This might be a stupid question, but how do you all put your babies to sleep? Do they have a bedtime? Do you cuddle them to sleep? My LO is 7 weeks and just dictates her own bedtime really. She falls asleep being bounced in her chair anytime between 8.30 and 11.30 so when she's gone we take her up and put her in her Moses basket but I'd love to just put her down at a set time and for her to just go to sleep. Is this possible?!

My LO is 6 weeks and we tried to start a bit of a routine last week. Between 6.30 and 7.30 I will take her up and have a bath. Then we go into her room where it's quiet and darker coz of the blind and I feed her and will read to her at the same time. Then she gets swaddled and comes downstairs with me and in her Moses basket. We then keep the tv lower volume and the curtains shut coz I still won't leave her in a room herself just yet. Then she comes up to bed with me at around 10.
She has always been good though at self settling and will happily lie in her basket awake until she dozes off.

ooo interesting topic for me and OH. Between 5-7 he gets bathed/massaged followed by a feed and sometimes book. He may nod off around 9pm and wake up between 11-2 to eat or to be put back to sleep sometimes he doesn't nod off until 11. He has a schedule but it doesn't always work out...

I started a bedtime routine at 6 weeks. I would do bottle/pjs/nappy at 8pm then put her upstairs in her crib and she just started sleeping straight through! I don't know if it was coincidence or whether the nice quiet dark room just did it?!
She's 24 weeks now and it's moved slightly earlier to 7:30pm but her bedtime routine is still the same and she slept through ever since

Short answer: No.

Long answer: All sorts of factors come into a baby's sleep pattern. From distinguishing between light and deep sleep around four months to teething to illness. You're best not stressing yourself out with a set time until they actually need to be somewhere on a regular basis. Just my two cents

We take Sophie up around 6.30pm. Her daddy then bathes her while I lounge on the bed () and then he dresses her in her PJ's and sleeping bag. After I breastfeed her until she has had enough and is calmed down. Then we go in her room, I cuddle her and sing her bedtime song until her eyes start dropping. I put her in her cot and sing the song again (it's quite long) and then quietly slip out the room .

We started a bedtime routine at around 8 weeks I think. We started at 6 with the bath as she took a lot longer to nurse back then (about 45 minutes at least). She also fed to sleep for 5/6 months and slept in our room. So I would feed her, put her down and stay with her to make sure she was fast asleep before leaving the room.

I agree with that. But having some sort of loose routine might help your baby realise it's nighttime and sleepy time. We started when Sophie was ready for sleep around 7pm every night. Before this she would clusterfeed and fall asleep anywhere between 11pm and 2am, so there would've been no point then. It certainly helped Sophie lots and it's nice for all of us to know what's going to happen at night.

My LO usually shows signs of being tired around 7-7:30pm (she's pretty much always set her own bedtime from early on- and it's slowly moved up over the months)... so when she starts to act tired, I'll get her in her night PJ's, her night time diaper (as the ones we use during the day don't last long enough), and put on her sleep sack (used to use a swaddle me when she was smaller)- then I get her final bottle ready and rock her till she's really sleepy. Then I take her up and put her in her room... where she has a little night light, small fan going (but just pushed the air around her room to keep it circulating and create white noise), and turn on her Jewel Lulliby CD.

NOW- there are nights she'll fight going to sleep, so I just keep her up and play with her till she is tuckered out! LOL. OR, there are other nights I know she's tired- but not really ready to go to sleep, but being quiet, so I can set her in her crib and she'll just lay there and make noises till she drifts off to sleep on her own... then, LOL, other nights she's so tired she'll fall asleep during her last feed and I'll just carry her up to her crib.

There is the "norm"- but then it can change weekly or nightly sometimes!

Best of luck hun!

He falls asleep nursing between 9-10, then I put him in his bassinet and he's out.. thats about it! lol

Mmm, she does cluster feed at the min although it is getting better! I started to try a routine but it kept going wrong, like she'd be asleep or wanting a feed when it was time for bath. Also I dont bath her every night as her skin gets really dry.