and when I realised a bedtime had been established, around 4 months. They all were in bed, asleep by 7pm every night by around 6 months.

I don't know how to put them in sleep routine. However I certainly found each child had preferential conditions for sleep (light/dark/quiet/in pram etc) and tried to create theses conditions when they had not slept for a while, with increasing intervals as they got older. As far as I remember though at 5 weeks old literally the more sleep the better, no routine at all. Maybe try for a night routine in a couple of months and a day routine at 6 months ish.

Disclaimer: my routine building experience of a sample size of only 3 DC! All babies are different etc.

DD was 3.5m. I'd decided I quite fancied my evenings back so started doing bath, feed, in bed in her cot for 8pm.

The health visitor told us it was pointless doing a routine before 12 weeks, but we found that at around 9 weeks he started falling asleep at around 8, so we started putting him to bed then (which she said was fine, but just not expect him to do it every night!). He's now 13 weeks and it seems to be slowly pushing back towards 7 - we do a bath, feed, reading to him, lullaby routine which we start when he gets visibly sleepy. If I'm honest I suspect it's more for us than him at this point, though!

Also forgot to mention that whereas I had kept DD in the same room as me until that point she seemed starting to want more peace and quiet in the evenings at 3.5 months.

I started a 'routine' from day 1. I'd bathe at 7pm, pj's on, sit in his room and offer a feed. Some nights he would go down and others he wouldn't. Once he reached about 3 months he started recognising that routine and now at 6 months he's set in that routine but now half an hour earlier as I had to bring bed time forward when he dropped his late nap.

We started at about 5 weeks at 10:30pm and just kept moving it earlier. She's now going to bed at 7:30. My DD loves having a bath/being washed and always sleeps for a while after wards so we used it as part of her bedtime routine. I didn't really plan it, it just happened naturally like that. It worked for us.. But isn't necessarily for everyone!

I started almost immediately - for me as much as for them. Both my babies thrived on routine and so did I.

And if so what it was? Bath, jammies, dim lights, last feed, lullaby - generally establishing bedtime cues so if I had to go back after this (which I did to start with) not turning the lights on, not talking or stimulating, keeping everything very calm.