Bedtime routine without the bath?

[erikab922]

Just wondering if anyone here does a bedtime routine without the bath? My LO's skin is really good and I don't want to mess with it (we bath her twice a week using just a bit of calendula cleanser), and baths seem to wake her up more than make her sleepy. We need to start a sleep routine (she's 8 weeks old) and it seems like everyone and their granny does bath / bottle / book / bed. Just wondering if anyone else does it differently.

The other thing I worry about with regards to that routine is that when LO wakes up I have precisely four seconds to feed her before she goes totally apeshit, so if I tried to make her wait by giving her a bath first, well, I don't really want to pull at that thread...

Your description of a routine does indeed sound very standard, but surely that's for older babies and children?
My DCs didn't have baths in the evening at all until they were a bit older. For the first few weeks I usually bathed them during the day. (They were autumn winter babies, so I didn't want them to get cold in an evening bath.)
I didn't read them any stories until they were significantly older either.

For the first few months, the bedtime routine consisted mainly of feeding until they were ready to drop off.
That may not be a very helpful answer!

Actually Ruthchan that is very helpful, I keep thinking I'm supposed to be pushing a bedtime routine - you hear people saying 'I wish I had started a routine earlier' so I figure I must get going with it. We tried it tonight and it really didn't work, as you say feeding her and then letting her fall asleep has done the trick (for once... she's a nightmare at night). Thank you!

I'm glad to have been of a little help!
Some people do talk about settling into routines very early, but I tended to follow my DCs' lead in the early months.
When they were a bit older I started to enforce more routines and dictate bedtimes more strictly.
It worked for me, but it won't work for everyone.
Follow what feels right for you and your baby, and don't worry too much about what everyone else is doing.

I've recently stopped doing nightly baths for my twins as DTS seems to ave ezcema and the GP said nightly bathing was a main cause of skin problems!

Previously they had a bath every night since about 8 weeks old. Now on non-bath nights, I take them to the nursery, lie them on the bed (I have a single bed in there), strip them down, top and tail, massage with Oilatum cream, dress, then give them a bottle (or bf if you are bf). If they don't seem very tired we sit on the bed and have stories etc, let them kick their legs etc for a bit, then bed. They don't seem to have noticed that the bath has been missed out!

My LO has had a bath pretty much every night since he was a week old. He's now 8 weeks. We do bottle/bath/massage/more bottle/sit in dark room till he's sleepy/bed. Works most times.

If I can't do a bath, I'll get him naked in the bathroom on a towel, massage with the same oil I always use and re-dress in clean clothes/nappy.

I never do baths before bed. We go into his room, shut the curtains, he lays on the changing mat next to the cot with the mobile on whilst I put on babygrow and change nappy. Then breastfeed, then cot. I have done that since he was about 6 weeks old.

I abandoned night time baths with my second child, who didn't like getting wet/cold. Go with what works for you and your baby.

Hi, both my dcs, now aged 20mths and 3.4, have never had a bath every night. They have a bath twice a week, or more when needed.
We have a good bedtime routine. Generally we do pjs downstairs, the we do teeth, then youngest one book all together, then older one book on her own.
No problems, both generally asleep by 7.30.
Tbh the I just can't be bothered with all the effort of a bath every night and as we've never done it, it's normal for us....and my kids are clean.

I must stop skim reading! Your dc is so young, do not worry, just do whatever gets ou through at the moment, you will find it will all fall in eventually, and find what's right for you.

Twice weekly baths, from v small to now (8 and 10). They both became hyper at bathtime as babies so we ditched it at bedtime.

Hang on bath, book she's 8 weeks old???

Feed to sleep put in cot, scream, feed to sleep, scream.

Learn to get DH to warm the crop with a hair drier. Feed to sleep, peace.

DCs don't get bed time stories until they are in big beds.

We only bath DTDs every other day because of exczema. On non bath nights, up to their room, strip off, play for 20 mins or so, PJs and sleeping bags,bottles and bed. They are nearly 11 months.

We didn't attempt even putting them in their cots before their 11pm feed until they were about 20 weeks (12 corrected). They slept downstairs in their carry cots as we would just have spent the evenings running up and down trying to resettle them. When we did start they were ready for it and it was a lot less stressful!

I agree with those who say she is really too young to worry about it unless you are really really keen. DD is 12 weeks and what she wants and how she goes to sleep has changed so much it's just been easier to try and go with it.

I would also say enjoy the bed time cuddles while you get them. I was feeding and rocking to sleep and belived that it would be great when I could just lie her down to sleep but over the past week she has suddenly decided that she doesn't want to be held to go sleep and will only do so if put down in the dark with her white noise tunes on. If I try and hold her she screams like a banshee. I know that there are parents who long for their dcs to go to sleep like this but I really wasn't expecting it to happen so suddenly and I'm actually rather sad that I no longer get sleepy evening cuddles.

We started a bedtime routine at about 8 weeks and it's saved my sanity.

If you remove the bath it looks like this

5.30 feed
5.50 story
6 ish baby massage
Followed by bed, white noise, dummy

Dream feed at 9ish

Dd now asleep by 6.30! Took a while but glad we persevered

My nighttime routine until ds was well over one, and for dd now 4 months:
Feed.
Put in grobag in basket (or cot after 6 months)
Wander off.
If there's noises from baby, pick baby up until there's a huge belch, lay baby down again.

I do baths a fair bit earlier, so dd is done first, then add more water for ds, then he gets milk after bath before toothbrushing, story, bed. Didn't do stories at bedtime until he was nearly 2, but he liked them at other times.

When my girls were babies they had a bath in the morning, not at night. I had more time in the morning and they were both good sleepers so didn't need to be settled (not boasting honestly). As tiny babies they were bathed about every couple of days, just given a wipe over on the non-bath days. When my dd1 started morning pre-school they started having a bath at night, this was just before she was 4.

DD (19 weeks) loves baths and getting her out results in screaming fits! So we only do every other night, and we just do nappy change with quick wash, into sleep suit, feed, story, bed. She has fairy lights over the cot too, which go off after the story and then it's time to sleep. Although one of us quite often stays with her as ~1/3 of the time she still whimpers a bit which can lead to full blown crying if she thinks we're not there!

But we only started this from about 10 weeks so I wouldn't worry too much yet!