Evening routine. Where/when do you eat?

[RhubarbRocks]

I’m really struggling to fit everything into the final wake window of the day and would be interested to hear others manage it with babies under 6 months (ie that need to have someone in the room with then while they sleep).

I’m trying to fit the following into 75-90 mins:
My shower and DS’s bath
Dress DS and put away his bath
DS feed
Cook and eat my dinner
Final sort out of house - plates to dishwasher, get a glass of water
Brush my teeth
Pre bed routine (nappy, story, settling - takes at least 30 mins+)

It doesn’t sound like a lot when I write it but the time seems to disappear and I really struggle to get him to sleep on time so he gets overtired.

The obvious things to take out are the ‘me’ things - shower, dinner etc - and do them later. But I can’t do those without leaving him in the bedroom alone to sleep, which I’m not supposed to do before 6 months.

What do others do?

(I do have a DH but he is at work so I need to be able to do this alone).

Bouncy chair! Small enough to take into every room with you, baby is strapped in so can’t hurt themselves. Put down to sleep in a moses basket downstairs, carry it up when you go up to bed and transfer them (if you want to)

You might not feel comfortable doing this but I would leave my baby asleep in another room for 15 mins or so while I had a shower. I’m a single parent so used to batch cook or assemble food during a nap earlier in the day or with the baby in the sling so I just had to heat it up or plate it in the evening. Often left the kitchen tidy up for the morning…

Baby video monitors are a great invention for this very reason

Baby is fine in another room if you have a monitor and check on them periodically.

I know the advice is to stay with them while they’re under 6 months, but if LO is fast asleep I’d use a baby monitor and have my shower, do dishes etc then.

It's awful the pressure all the latest guidelines put on parents. Put them down in a mosses basket take them up after last feed when your ready for bed.

If baby is under 6 months then they do not need a bedtime bath, a daily bath, a bed time story or be put to bed before you go to bed yourself.

Just feed them and put them down in the moses basket, pram or bouncer in a quiet dimly lit corner of the living room. I wouldn’t leave them for hours or anything but I would do 5 minutes whilst I rush for a quick shower. If you’re not comfortable with that then by all means take the bouncer with you into the bathroom. Get easy stuff for dinner or meal prep at the weekend so you bung it the oven then eat on the sofa. At 10pm-ish or whenever you go to bed yourself I would feed again, from 4 months we did this as a dreamfeed so they wouldn’t actually wake, and take them upstairs with you. Bath time can be done in the morning. Stories can be read at any time during the day. Do the proper bedtime routine upstairs when they’re actually old enough to be left and also hopefully sleep through!

Thanks. Yes he is only 16 weeks. I was doing exactly what you suggest and was having a nice relaxed evening but then I started using the Huckleberry app, which suggests a routine (4 months sleep regression and I’m doing all I can to get some more sleep and I thought the app would help). I definitely feel a lot more stressed since I started it though so maybe I’ll just relax a bit more and start again in a couple of months.