How do you settle your baby down for the night?

[nervousFTM]

I'm worried I'm creating bad habits here. My girl is 5 months old and a great sleeper, her average sleep is 9 hours (around 7pm-4am) and then we can usually get her back down around 5am for a couple of hours. I've not wanted to try the dream feed for fear of it all going tits up!

Anyway, our bedtime routine starts around 6:15pm - atm it's a bath or top and tail, followed by a little massage as she has special ointment for mild eczema. Then I do a feed in the almost-dark and she tends to fall asleep on the boob, then I'll hold her upright for a bit to burp her. She tends to be asleep/very sleepy when I put her down (she is still in the Chicco next to me) but I'm worried this will create issues further down the line as I've read you're meant to put babies in their beds while still awake. As she does such a long stretch overnight though, I'm convinced she can self-settle.

I am also hoping to stop BF in the next 4-8 weeks so am worried there will be trouble getting her to sleep if she isn't being offered the boob last thing.

What do/did you do for a sleep routine for your baby at this age??

Thanks!

Any mums out there?

I think what you're doing is fine for her age and obviously working well. My DS is 12 weeks old and we don't have a great routine yet as we are so exhausted with sorting his big sister out (age 3!) but with her, at 4 months we had a very similar routine to you. I wouldn't stress about feeding her to sleep just yet. It works for now, and we did the same but gradually phased it out by about 8 months old. As she developed, we changed a bit at a time, for example adding in a story whilst feeding her in her room, then after a few weeks feeding her downstairs then going up to her bedroom to read a story and put her down awake. By changing a small bit at a time, she responded well and didn't have any problems sending herself off to sleep.

I think you're doing brilliantly! Many years since my DS was that age but he had an almost identical routine. Dark room for bedtime feed, almost asleep when laying him down. We stuck to our routine religiously and were rewarded with a very chilled, happy to go to sleep baby. We didn't put him into his own room until he was 6 months old. Worked for us and him.

Thank you @jaychops and @Rafabella8 - that's really comforting to hear! I've been puzzling as to how to put her to bed awake so it's good to know I'm not necessarily creating bad habits doing what I'm doing now. When she was teeny I used to read to her as she was feeding but have dropped story time for now. Looking forward to adding that back in, which will hopefully help signal that it's sleep time.

She does always seem much happier after her long long sleeps. Tonight she's just done 5 hours so far but hoping we can get her back down soon.

Oops sorry, posted under my other name! 😴😴😴

Just do what works now. Oh can’t teach a baby ‘bad habits’, you are just doing what they need. We rocked/cuddled our DS to sleep for as long as he wanted, and at 2, he happily settles himself down after a story and milk and a cuddle and goes to bed without issue.

When he was a baby we did whatever worked to get sleep. When he was a bit bigger, instead of cuddling him to sleep, we started popping him in his cot drowsy but awake and stroking his back, and then we moved to popping him in his cot drowsy and leaving, and then to just popping him in the cot when it was bedtime. There was no stress, no sudden changes, and it meant we never had bedtime battles or left him to cry.