Need help on starting sleep routine

[kcdm]

Hi .. just wanted some thoughts /ideas on anyone that's in a similar situation with their baby . My daughter is 3 months this week and at the moment she has like a "witching hour" evening so I haven't attempted to properly put her down in her bed at day 7ish for a bed time but I really want to start . At the moment her bed time is 10/11 when we go to bed . She was born premature so I obviously take this into account .

When did you start a proper bed time routine with your baby ? Any tips / ideas to brake witching hour habit and just to try put her down at a bed time ?
Hope this all makes sense . ( obviously I would be around upstairs / have monitor on etc)

Our witching hour lasted until 14.5 weeks, so just over 3 months. Every now and then she'd have a less witchy evening so we'd try to do a bit of bath or book, wrestle her into a sleeping bag, etc, in the same order, as close as possible to the time she usually did a big sleep, to make the association. To be honest it just sort of evolved, ten steps forward, ten steps back, a crab walk sideways; and she gradually went from 10pm to 9pm to 8pm to 6pm and now 7pm. All led by her tired cues, really.

SIDS advice is for them to have all sleep – naps and night – in the same room as you until 6 months; a monitor isn't the same. So if your daughter can handle sleeping in the sitting room with you for a while yet, I'd keep bedtime to the same as your bedtime for a while. (My DD needs wrestling down with a butterfly net, tranquilliser darts and pitch black, so I've been going to bed with her at 7pm for a while.)

Well yeh I would have to stay up with her . I don't think she can cope with being down here . I think she is over tired . Thankyou for your advice , so you gradually moved the time back .. so if she goes to bed at 10, I would try 9 ? Problem is she's used to having a bottle around 10 as she's usually due then and then settles after a little kick and chat to herself xx

I didn't really move the time back, it was more her settling earlier and is responding with doing the routine earlier. Sort of trial and error.

Could you move the 10pm bottle back gradually, say by 15-20 mins per week? Or it might end up as a dreamfeed once you've established a bedtime?

Also don't listen to me, we've got the bedtime routine NAILED but not the sleeping part afterwards

Thankyou ! Had some success last night, bottle at 7 , took and hour after she finished to get her to sleep with rocking her and bit of self soothing, she woke couple times as her dummy fell out but was still sleepy so just popped it back in and she didn't demand food till 1 and then woke at half 4 this morning :) much better and plus no witching hour 😃😃🤞🏻fingers crossed this continues or atleast sometimes continues lol Thankyou for your help xx

Also hope you get yours sleeping well soon !! How old is yours ?

She's six months but she liked the four-month sleep regression so much she's decided to keep at it.

An hour of rocking?! From what I've read, a good bedtime routine should be 20-40 minutes (depending on the child's age), then the getting-them-to-sleep part say 20 minutes? An hour suggests they're not ready for sleep yet. You could save your back and just start rocking at 7.40pm tomorrow!

No probably not an hour of rocking as she did some self soothin and she's definitely ready as if she stays down here she's too tired with tv and things going on :) she must be ready and must of needed it if she went to sleep :) thanks tho xx

Iv recently started a night time routine with my little one, he’s almost 9 weeks old and I started it last week. We were having issues with the witching hour(s) which is why I thought I’d try!

Between 6pm-6.30pm I’ll start depending on when I can see him starting to get fussy. We will either start with a bath or straight to get changed -fresh nappy followed by a quick baby massage then into pjs. Then it’s straight into our bedroom in the dark for a bottle of milk. Followed by a couple of lullabies and then a cuddle until he’s very sleepy and then i put him in his crib.

It’s only been a few days but so far there has been a dramatic change in the evenings and how he sleeps at night! So far we have been able to avoid the witching hour, and he now sleeps 7pm-7am with just two quick feeds in the night! Much better than an evening of screaming followed by waking up every 2-3 hours and taking 45mins to go back to sleep each time! Really hoping it’s not a fluke and he keeps it up!!

Aww that's good ! Well done , my little girl is much better now I put her down . She'll take an hour of getting off to sleep but then sleeps till about 11 and might stir but then goes back to sleep till about 1:) and then wakes at half 4!
Here's to hoping 🤞🏻 goodbye witching hour 😂😂🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Well done! I really do think a night time routine is the key, makes such a difference!