Help with bedtime routine..,

[MrsB0412]

As the title says I need advice or peoples opinions on bed time routine for my DD who is almost 12 weeks

It's not so much the routine itself which I have - Bath, baby massage, lights low, bottle and cuddles

It's the timing! I can't seem to get it right and she screams all the way from hitting that water to her bottle!
To be fair I got in Bath with her tonight and not a single tear so I think that may be way forward to build her confidence in water for now!

In the day I feed her 8am/12/4pm or as best as possible to those times and she takes anything up to 7Oz (not every feed)

She doesn't sleep thru yet but the last 4 nights she has only required one waking/feed from 7pm ish to 8am
Ish give or take a bit

Last night in the hope of getting her to
Sleep thru the hours that suited me (haha) I
Tried a dream feed at 10:30pm
The feed itself went really well with her not opening her eyes, bringing wind up easy, settling after easy and taking 4Oz
However, she still woke at 2:30am roughly when she would wake anywsy (give or take hour) so I feel like I created a feed for nothing?! Not sure if I should persevere with this or just feed on demand at night
She still Took 4Oz at 2:30am too

Anyway, my dilemma with bedtime is the timing
After that 4pm bottle She will often get ratty around 6pm where she is tired

So things I've tried

1. not letting her nap and bathing earlier which results in her getting so tired She falls asleep earlier at like 6pm and only takes maybe a ounce due to being exhausted and only feeding 2Hr ago
   This has happened tonight so I will update tomorrow but suspect taking so little on this bedtime feed is unlikely to see her last long!

2. letting her nap (usually around 6pm for 30-45min) which makes her less tired but hungrier so she is ratty as closer to
   Feeding but takes more of the feed

What would / do you do with your little ones?
Do they have evening nap at this age? Or would you persevere with settling earlier without evening nap? Even though this may mean that she doesn't take much of her feed and reverts back to waking twice for feeds?

I'm really not sure what to do for best and wondered what others do/think?

Thank you
X

Have you tried a morning bath?

I've not established a formal bedtime until baby is reliably extending the early-evening nap and it merges into the nights sleep. Usually around 5 months old.

Some babies don't benefit from a dreamfeed at all, one of mine didn't and would wake at the same time regardless. You cant know that on the basis of 1 night though, give it a week or two to establish first.

Sorry late reply!
No I've stuck with night time Bath as I really want that to be part of bed time routine and something for hubby to be involved with when home from work

The bath itself has been much less traumatic by Co bathing so I genuinely think she was scared bless her
So will work on building her confidence from there

She is doing well ish sleep wise
Sleeps from around 8/9pm after the bath and bottle and only has one feed at around 2/3am
Then normally goes til around 7ish after feed

I'm really not sure if I should work on the dream feed or just accept that I have her settling well for an early bed time and just hope that the night sorts itself out in time!

I'm still struggling with the whole evening nap situation though
A book reading suggests to let them wake from their nap at least two hrs before bedtime but she is generally napping about 6pm then bathing around 7pm bottle around 7:30 and down around 8:30 (roughly give or take half hour with these times)

I'm just not sure how to prevent the evening nap as she is clearly tired and it doesn't seem to be affecting her going to sleep around 8ish

Don't prevent the evening nap
Cut out the bath if she doesn't want it
I would only dream feed if they are waking before about 0130

You are over thinking this!
She will settle soon

Yeah that's what I think
Let her nap
She is enjoying Bath with me in with her
And I'm kind of thinking getting her down at 8:30 ish is good for 12 weeks old
And the night will sort itself out in time
I have a feeling she is just going to be one of these that doesn't sleep until about 6months when she has Food and not just Milk
She takes anything from 4 to 7 Oz during day 🐷

Mine used to have a quick nap at 5/6ish, she's still only little so don't worry too much. Also, there's plenty of time for evening baths, morning ones or not every night might work better for the moment. Just go with what she can handle while she is so little x

I tried dream feeding and found my DD woke up more in the night. In my opinion, if they're hungry they wake and changing their natural rhythm isn't fair.
Same with trying to alter her naps, honestly they will sleep when they need to and you can't keep her awake/force her to sleep when she's not ready!

Feed her when she needs it, stick with your bedtime routine. My DD hated baths up until about four months old when she was big enough for a reclining bath chair. Sitting with them is a really nice way to do it so keep it up if it's practical :)

One night feed is fantastic and a step in the right direction so don't worry. It's hard at the time but things change so quickly with little babies, routine will change as they alter their feeds and naps so go with the flow and enjoy the night time snuggles while she still wants them :)

Doesn't sound like a lot of daytime feeds. Could you feed more often than 4 hourly?

i think co bathing will fix your problem to be honest. We had the same problem and switching to one of us bathing with her worked a treat. We never fed on demand because she went nocturnal ! (Premmie who got used to routine feeding in scbu) but the bath time screaming was definitely fixed by bathing with her. Good luck xx