Bath time having the opposite effect

[rbmilliner]

Hi
Has anyone else found that bath time is having the opposite effect or exciting there LO.

Have a 9 week old and have been getting her into a bedtime routine for a couple of weeks now. But instead of relaxing her she loves it so much that she splashes around like a little frog and by the time she gets out she's as fresh as a daisy and equally alert. I really don't mind because it's actually my favourite part of the day with her but does make the winding down before bedtime last a long time because she's so hyper.

If I'm honest I really don't want to change the routine because then Daddy gets to enjoy helping as well as this when he comes home from work but was just wondering if anyone else had the same experience?

What time is bedtime? As it may be too early. At 9 weeks babies still tend to go to sleep quite late.

Yes! Almost 10 months and still loves it, but as long as I do the last feed after the bath then she'll still settle.

There was a point where, due to reflux and training not to fall asleep being fed, I did the last feed before the bath or half before and half after. You have to do what works for you, which often changes, but she now has dinner, then bath, bottle and bed and that's what works best for us at this stage.

I was the same in wanting to keep the bath in the evening so DH could (occasionally) be there. I have friends who still do bath time only a couple of times a week but I think it helps that we've done it every night (not when she was tiny tiny but since she had any kind of routine, probably about 3 months for her) it means she knows bath and bed are going to happen so although she enjoys it, she knows she'll be going to bed soon. I'd trade in saving 10 minutes for having a good daily routine any day.

I guess what I'm saying is, think long term - if you stick with this now then you'll hopefully reap the rewards within the next few months when she has learned that bath means going to bed. It's now almost like the excitement uses up the last of her energy so she goes to sleep easily.

HT85 bath time is 7. To be honest it's as much about training ourselves as I am naturally very disorganised and so far is the only thing I've managed to stick to. She normally has a grouchy period around about 5-6ish and this at least stops that

Bathtime is meant to be fun!

If it bothers you that this fun activity happens in the evening, do bath time in the morning. It doesn't have to be done at night.

What time is bedtime though? We don't have a consistent bedtime as we don't follow a routine (we don't have consistent wake time) but as a rule for thumb bedtime is usually at least an hour and a half after bath currently. My daughter is 6 months. So for example if she baths at 7 she goes to sleep at about 8.30 x

currently tends to be about nine when we bath our five week old DS when he does wake, then i feed skin to skin then we attempt at least one chunk of decent sleep.

It will get earlier when he's got a routine but I don't think you can dictate at this age, you just have to go with them.