Recommendations for bedtime routine

[OhWhatAPalaver]

Hello all, DD is 5 months old and we haven't really got a bed time routine nor will she seem to let me introduce one! at the moment i just feed her to sleep but this is getting more difficult recently as she is so distracted by everything and she makes her self overtired by refusing to feed (our wall hanging/tv/lights are far more interesting apparently) and therefore refusing to go sleep.

after quite a bit of crying and pulling away from breast etc she finally succumbs to feeding and goes to sleep and in to her cot. she usually seems to go down around 10 ish but sometimes she will be awake till gone 11. i would like to get her going to sleep earlier as i can tell she starts to get tired around 8-9pm ish usually but she fights it for ages.

oh and she doesn't like baths that much (she cries a lot when taken out - sometimes for ages) so i can't have that ass part of the routine. also there is no way in hell she would let me baby massage her, despite my best efforts, she just screams and cries! any advice would be greatly appreciated! :)

DD (6 months) has change into PJs, quick story with her big brother then into a dark room to feed. No way can I feed her in a well lit room! Or with any light!

So why don't you try change at 7, story then feeding in low light (or just a night light on) by half 7?

They don't need much at this age! I used to skip the routine a lot with DS and still do sometimes with DD.

what is her daytime routine i.e. when does she wake for the day, when does she nap & how long for? her bedtime is really quite late & it may be she is overtired when you are trying to get her down. OT babies can be quite difficult to settle & are more likely to scream their way through baths/bedtime routine.

My 4 month old dd has the following routine:

5pm quiet time begins
5.45 story
6pm sponge bath then tummy tub
Followed by baby massage
Teeth brushed with song (she has 2 teeth)
Placed in cot with white noise and dummy
Asleep!

It took about 3 weeks to get her really settled into it and essential she sleeps enough during the day.

She screams when we take her out of the bath but she gets funny faces when we dry her

Once she is in bed there is no leaving the bedroom until morning!

Also final feed at 5.30 in a quiet room facing a blank wall / wardrobe or similar.

Dream feed at 10pm

Also she did cry in the beginning when put down but we let her cry for exactly 60 seconds before patting, putting dummy back in, waiting for her to stop crying and then then leaving.

Some nights we needed to do this 5 times in the first hour but now just once or twice. Think she is just releasing energy trying to sleep.

i think she goes to bed so late due to her having a nap at any time between 4pm - 6pm most nights. i have tried putting her to bed if she falls asleep during an early evening feed but she only ever has about 30 mins nap time and then she wakes up again, to then be awake till about 10pm!

her day time naps are not particularly regulated, sometimes she will have several short naps and other days she will have one really long one. she usually sleeps through the night (i am lucky i know!) from 10pm-7am which is lovely but i'd just like to try and bring it an hour or so earlier.

last night she was in a good mood all night, no tears or pulling away from breast, didn't seem overtired and she still went to bed at 10! maybe that's just her bedtime...

oh and she will usually scream after the bath no matter what time of day i bath her, i actually have to make sure she's not tired when i bath her as the more tired she is the more she screams when i'm drying her. she's very fussy about what she likes and objects very loudly to anything she doesn't like!

How about trying to put her to bed 15 mins earlier every other evening? No nap two hours before the proposed bedtime?

This isn't really advice, just a "you're not alone comment". My DD sounds very similar in the evenings - if she sleeps before 9 it is always a nap. Usual bed time is between 9 and 10. I worried that this was too late but have chilled out about it now for a couple of reasons - firstly only about 10 weeks ago her bedtime was about midnight or 1 am so this is progress. And secondly some of the babies I know who go to sleep at 7 are up at 5, whereas we tend to get up anytime between 7 and 9 (although that's with a couple of night feeds).

We've managed to bring her bedtime forward recently and I think a feed in her room in semidarkness immediately before I put her down helps. Saying that I tried it at 7.30 this evening and her little eyes popped open as soon as she finished and half an hour later we went back downstairs to watch the football as she wouldn't settle in her cot (was screaming blue murder every time I left her) although she was really tired. I took her back up when she had calmed down and for the first time ever she was asleep before 9.

One thing that really helped us brung bedtime forward was putting her down awake in her cot for naps in the day so she got used to self-settling.

I hope you get the result you want - I an sure it will gradually come forward.