Night time bed time....

[Redhead79]

When did you breastfeed baby start going to bed at a reasonable time?
Dd is 3 months and we cannot get her to go to bed before 10.30-11.30pm when she feeds to sleep.

We haven't been able to instil any strict routine as no matter what we do she just stays wide awake and screams if we try to put her down.
She is generally a reluctant sleeper and usually needs to be in the pushchair/sling to nap and I don't want to get to the stage where we have to have rely on this at night as well.

I know she's still little so will accept the situation if it will sort its self out later but also don't want to leave it too late and make life more difficult in the long term .....

Dc1 was about 4 months and dc2 was about 12 weeks when they started setting to bed early after an bedtime feed at about 7pm. Up until then they had later bed times, starting at about 10.30/11pm then going down to about 9ish until finally settling about 7ish (or more like 6.30 for dc2).

DS2 has gradually moved to an earlier bedtime as he has got older. Same as above he started with a late bedtime of about 11pm, I just took him to bed with me. It moved to 10, then 9ish and now at 6 months he goes to bed between 7 and 8. I didn't really do anything and he's very different to DS1 who has always been a night owl!

About 8-9 weeks he started giving very clear signals that he was tired in the evening. Before that he'd been staying up with us until we went to bed
I started a short bedtime routine of bath, pjs, lie down and feed and he took to it well. Then I moved bedtime a bit earlier each night so that now we are in bed feeding by 6:15 ish and he's usually down by 6:45/7

Two caveats: he's obviously a lark like his parents, and he was clearly ready for a bedtime. Secondly we had a massive wobble at 15 weeks when everything just went to pot. We are just getting through that now.

Why not try a bedtime routine at your current time for a few days and then move it 15 mins earlier every couple of days?

Ds started out spending the night on my lap on a feeding cushion. Snoozing and feeding. Then i would have him in the sling while i did dinner, he would sleep and i could usually transfer him to the bounce chair where he would either stay asleep or wake but be ok watching BBT .....

One day i managed to put him down on the bed while he was asleep and that signalled the start of a 6-7pm bedtime upstairs. I won't lie, its not been easy and he's a crap sleeper and even worse at naps but at almost 7 months i can usually feed to sleep upstairs, transfer to cot and he Will sleep for 2-3 hrs. That's the most impressive part of his sleeping!

Loud white noise helped us,.we don't use it anymore but it did really help. Re the putting down, its MUCH easier if you have baby on a blanket while you feed, with the blanket between your arms and baby. Then when you put her down she stays on the blanket. At that age we could pick the blanket up by the corners like a hammock and transfer her like that. Ds is too big for that now but i still find it easier to slide my hands from under him if he is on a blanket.

Yy to white noise and the blanket trick!

I have a womb sounds app that's great and a cellular blanket which I feed him on in bed, then transfer him plus blanket into the cot. Blanket is nice and warm and smells of us both so he's not hitting a cold cot.

I also find gripping him quite firmly and laying him down sloooooooowly in the cot helps. I don't try to not wake him up I just try to transfer him gently so he feels cocooned not like he's dropping

My ds will go and get his 'blankie' now when he is ready for bed and i wrap him up in it, quick cuddle then down in his bed. He's 15months. Some nights he feeds to sleep, others just cuddles. The blanket is a super soft, fine, knitted one my mum made for him when he was born and is perfect for any weather, luckily!

He started a bedtime around 7.30 when he was about 4 months and it became apparent he could not sleep with the lights and tv on and us walking about downstairs. We had a fan for white noise which seemed to help get him down. We also got a Ewan dream sheep which helped for a bit.

Now need to get him sleeping in more than 3 hour stretches!!

Thanks for all the advice, the blanket trick sounds really useful. We have tried white noise but it just puts me to sleep and has no effect whatsoever on her!
Last night we tried a quick bedtime routine starting around 10pm and she had a good 4hours sleep before her first feed so will stick with this and start to move it earlyer over time.