Share Your Bedtime Routines Please

[Njh1986]

Hi all, I’m a FTM looking for advice on our bedtime routine for our 11 week old. Since 5 weeks (when we noticed that she couldn’t cope with the noise/lights in the lounge in the evening and suffered serious overstimulation) we have been using the following bedtime routine which works every time (touch wood):

6.00 - 4oz bottle
6.20 - bath in Johnson’s Baby Bedtime Bath
6.30 - into sleepsuit and grobag
6.35 - 2oz top up, white noise MyHummy on, winding, hold upright for 15 mins (silent reflux) and into crib either sleepy or in a light sleep

Usually she’s asleep by 7 and on a good night we don’t get woken up for a feed until 2-3, other times it’s 11-12. Have tried a dreamfeed but she just smiles at me and closes her mouth!

As we’re going to be heading into the 4 month sleep regression soon I was wondering if I should be trying to get the full 6oz into her before bath time so she doesn’t associate going back to sleep in the night with feeding? At the moment she gets very sleepy very quickly during night feeds and either nods off after a couple of ounces (you cannot rouse her even by stripping her naked!) or rubs her head against in my shoulder in annoyance when I’m holding her upright afterwards because she wants to get back in her crib and have a wiggle to nod off again. On occasion she will wake during the evening and look at the baby monitor, wiggle around a bit and go to sleep again if she’s not starving, but any wakings after 2am require feeds as she is starving by then!

The trouble with just doing bottle before bath is that a) she has a teeny tiny stomach capacity so can never take more than 4oz at once, and b) she works up an appetite during her bath so won’t settle without a top up!

Long story short, I just wondered if people would like to share their bedtime routines for their little ones to see if I’m setting myself up for a drama here?

It all sounds good but it does not need to be that structured when they are so little but if your happy with it then keep going.

If your baby is going to have a difficult sleep regression then they will and there is not much you can do.

At 11 weeks, we fed DD after the bath, made sure she was well winded and put her to bed straight after that. Having a short burping break between milk and sleep was sufficient to start disassociating feeding and sleeping.

When DD was 12 weeks, we put her into her own room (contrary to UK SIDS guidelines but I have done my research and was comfortable with the decision). We always fed DD in the living room at 6pm or so, gave her a quick cuddle and put her upstairs at around 6.30pm. Feed to sleep association was pretty much gone between 3 and 4 months. As a result, we have never been impacted by the four month sleep regression. By that time DD was able to settle independently and never needed our help during the night unless there was a clear reason (e.g. a dirty nappy).

I know a lot of posters will say that a structured routine might not make much difference at an early age but it definitely worked for us.

I do the following:

7:15pm - Bath & Story
7:30pm - Into PJs and grobag
7:35pm - 8oz bottle
8:00pm - Light out & Ewan the Dream Sheep on heartbeat mode

He's 5 months old now but I've been doing this since about 12 weeks

As per the previous poster, it is against SIDS guidelines to put them to bed in another room but my little boy just got angry and upset when we kept him downstairs so this works for us

Also meant to add, we never had a 4 month sleep regression so it's not inevitable

Thanks guys - routines not much different from ours I see, but I just can’t seem to stop her getting sleepy enough at the 2oz top up to put her in her crib wide awake and thus teach her to self settle. It’s like she’s has two modes; hyper after her bath or super sleepy after her top up bottle! I’m worried that this is going to cause us havoc with feed-sleep associations at 4 month regression.

Tried going without the top up bottle tonight and she laid there in her crib thrashing about for nearly TWO hours, by which point she was hungry again and overtired and started screaming.

I wonder if anyone has managed to avoid the 4 month regression with a baby with bad habits such as mine has?