Need Advice for Bedtime

[Mum2BeJodi]

My LO is 10 weeks old on wednesday. Is it too early to start her into a routine?? I want get a routine where she knows it's bedtime. I bath her every other day so will that confuse her? How does she know it's bedtime if I dont give her a bath everyday?

She has her bottle at 7, then after her bottle bath time and then gets her pj's on. We have a two story house and she sleeps in her moses basket at night time which is beside our bed. I don't know where to put her after she is ready for bed. I'm scared to leave her upstairs by herself so I normally let her fall asleep downstairs until I'm ready for bed which is usually when her so called dream feed is around 11pm.

Can someone give me sugguestion on the routine, putting her to bed, and dream feeding? Does the routinue sound okay? Will she know what's happening without a bath? I dont know where I should put her to bed because she normally falls asleep in her swing or next to me on the couch or sometimes in her travel cot. What is dream feeding and how do you actually do it? Do you burp them?? What happens if they are totally asleep and won't drink? Then what do you do??

I'm a first time mummy so I am completely clueless even though my career is working with children on a day to day basis.

 

[MrsNovBaby]

LO is 13 weeks and we started a 'routine' all be it a loose one at 10 weeks and get more rigid each week. He has a bath at 7, creams etc, 7.40 I read to him, 7.50 we have a cuddle (and some tears normally) 8pm in cot next to our bed, and I stay with him until he is out cold. 10pm dream feed (just a night light on). Normally wakes about 2am, I just soothe him (this can take an hour, used to put him in bed with us which is what he and we like, but keep him in his cot), wakes at about 6am for a feed and then a cuddle/co sleep and then sleeps to 10am for the next feed if I let him.

If he won't dream feed, I rub his cheek and say his name - that generally works for him. This was trial and error, hope it helps xx

 

[woodr]

Hi

my little girl is 11 weeks and is in a okay routine, she has been since a few week old. she has bottles as and when through the day usually 3-4 hours. she doesnt sleep much through the day just a couple of naps here and there.

At night she has a sleep around 5.30 until 6.15ish which takes the edge of her and then we have playtime for a bit then bath about 7.30 and she loves it in the bath so has a good 15-20min in there but i always give her the last bottle after her bath at 8 even if she only had one at 5.30 i then get her pjs on and use johnsons night time lotion and then put her down in her moses basket at the side of us in the living room more often than not she goes straight sleep if not i sit and rock the basket but i dont rock her 2 sleep in my arms. (i also dim the lights)

we go to bed at 11 and carry the basket into our room and she sleeps until about 7.30am.

what i feel helped me is that i only put her in her basket at night i only bath her at night and then i always give her a bottle straight after her bath, at first she would winge a bit but just rocked her basket/stroked her face and only picked her up if really upset. times can vary but just stick to the same routine!

As for dream feeding it made her sleeping worse as she was being disturbed from a deep sleep and i dont like putting her down straight after a feed when im a sleep.

I think you have a good routine started but i would start trying to put her down in whatever she sleeps in.

sorry to go on just hope it is of some help. xxxx

 

[Kitten-B]

No advice but looking for tips too! We do almost the same thing except I bath in the morning and not every day. I think getting LO into his sleeping bag and giving him his last bottle in the bedroom seems to be enough of a routine signaller for him and he always goes to sleep, usually for the whole night, straight after.

But it's the evening that's the problem. Currently asleep next to me on the sofa and we keep putting off putting him upstairs alone! He's outgrowing his basket now so no pint bring that down - although for some reason he wakes up as soon as we out him in it if it's downstairs

Tomorrow just going to attempt to put him down upstairs when he seems tired - usually at 9.30pm and give him a 'dream feed' (dont understand them either - LO always wakes up and is wide awake anyway - when he nods off he won't drink) at 11.30pm. Don't want to put him down after his 7.30pm bottle yet as I think it will stop him sleeping through the night and that is too important (for my sanity) to mess with!

 

[vaileasmama]

is there a reason u dont want to bath everyday? it sure did help us, tho we didnt set out to have a routine, lo kinda just fell into one anyway:
6.45 get bath ready, get babe naked and let her have some tummy time nude (its summer and warm here at the moment)
7 bathtime
7.15 out off bath, dry off, daddy kisses and cuddles and gets her dressed
7.30 boob boob boob, sing sing sing - in our lounge room with tv turned down low, and lights down low as well
8 she's out for the night, in her bassinet in our room. we dont do dream feeds, and she will normally sleep until 3/4/5am
hth x

 

[mummy2jack]

hi, i started with a routine when my lo was 8 weeks old. i would put him on my bed to watch a light projector show for bout 10 mins while i got the bath ready etc. Bath time (usualy 7ish) ready for bed, then BF and down. I started off by putting his moses basket inside his cot for bed time until he got used to the surroundings of the cot. Do the same routine every night, it doesn't matter what time. My lo now knows that when he sees the light projector its nearly bed time I had to stop bathin him every day cos he's got eczema so was worried if this would disturb his routine but we just spend longer getting changed for bed watching the projector or having a massage. I think consistency is key and as long as you do the same thing, you lo will get used to it xx

 

[Mrs Mayhem]

Our lO is now 12 weeks old, we started a routine a few weeks ago, we don't bath every day as her skin gets too dry, so we don't build bathtime into the bedtime routine, we do it earlier.
When it's tiem for her last bottle of the evening (usually around 9pm) we take her upstairs to the bedroom, put on a small lamp so its quite dim in there, change her nappy, give her a small wash down, bedtime cream on, vest, sleepsuit, gro bag and then have her bottle. We then have cuddles for a few minutes and settle down to bed. She can't self settle just yet so we do holding, rocking and shhhh'ing until she drops off then pop her in her cot.

 

[xnmd1]

I bath LO every other night too. But the night's I don't bath him I still put on his PJs and put baby lotion on him that same I would if he had justt got out of the tub. He falls asleep the same time every night, so must still realise it's bed time.
xx

 

[gaga]

18 weeks for my baby.

 

[Farie]

We have a very rough routine, LO is unsettled due to a diet change and stopping BFing so it's a little hit and miss.
It used to start at 7ish but her reflux upset it so now it's closer to 8pm
Bottle, kick time, bath, lotion, dressed and cuddles, bottle on bed room, music on, lights dim and bed. She dream feeds about 11 ish

As she gets older we'll add a story in after the bath before the bottle. She falls asleep in my arms then I pop her down.

 

[elephant29]

We started a routine around 8 weeks but it took a few weeks to tweek it.

Initially we done bath, BF bed but this was getting to be a bit much. Some nights LO would be shattered and we felt giving her a bath every night was kinda detrimental. So what we do now is bath during the day with lots of noise so she doesnt associate it with sleep.

For night time we are quite lax now. One thing thats always consistent though is she gets a nappy change. Into fresh sleepsuit and into a sleeping bag. She then comes into our bedroom where its dimly lit and I feed her then put her into her moses basket. It sometimes takes about 30 mins to settle her. I just lie at the bottom of the bed and ssh her. I may hvae to rub her eyebrows etc and she eventually goes off. She's made her own bedtime now and gets tired around 6.30 and is usually asleep by 7.30pm every night. This is her through till 6am and then she has another feed and goes back to sleep, normally for a couple of hours.

I think as long as you have some consistancys she should be fine. On some nights when she isnt too tired we top and tail her but again this isnt every night. They will begin to associate certain times with going to bed. Aria gets this huge cheesy grin when we take her into the bedroom cause she knows its ep time soon, even if she does fight it!

xxx