6mo & still no routine, late nights, help please! wwyd?

[ThreeWheelsGood]

So baby is nearly 6mo. We are first time parents. We have just been "going with the flow" and baby feeds to sleep between 10pm and midnight (breastfed) then thankfully sleeps though til morning or wakes just the once for a short feed.

But now I think it'd be nice to get our evenings back, maybe put her to sleep at 7 - 8pm. My mum and DP have suggested this may help my PND. How do we get started? I definitely don't want to try anything that involves letting her cry.

We haven't progressed beyond what we did when she was newborn. Can people share their experiences or point me to the right info, thank you!

Gina ford is your friend.

I started gina ford contented little baby 2 days ago on a baby that would wake every 20 minutes during nap time, wanted constant bottles as she demand fed on the bottle.

There is elements of crying, however, you can adapt it to how you want to do it. Unfortunately if you ever want to get evenings / sleep into some kind of routine there will be crying its how babies communicate aslong as your answering babies needs then its fine to let them learn how to settle down themselves.

Hi, we were the same so just decided one night to put him upstairs in his cot at 7.30pm. We gave him nice warm bath, nice lavender creams, played his lullaby seahorse and fed him. He fell asleep immediately like he was relieved he wasn't in the lounge with us! He still wakes at night but that's another storey... Just give it a go and see what happens you might be surprised.

Also, maybe get a grobag - ours loved his.

babies can t tell the time so just try it at the time you like. Follow the same routine as usual and they won't know it's 7pm or midnight. I would then stay up and do a feed at the normal time your baby was going to bed so they sleep through the night still.

We went with the flow like you until 6 mo then introduced a routine similar to hose mentioned above. I just stay in the room with ds until he is asleep cuddling or patting so v little crying. He never goes out like a light but i dont mind staying with him and lucky me dp cooks whilst i settle. The first few nights he would wake a few times whilst I was in the other room. But it just meant going and resettling. You don't need to let them cry just be gentle. I now have most of my evening back its lovely.

Thank you for the replies everyone. Last night we tried starting the feed-to-sleep routine as usual at half eight so earlier than normal but she fussed lots and in the end only settled around half ten as usual. Just created more exhaustion for us all!

Going to keep trying making it earlier. We already use a grobag. A bath every night isn't an option because it's a hassle given the layout of our bathroom (one of us has to be in the bath with her!)

Why dont you buy a baby bath? That way you can do it every night.

Having a bath/feed/book routine every evening is proven to aid babies to sleep at night

I'm another fan of the bedtime routine (boob/bottle, bath, book, music etc) When people used to advise us to try it I thought what a load of bollocks rubbish but it really has worked for us and we can now guarantee dd will be asleep between 7.15 and 7.30 every night. However, in my experience it didn't work just to go from her late newborn bedtime to where she is now...you could try bringing bedtime forward by say 15 mins every few days to a time that is acceptable to you.

Another for gina ford here. My advice would be ignore everything she has to say. i mean it skip all of the book and just get to the timetables which are a really good starting point to finding the right routine for your family.

Yup bedtime routine is the way forward.
Remember it will take some time (a few days) to get your baby into a new routine so don't give up just because it hasn't worked the first time.
We spent the best part of 2 week worth of evenings with our daughter, in her darkened room, rocking, shushing and dummy putting in. Very wearing and quite stressful BUT absolutely worth it.
She is 4 months and goes to bed at 7, settles herself to sleep with just her Dreamsheep (white noise) and we generally don't hear from her til 11.30 when she is fed and put in our room for the night.
She is a very happy and contented little girl.
Also, how long/when is she napping. She will find it very difficult to settle if she is over tired.
If Gina Ford is too rigid for you ( I quite like her if taken with some common sense ) then try this
www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Baby-Whisperer-Connect-Communicate/dp/0091857023
There is also a website
www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Baby-Whisperer-Connect-Communicate/dp/0091857023