Regular bath and bed

[RTJ]

My 8 week old seems to sleep alot in the day and be awake all evening - then wake around 4am. I've tried getting him into a routine and waking him but it isnt making any difference to his pattern so far. Whats the ideal age to start the whole bath and bed routine? I know you shouldnt bath them too much in the early days

there's a quite an interesting thread going on at the moment in this section about routines.

IS your baby going back to sleep after feeding at 4am, or is he up for the day? I'd just feed him to sleep at that age to be honest, it's very unusual for babies to sleep through until they're 6months.

BUT, we began bed and bath at about 5 weeks - had a colicky baby and baths really sootherd him. We'd do a bath then feed in the quiet with classic FM on...he'd often drift off but then wake and the colic would begin again, I don't thik it started being a 'proper' bedtime until he was 10/12 weeks and the colic eased, but the bath/bed routine was always our moment of calm and is the only routine thing that has stayed constant.

Eventually he should bring his 'bedtime' forward himself - hard though when he's tiny isn't it? We would let him fall asleep in his moses basket in the sitting room then take him off ot bed with us

oh - and we were bathing every night by 8weeks, if that helps

Newborns tend to get dry peeling skin, so we didn't bathe them very often until that had settled down - every 3 days or so. After that we bathed them every day with their older siblings. (We never use soap or bubbles on tinies.) But we didn't put them to bed at a proper bedtime until about 3-4m. If they were unsettled in the evening, or wanting to feed a lot, it was simply easier to keep them with us until we went to bed. The before-bed feed, whatever time it was at, would be quiet, subdued, in the bedroom with the lights turned down. We started bedtime stories when we started putting them to bed at an earlier bedtime.

It's difficult to set a regular bedtim. If the baby doesn't nap regularly - they might not be tired enough yet by 'bedtime' or they might be overtired. It's easier once a pattern develops to their day. No reason that you can't help that process along. The best way to do that IME is to always get the baby up at the same time. It really helps, tho you may want to grab the chance of a lie-in.

oh yes we only used water to wash our baby until he was about 10months too. Hard water in London especially can def dry their skin out so good advice there from prettycandles

we did bath (no soap or anything) and then a massage with lovely base oil with tiny amount of lavender oil in it - I made up a blend. And then book (from about 2 months), boob and bed. Massage really helps & combined with the bath was a strong wind down/this is a big sleep not a nap signal.

I tried to keep time a little (for my sake more than anything) but once you have a good bedtime routine going, then actually the time is much less of an issue IMO.

But my mantras for the first few months were 'babies are random' (kept me sane that one) and 'this is what maternity leave is for'.

Great advice, thanks all. Will give the tips and ideas a go.