Baby sleep routine

[elle92]

Should a 3 month old have a bedtime routine? My baby boy is 3 months old and is not anywhere near sleeping through the night. He still wakes every 2 hours for a feed and will only fall asleep after being fed or after being held to sleep. Even tried formula at around 9pm to see it would fill him up more (breast fed baby) but no success! When people talk about their babies bed times do they mean the time baby falls asleep or do they put them in the cot and leave them even if awake? I cannot see my baby being able to fall asleep on his own if awake! Am I doing something wrong?

Definitely not doing anything wrong. All babies are different. Sounds like you're doing a great job to me.

DD is 4 months old and I also wondered what people meant by routine and couldnt imagine doing bath and bed at say 7 o'clock.

Then I realised - we do have a routine. Dd has a bottle around 9ish. Has a story and cuddle then down in crib. She will usually be asleep by 10. Wake for a feed between 3 and 4 then back in crib and sleep till about 6 where I move her into our bed until about 8.

Not something I have trained her to do though she just naturally does that and it works for me so I'm happy to continue. She does usually stir around 1am and 5am too. Dummy in will settle her then for a bit.

We started to fall into a routine at around 3 months. We did 6pm bath followed by brief massage, then I would take him into the bedroom and feed him with the room quite dark. I would feed one side, then swaddle and feed the other side until he fell asleep and then pop him into his crib. He would usually be in the crib by about 7pm.

We are still doing this now at almost six months and is works really well. I tried really hard to put him down “drowsy but awake” but it never worked. In the end I gave up and carried on feeding him to sleep because it just makes life so much easier.