At what age did your newborn start going to bed at a normal time and how did you get them to do it?

[Artichook]

DS is 5 weeks and has always stayed downstairs with us in the evening just dozing, feeding and being rocked. I take him to bed when I go to bed. The last few days he seems disturbed by the lights and noise so it seems he needs to go to bed upstairs at 7ish but he just won't settle when I try to do a bedtime routine. In fact he never settles in the cot expect for after night feeds, in the day he will only nap in the carseat or on a human, but thats another story.

So what age do most babies start going to bed at 7ish in their cot? And how do you get to that point when you have a baby that won't settle at that time of day unless being held?

It's hard to remember but I think I noticed that my daughter wouldn't settle to sleep until about 8.30pm when she was about 8 weeks old. Before that, all bets were off. She would feed to sleep and sleep in her moses basket in the living room with us until we went to bed. We didn't start putting her down to sleep in the bedroom until she was about 12-14 weeks.

After a while I tried to put her down slightly earlier and found that she would fall asleep for 7pm after a 6pm bath/feed routine. So it can take a while.

At 5 weeks it seems unremarkable that you have a baby who wants constant cuddles! We got used to swapping her between us so we could eat dinner, and moving her to her moses basket when she was properly asleep. We did start turning the lights and volume down a bit so she'd sleep more soundly. Eventually I had to move to feeding her in a quiet bedroom instead of in front of the telly as she was too curious - probably around 12-14 weeks.

Between 10-12 weeks.

3 weeks 9pm-9am , now she goes to bed at 7pm and wakes at 6:30!!(now age 4)

we tried to not be holding her constantly so she wasnt so clingy to us but that's each to their own !

We started trying at 6 weeks, and it took a good couple of months until he was going to bed reasonably reliably at 7ish. He is now 14 months and still goes to bed by 6.30 every night. I spent a lot of time on the iPad on mumsnet in the dark whilst he wriggled!

My bf babies would not settle in the evenings except on me for months. Then, all of a sudden, they just came out of it and needed to be in bed by 7. I can't remember with the first two, but ds was 6-7 months before he snapped out of his late evening cluster feeds.

Mine were the same as hobnobs and its recommends they sleep in the same room as you for the first six ,the anyway.

We had the pram with carrycot in the living room and I out the hood up to keep it darker or drapped a muslin cloth etc. Dd slept downstairs like that till about 8mths as then if she needed settling I didn't have to dash upstairs.

But the boys were upstairs from around 6/7mths, had a feed and slept in our bed until we went up. We have a futon so low down and safe for co-sleeping.

My DD stayed downstairs snuggling and dozing with us until she was about 5months. She had a bedtime routine from much younger though - we'd bath her, give her a baby massage and put her in her gro-bag and bring her downstairs to the room dimmed and tele off. She'd have her evening feed then we'd settle her to sleep and when she's nodded off we'd put the tele on /eat ourselves etc with her beside us in her moses basket. Then when she was older and we felt comfortable leaving her in her crib with the baby monitor on, we just slightly adjusted the routine so it took place in the bedroom instead.

DD1 was about 9 weeks when she dropped her insane cluster feeding (from 5pm until 11pm) and we started putting her down in our room at about 8.30pm until her first wake up - usually 10-10.30pm - when I'd go to bed. The clocks changed not long after that so bedtime became 7.30 and gradually we pushed it to 7pm which is the same now at almost 3.

Dd2 ia eleven days old and sleeping on me right now, she is beautifully snuggly and also struggling a bit with mucus so I'd prefer to have her close. I'm aiming to introduce a bedtime similar to DD1 within the next 6-8 weeks.

My DS is 10 weeks old and since birth we have always had a bedtime routine. He has a bath anywhere between 7-8.30pm (about 1.5 hours after his feed) then into pj's and then I give him another feed, wind him and put him into Moses basket. Sometimes he only has a few ml's of his last feed and sometimes he drinks all of it. I never take him out of his basket once he is in just sing him a soft lullaby and plenty of ssshhh's and place my hand on his chest. at first i used to have to repeat this a few times (without the lullaby) but now its only the occasional time. but for the past 3 weeks he has slept until 4/5 wakes up for a feed and straight to sleep again until 8/9am. I used to keep the Moses basket in the lounge with us and then take him upstairs in it when we went to bed but since the purchase of my video monitor he goes straight in his Moses basket in our bedroom. The video monitor is definatly my best purchase I can see him/hear him/ssshhh him at the click of a button. I also make sure that in the day time is it very light and noisy I talk/sing songs during feed time in the day but for last feed and 4/5am feed I don't utter a word. To be honest I think my DS thinks thank goodness my mother has shut up finally a bit of peace n quite!! X

I know people say you can't 'spoil' a baby but I think my DH spoilt our DD. When she was tiny he'd say to leave her to sleep with us/in the rocker chair/cuddling etc, as she was so gorgeous & he liked to see her cutely sleeping. I wanted to put her in cot but he just cuddled her to sleep & TBH I wasn't up to arguing.
We've just managed to get her to start going to sleep in her own cot bed (I put my foot down as I can't do it any more & DH is waiting for surgery so is not supposed to be lifting heavy things). She is nearly 14 months. TBH it only took 2 nights before she realised what was expected, & after less than a week we can usually just put her down in her cot (awake) and walk away. It wasn't that stressful & there were almost no tears even on the first night - but the first 13 months were definitely stressful. She is a bright girl & seems to understand quite a lot of what we say to her, although not talking yet. If she gets up we just say 'lay down darling' to her & she does.

Not ideal for everyone & I'm not sure I'd do the same again but I'm a wimp & chickened out of CC after 1 hour.

DS2 is now six months old. The first six to eight weeks or so we didn't really have a routine, he just fed and slept as and when. Then he sort of fell into a bit of a pattern of wanting to sleep at about 7pm each evening, so we started with feed, bath, bed at around 7pm.

He would still wake a few hours later for a feed, but establishing that bedtime worked for all of us (7pm is also DS1's bedtime), and everything else slowly fell into place. By twelve weeks he was in bed for 7pm, then not waking until 3-4am for a feed, then waking again at 7am.