Bath, bottle, bed... Advice...

[Jcmummy32]

Hey everyone.

I have a 4wk old son and looking to start off a routine and wondered what advice any of you have on the bath/bottle/bed routine.

Is 4wks to soon to try this? What time is it best for it? Will a bath wake him up or help him sleep?

Sorry! FTM! X

We started this sort of routine early on, I think it depends on your baby re the bath. There have been times that it has made my daughter really excited but I like to keep it there as she does associate it with bed time.
If you dont want to have a feed and sleep association (not that it matters) you could do the bath after the bottle when your child gets a bit older

There is no harm in trying, but if you are going to be the person doing the nights, I would say your partner (if you have one), should do the bedtime routine while you go to bed. Dh always had ours in the evenings apart from feeds (was bf) because it was the best stretch of time to get some sleep before I was more on my own during the night. If you are bottle feeding, it's much easier to take advantage of those evening hours to catch up on sleep. In my personal experience, a bedtime routine in that sense of putting them down to sleep and getting on with other evening things didn't work until 3-4 months. But there is no reason not to try - just use it to make the most of sleep, if it works.

I’ve always done the bath, bottle, bed routine and it’s worked really well. I probably didn’t start it until around 3 months when their sleep can sometimes be a bit more predictable. He has his bath at 6, then bottle, teeth brushed and down to sleep at half 6/6:45.

I’ve done this with both my boys and they are both good at going down (4yrs and 9 months). My husband always does the baths and put the pyjamas on and I do the feed for the baby. It works really well for us.

We started that routine very early, but followed my son’s cues for timing. Sometimes he would have a bath at 6pm, sometimes at 11. He is now 10.5 weeks and we pretty consistently bath him at 8.30 to have him asleep by around 10. He loves a bath and it seems to soothe him. Afterwards we put on his moisturiser and do some tummy time, then I feed him and he drifts off to sleep.

We didn't bother with a routine til DD was about 3 months, and even then it was half arsed because she went in the moses basket downstairs with us - they should sleep in the same room as you til at least 6 months.

No point during 4th trimester. By rights baby shouldn’t even be born yet, let alone being introduced to timetables.

I mean... You can try

But of they're only 4 weeks old, they shouldn't be having a bath every day,and you'll be feeding on demand,so the bottle might get wasted...

As above. I think doing this at 4 weeks is futile, but won't do any harm if you enjoy it.

We started around 12 weeks and it went very well. I think bathing every day can be bad for their skin too while they are so tiny

Another vote for around 3 months being a good time to start a bedtime routine. Naps start to get more predictable and it’s easier to have a more consistent bedtime.