Getting a bedtime routine sorted for my 3 month old

[Clockers]

Hi
I'm new here although I have been lurking for a while and was hoping for some advice.
I have a 3 month old baby girl who has been sleeping though fairly consistantly from about 11ish to 6.30-8am for several weeks now. We are now getting to the stage where we would like to claim our evenings back!
She is often either asleep on and off in her bouncer chair or awake and cranky from about 7.30-8pm so she is obviously tired.
I breastfeed and she had one bottle of formula before bed.
She is very hard to settle - it can take anything from 20 mins to 1.5 hours of picking up and putting down before she eventually goes to sleep - I think this maybe because she is overtired?
Ideally we would like her to go to bed at about 8pm - we did try a bath, bottle, cuddle ,bed routine a couple of weeks ago but she just wouldn't go down and we ended up bringing her into the lounge with us at about 9.30 so we could eat our dinner!
We have decided instead to try and bring it forward gradually with the aim of her being in bed by 10pm as a starting point. Last night was our first attempt and it took an hour to settle her and she finally fell asleep at 11pm!
I guess I have the following questions
Do you think we should continue to take the bringing bedtime forward gradually approach? or should we go back to putting her down at 8pm and just perseveering with it?
My concern with bringing it forward gradually is that it is going to take many more months before we have any kind of evening to ourselves!

Sorry for such a long post!

will she fall asleep on the breast?

She will sometimes but not as a rule - she will fall asleep in our arms with rocking and sshhing but wakes up when we put her down (until about 11!)
I got her a light show in the hope that it would help her settle herself but it is too stimulating if anything - she's facinated for a bit and then cries because she is tired...

Hi,
may you please help l am struggling to put my 3 mnths gal to sleep at night, she doesnt settle until 1am ,wakes up around 3.30am feeds settles around 4ish then up around 7am and will settle back around 8 till 10.30 or 11. have tried routine feed, bath, cuddle, feed and put to sleep she jut wakes up the minute ou put her down. am breastfeeding daytime then bottle feed before bed. l dont know where l am getting it wrong am a 1st time mum.help help

A few tips that worked for us:

Ensure she is active and stimulated during the day (door bouncer and swimming never fail)

Keep a diary (feed time, nap time, nappy change, crying)- sounds like you're getting stressed and its a way of linking possible cause and effect whilst also showing progress

Figure out a bed time routine and get her to have a nap about 1 hour before bed time- ours is

5.30pm 40 min nap
6.10pm feed, quiet play
6.45pm Bath, massage
7.15pm last feed

then when she is full put her in her cot.

Also dim lighting sometimes stimulates babies as its easier for them to see

When you get up during the night only change nappies if dirty, don't speak much and try to ensure she is awake

Babies often coo etc in their sleep and flap their arms.

Try to settle (we do this with a dummy) when she wakes through the night without picking her up

We put our DD in her own room as she grew out of the moses and found she slept better

Don't worry it does pass

Is the bottle you're giving her formula? I'd try to go back t breast- it gets my girl off better.

Thanx l am giving her formula. l tried dummy but she kept taking it out then cry for it so l was getting up every time to put it back in her mouth.so now she found her finger.And yes l was lifting her up and changing nappy even she didn`t complain about it[blush ]

I understand your pain! My now 4.5 month old refused to sleep before at least 10.30pm and would cry hysterically with any attempts to put her to bed earlier. And then (yay!) it just happened! We were on holiday for a week in a cottage (she was 3 months old) and she had had a big day in the car and was yawning like mad at about 9pm. I put her to bed and she slept until 2.30am and then went straight back down again after a feed until 6.30am. For the rest of the week she was in bed by 8.30pm and asleep by 9pm with no fuss. Once home I brought her sleep times gradually forward and now she can't wait to be in bed at 7pm! I thought we would never ever get our evenings back despite others telling me it would just happen. There is light at the end of the tunnel - evenutally.