bedtime questions etc

[justkitty]

At the moment my 8 weej old typically falls asleep for the night between 9-10pm. Usuay nearer 10 & occasionally 11.

When should I introduce a bedti routine and also when will she start going to bed for the night earlier? she has a cat nap around 8pm sometimes but usually only 20-30minutes.

Excuse typos!

 

[Sbmack]

Following. I have a six week old.

 

[history_girls]

We've done bath, boob, bed since about two weeks - don't know if it works but we did it with dd1 and she is brilliant at going to bed.

At about 4 weeks we started our routine about 9.30, by 6 weeks we started at 9pm, 8 weeks about 8.15 but the last two nights we've started at 7.30. She goes down by about 8.15 and two nights ago did 8 hours straight! Last night two feeds but didn't wake up to 8.30am!! I was awake worrying!

She wants to do 12 hour nights and I need to have her up, fed and dressed by 8.15 to do the nursery run so I've been moving bedtime forward. I was worried she would wake more but still only two or one feed a night. We did do the early bedtime for the first time on a Friday just in case the night was horrendous then dh could help out the next day. But she slept.

I've been finding she was so grumpy after 8pm that I just decided to do bed. If she naps after 6pm I would probably put her to bed a bit later.

I must confess though dd2 is a calm baby who sleeps. We would never have achieved this so early on with dd1.

 

[Hope83]

We've done bath, boob, bed since about two weeks - don't know if it works but we did it with dd1 and she is brilliant at going to bed.

At about 4 weeks we started our routine about 9.30, by 6 weeks we started at 9pm, 8 weeks about 8.15 but the last two nights we've started at 7.30. She goes down by about 8.15 and two nights ago did 8 hours straight! Last night two feeds but didn't wake up to 8.30am!! I was awake worrying!

She wants to do 12 hour nights and I need to have her up, fed and dressed by 8.15 to do the nursery run so I've been moving bedtime forward. I was worried she would wake more but still only two or one feed a night. We did do the early bedtime for the first time on a Friday just in case the night was horrendous then dh could help out the next day. But she slept.

I've been finding she was so grumpy after 8pm that I just decided to do bed. If she naps after 6pm I would probably put her to bed a bit later.

I must confess though dd2 is a calm baby who sleeps. We would never have achieved this so early on with dd1.

Please don't mind me jumping in...
When you say you put your baby to bed- how do you do that? Whenever I try to put my 1 month old in her bassinet, she wakes up right away. Hence us co-sleeping...
Thanks!
And congrats on your fabulous sleeper

 

[Juicyg]

We started loosely introducing a basic routine as soon as we started giving my boy baths which was around 10 days old. Up to 8 weeks old he slept in his bouncy chair in the living room with us but started to get grouchy so we chose to put him to sleep in his crib once he was 8weeks old. He is now 4 months old and gets grizzly if we don't do the routine!
We start by getting him in the bath at around 6.30pm, then we moisturize and dress him and give him a feed by 7pm. He then gets put in his crib awake and has a story or 3 read to him. We then sit there til he falls asleep which takes up to 30 mins. Most of the time he is asleep by 7.30pm until his dream feed at 11pm.

We only introduced the routine at 8 weeks because it's what he needed but its basically been exactly the same since then.

I think you are best to let your baby tell you when she needs to go to bed earlier but also think a routine really helps them out too.

 

[history_girls]

Please don't mind me jumping in...
When you say you put your baby to bed- how do you do that? Whenever I try to put my 1 month old in her bassinet, she wakes up right away. Hence us co-sleeping...
Thanks!
And congrats on your fabulous sleeper

What I do (after bath, being dressed) is I pop her in her sleeping bag, turn all lights off so we just have the landing light to see by, then I feed her. I don't talk to her - I ignore her really. She normally falls asleep on the boob. I then pop her in her cot - the sleeping bag keeps her warm - she has a comforter I put so a small bit is touching her head (probably shouldn't do this but she likes it).

More often that not she wakes up. I always try to wait a few mins before I go back to her. I learnt with dd1 that if I wanted 5-10 mins she would go back off without me. But dd2 doesn't cry she sort of squeaks. I go back, tell her nighty night, settle her. If she is very unsettled I put her dummy in. I try not to pick her up. Two nights ago I went back once, last night took a few goes (about30mins). If she cried I think I would pick her back up. At night she generally goes back in much the same way, only quicker.

This wouldn't have worked with dd1. She would have screamed. I don't know why it works for dd2 - it doesn't work during the day when she will only sleep on me or in her swing.

Hope that helps I know I am really lucky. Waiting for it not to work....

 

[charlie15]

We started a bedtime routine at 8 weeks, bath, cuddle then boob to sleep. Once the routine was established which was within a week we gradually bought the time back. I remember that dd was still very fussy in the evening. It started at 10pm as that was where we were at at the time for some reason! Every day she would have her fussy evening time and the following day I would put her to bed at the time her fussiness started the day before It was kind of about 20 to 30 minutes earlier each night until we got to 6.30 and no more fussy evenings. It took about 2 weeks. Now at 13 months we do pretty much the same and bedtime is still 6.30 with no problems.