Bedtime routine advice!

[aymb]

Hello all,

My little one is now 30 days old and we are struggling to establish a somewhat effective nighttime / bedtime routine.

I was wondering if anyone has any tips / advice / guidance around this? What has worked for other parents?

Thank you

He is far to young and everything will change at 4 months. Just snuggle him on an evening while you can watch TV aimed at adults.

Enjoy all the snuggles.

A routine as such most probably won’t work yet but I don’t think it’s a bad idea to start trying some things to see what works for you. We tried to be very consistent with making it be ‘night time’ at this stage. So he’d go upstairs and get his night time clothes on, then when he came back down we’d have dimmed the lights, made sure we used quieter voices etc. He’d then snuggle up with us for naps whilst we watched box sets! He’s 5 months now and is good at distinguishing day/night and goes to sleep really easily at 7pm. (Disclaimer - doesn’t stay asleep for more than 90 minutes at a time... )

30 days is very young to be worrying about a bedtime routine!

Older children generally do something along the lines of bath, PJ's, story, bed. There's no harm in doing that now if you want to, but there is probably little value in doing it yet. Also, they change so quickly that anything that is established this week, might be different by next week!

Our routine at 4 weeks was:
Bath at 9pm, change into pjs and swaddle, top up feed (in my case, breastfeed), then settle and put to bed. Been doing this since 2 weeks old, and baby started sleeping 5 hour stretches. Now does 6-8 hour stretches at 12 weeks, and we bath and feed at 8pm, down at 9.

I just did a nightime bath but that was it- routine just isnt possible at such a young age

All those saying "routine isn't possible" are wrong.
We have had a routine since 2 weeks.
Now I should clarify, a routine is different to a schedule.
Schedule = doing the same things at specific times, which is impossible for a little baby.
Routine = doing the same things in the same order, but not worrying about what time it is, just following your baby's cues.

Eg my baby naturally started doing longer sleeps in the late evening after cluster feeding from 5-9pm. So when he's showing hunger cues, I feed him, when he's showing tired cues, I put him down for a nap.
I do the same things whenever I notice he is tired: swaddle, dummy, cuddle and rock until he is sleepy/falls asleep, then put him down. It's a simple routine that can be used wherever we are, even when out.
Babies start to be able to predict what's coming, and it helps them relax.
If my baby is yawning, then I put the swaddle on and give him a dummy and he knows it's time to sleep.
Likewise with the "bedtime" routine.
A bath at that time of night relaxes him and breaks up the stress of the "witching hour". He knows that after the bath he will be fed, and looks at me expectantly and smiles when I bring out the baby bath (this started around 8 weeks).

Remember, it's not about doing things at specific times of the day, but following your baby's cues and then responding to them with the same steps so that your baby learns to predict what is coming.
Babies like things to be predictable.

Sorry, hit send before I was finished.
Babies like things to be predictable, because their feelings and experiences are so chaotic and new that they need us to help them understand it all, and respond to their needs.
They need to know "When I cry and tell mum and dad I'm hungry they will feed me", or "When I cry and tell mum and dad I'm tired, they will help me sleep."

Look up hungry and tired cues to help you, and there's videos on youtube about Priscilla Dunstan's newborn cries, which will help you understand what specific needs your newborn is crying about (all their cries in the early months are based on reflexes, so they have specific sounds).

I agree with PRoseLegend - we have had a simple bedtime routine since he was a couple of weeks old. The timings have changed and when he got older we started putting him to bed as opposed to having him sleep with us downstairs. But we started doing bath, into pjs, quick story, feed and sleep and he knows now at 6 months what is coming and that it is bedtime. As long as you are prepared to obviously be aware timings may change then go for it!