Advice on bed time routine...

[StarBoHo]

My DD is 18 days old, my DH and I really want to establish a proper bed time routine. Our DD has a feed between 7/8pm so we thought this would be perfect time for her to go to bed.
At the moment she falls asleep at the end of her feed and we always put her down in her moses basket. She does fall asleep on us but we don't allow her to actually sleep on us for the duration of her sleep. She goes down no problem when asleep but we're worried this may cause problems later.
Has anyone got any tips/ideas that can help us get our daughter into a routine? My friends said we should put her down in the moses basket before she falls asleep which I want to do...but how? I know it won't magically work so am prepared for a crying baby.

 

[Ziggy2]

I would say your Lo is too young for a bedtime routine, and it is fine that she falls asleep on you, she will grow out of it in time, most babies can't self settle at this stage. I would just relax about it all she will find her own routine. I first started a bedtime routine at about 8 weeks

 

[LoPanda]

This is of course totally up to you, and I am interested to hear other views but I personally would not worry too much about this when LO is so young.

I think most advise not letting them cry it out until they are a while older than your little one.

I suppose trying to get into a routine can't be a bad thing though - although I personally take the attitude of doing what LO wants while she's so young and hoping she falls into a routine or imposing one when shes a a few months older.

Hope it all goes well for you anyway. x

 

[StarBoHo]

I was just looking around the Internet and the scope appears to be that she's too young right now for a routine. Thanks for the replies ladies. I think we'll continue to do what we were doing as its working and LO is happy right now with it.

 

[littleblonde]

There is nothing wrong with you doing set things at bedtime to help lo no when bedtime is. This is what we did. We didnt do it at a set time, we just did it at the time of night that we would go up for the night. So about 30 minutes before her last feed we would give her a bath and then massage her/ or just the massage. then in a quiet, dark/semi dark room i would give her her last feed. I would cuddle her to sleep and then put her down and we would go bed. from then onwards we would stay upstairs for all feeds till morning. Like i said dont do it at a set time or anything. It was so simple but really helped my lo no the difference between night and day. She made her own routine very quickly after this and set her own bedtime. we do have a toddler so it was important that we had some sort of routine fairly early just so that my toddlers routine stayed the same. Dont worry about the self settleing. Your baby will learn to do this at some point. Put it this way you wont be cuddling your 16 year old to sleep lol. although i have a feeling i may want to.

 

[sw121]

we started a bedtime routine when LO was about a week old, and we're so glad we did, because he very quickly learnt the difference between night and day. He has his bath at 7pm, then a feed in a darkened room and then into his cot. When he was very little he would often fall asleep whilst feeding, however after a few weeks of the routine he wouldn't necessarily fall asleep, but we could still put him in his moses basket awake and he would fall asleep by himself.

we still use the same routine now and he's brilliant at nights. He's slept through since 7/8 weeks old, he sleeps 12 hours a night and since we came home from hospital we've only had one sleepless night with him.

 

[missjay]

My little one is 9 and half months old and she's only ever woken up twice when she was poorly and when her dad decided to wake her up. I think at the moment the most important thing is your baby knows the difference between night and day. What I did with my little one is last feed was always at the same time which was after bath and I would massgae she would then fall asleep in my arms. She's been in her cot since 6 weeks and started self settling at night at 4 months. I think its also important to make sure they have adequate sleep and feeds during the day. The routine should also suit your baby and yourself. We do the same thing everyday and she knows exactly what's. Coming after what. Hope you find a routine that works for you.

 

[KateyCakes]

We started at 8 weeks once we moved house. We did, bath, bottle then bed. She usually fell asleep on the bottle so we'd put her to bed asleep but then she started to stay awake more so we used the 5 minute technique.

We put her down in her cot, put her cot mobile on and walk out of the room for 5 minutes, if she was still crying, I'd go in pick her up, soothe her and put her back down again, then go out of the room again and add 5 minutes onto the time until she fell asleep.

She now has a little moan if she thinks it's too early for bed but settles herself off now.

 

[qpaulina42]

I don't think it's all that bad to start a routine now. It may get adjusted over time of course. Anything you want really but often dimmed lights, a bath, stuff like that. You could try swaddling, nursing, burping, then putting her down as her eyes start drooping, but that didn't work for us till just recently and even then rarely.

 

[Chaos]

My DD is 18 days old, my DH and I really want to establish a proper bed time routine. Our DD has a feed between 7/8pm so we thought this would be perfect time for her to go to bed.
At the moment she falls asleep at the end of her feed and we always put her down in her moses basket. She does fall asleep on us but we don't allow her to actually sleep on us for the duration of her sleep. She goes down no problem when asleep but we're worried this may cause problems later.
Has anyone got any tips/ideas that can help us get our daughter into a routine? My friends said we should put her down in the moses basket before she falls asleep which I want to do...but how? I know it won't magically work so am prepared for a crying baby.

With DD1 we did the following routine from 2 wks and it worked awesome .. we are doing the same with DD2 now (shes 4 wks)

On a side note our ped told us its never too early for a routine (along with never wake a sleeping baby) best 2bits of advice I ever got!

She eats about 630/7p
Go up stairs, run a bath for her (we use the J&J night time relaxing soap for her)
5 or 10 mins in the warm water to relax.
In to the bathroom, lights dimmed, low sounds, I give her a massage with the J&J bedtime lotion .. dress her, swaddle her, turn the noise machine on to the heartbeat sound then sit holding her tell she is doing the 'falling asleep faces'
I them lay her in the co-sleeper and just sit beside her until she's fully asleep, normally 10 mins.

I don't put her to bed right after the boob as I dont want it associated with how to get to sleep iykwim? The bath/quietness/massage/swaddle are her indications its night time.

DD1 was sleeping 12hrs + thru the night at 8 wks with this routine,

 

[XJessicaX]

You can start a relaxed routine by all means, but the baby will not understand it as a routine until much older...probably around 4-6 months! The babies own requirements to sleep and feeding change daily too, so enforcing a strict routine can cause issues as you are trying to fit the baby into your schedule rather than you following theirs. Putting a very young baby down to sleep awake hoping that they will learn to self soothe hardly ever works, and you will end up using control crying (uncontrolled) because the baby is FAR too young to understand where mummy has gone and why she is alone, you shouldn't 'prepare for crying' because ideally you shouldn't be putting your baby in a position expecting them to cry.

I wouldn't worry about 'creating a rod for your own back' either....allowing your baby to sleep on you, or to feed to sleep is completely natural and most grow out of it.

 

[BabyBubbles]

We started a loose routine at around 6 weeks. Bed at around 9pm, change bum, change into sleepsuit, feed, burp, feed then put into basket while half asleep - all with just a night light on. My idea was that as hv said, if night time changes and feeding is dark and quiet they'll sleep as theyd rather be awake during the day with the noise and light etc. I put a hot water bottle in his basket to make it warm like me and we've just started giving a dummy as he uses me as a dummy normally! I'd leave him to go to sleep and if he cried, pick him up soothe and try again. This week he's started self settling I'ts not a strictly timed routine by any means but the processes we go through every night are the same x