What should I be doing at bedtime with my 16 week old?

[suzym1984]

Hi!

I think I have made the fatal mistake of buying and reading too many sleep books for babies, and now have no idea what I should be doing!

At bedtime we tend to give DS a bottle at about 6pm, then bath, then swaddle and cuddle to sleep. When we put DS in the cot if he wakes up and cry we do sort of pick up put down until he stays asleep.

Or, sometimes he has a bottle after bath, then we just carry him upstair (drowsy or asleep) and put him in the cot.

If he is overtired and screaming at bedtime we tend to give a dummy to get him to calm down, altho I always try and remove it before I leave the room, so that he doesnt wake up and cry without it.

So, as you can see, not a great deal of self-settling going on in our house!

Hmm dont' think there's a set pattern that works for everyone. Think its more about doing same thing every night?

For our DS, we give him his bath upstairs, then he goes into his pj's and sleeping bag, then bottle then straight into the cot. He's never had a dummy, just because he won't have it, he sucks his fingers instead.

If he's overtired could you increase daytime naps?

And do you put him into his cot awake?

I agree with doing the same thing every night, but the problem is my lack of routine in the day, sometimes he will want his bottle before bath, sometimes after. Sometimes he naps late etc. Im a mess!

I am working on naps this week, so thansk for advice. I am trying to persuade him to go back to sleep when he wakes after 45 minuted midday.

Sometimes he is awake, esp during day, but on a night he's certainly on his way to being asleep, eyes roll back in the head etc.

You're not a mess! I am generally not good at routine during day. I think they're good in theory, but then i'd never leave the house.

Maybe just say after 6pm you do the same every night. Just give him a little drink of water from a cup, then bath, then jamas, then bottle and bed.

Thanks pootles! It reassures me that youhave your DS on the way to being asleep too. If we get it right he often opens his eyes on his cot, then just shuts them and drifts off. other times he opens his eyes and screams haha!

I will deffo work on my night routine, we do tend to follow the same thing every night, but tweak it depending on the day. Maybe we need to be more rigid with bedtime.

DS has been napping for 2 hours now, his longest nap since newborn, so maybe his routine is changing again haha!

Lets hope sleeping thru the night will follow a good routine

Hi,
We do similar with ds. Bath at 7pm then bottle and cot. He's not good at self settling and I won't let him cry it out so we try to get him to sleep before we put him in the cot. We do have to pop upstairs and resettle him when we wakes - often he just wants his dummy and a quick head stroke. Very occassionally he has gone down awake and the lullaby's have sent him to sleep. I have a bit of a daytime routine so I know his bedtime will always be the same (although I am bringing this forward an hour in two weeks when he will be 4 months). I feed him every 3 hours and then the weplay and then he naps (only being held or occassionally in his pram but never in his cot through the day). He naps betweeb 2.5 and 4.5 hours a day. I am going to try to switch to feed every 4 hours when he is 4 months.

I read the books and they drove me mad, made me think I was doing everything wrong so they are in the drawer now where they belong!!