Advice for very long bedtime routine

[Monstermonkeymum]

We have a set bedtime routine starting at 6pm for our 14 week old, with bath, quiet music and feed. Ds is bf and will feed from 6.30 to 7, then fall asleep for 15 mins and then feed slowly for another hour and a half. I've tried feeding before bath but he just takes longer after and still wants another feed. If I wake him from his 'nap' he still takes ages but is grumpier. We are struggling to get him to take a bottle to express which might speed things eventually, but it means at the moment I am tied to him every evening from 6.30 til 9 at the earliest (dh does bath)which is very restrictive. Is this normal? And any advice on whether it changes or how to make it shorter? I love our time together but at some point in the future would like to have an attempt at an evening as I go to bed not long after he does! Should I resign myself to this and just settle in for the future? I've tried moving routine times and no real difference.

Yes, if you want to stick to the bedtime routine it is normal. DS did this for a few months. At 2.5 he has the same routine at the same time, but I can say 'night night' at 7:30 and walk out. A good night routine is worth investing the time and effort in. By 6 months it got much better btw, if you want an average timetable. Was sleeping till 1 for the next feed.

I agree with Kewrious, bedtime routines are good to stick to, and babies get more efficient at feeding as they get older so feeding time will shorten. I would persevere with the expressed bottle during the day if you can as my DD never took a bottle of expressed milk and I breastfed until she was 22 months which was very restricting, I wish we'd introduced and persevered with the bottle earlier so when she was a little older I could have night out (just once in a while would've been nice). Anyway, just a thought.

Sounds pretty normal. I've kind of given up putting ds2 (4mo) to bed after all the evening routine stuff we do anyway with ds1 (3), as I just end up stuck upstairs feeding & burping for 2 more hours after ds1 goes to sleep at 7.30.

Ds2 will feed then play , one more feed, then go to bed at 9.30 self settling. Sitting in a darkened room for ages doesn't really change that . I found with ds1 that bedtime became much easier as he got older so I'm not worrying about it too much now.

DD was exactly the same at 12 weeks. Now, at 16 weeks, she goes down at 6.30-7 and doesn't feed again until 10-11. She's up a lot in the night but at least I have my evening back! I can't quite remember when the change happened but anyway it seems that everything is a moving target at this age and it's best just to go along with what the little dictators want :)