bedtime routine

lisamoe

When did you start yours and what do you do (including where baby sleeps and bedtime)

When we just had one baby (DS) it was fairly easy to establish a routine.  Now, with a active toddler, its harder to establish a routine at the same times and the same order because things always seem to interrupt that process (naturally!).

DS and DD will be room sharing, but she is currently sleeping in our room in the RNP, most likely until 8-12 weeks as we are still trying to transition DS to his toddler bed at night.  So, DD sleeps in the RNP in the living room until we give her a bottle around 10-11 and then we move her into our room.  That's pretty much it for a routine right now other than she gets a bath every other night.

Advice?

Baby54124

I tried starting a routine from the moment LO was brought home. In the hospital, my milk was delayed due to complications with delivery, so we had the nursery take her overnight and give her a bottle during the nighttime. Since this is what they did there, when we got home we still swaddled her and gave her one bottle of formula for bedtime. I feel that the formula helped settle her enough to sleep for a longer stretch. The first month she was in the basinet in our bedroom but once she turned one month, she has now been sleeping in her crib. She is 6 weeks now and we still swaddle, then feed, then put her down. She is no longer on the formula but she is sleeping for 6-7 hr stretches each night!

My older daughter is 6 so she is in bed by 7:30 for school the next day. LO doesn't get put into her crib until 11. I can imagine it being much tougher with a toddler to establish a routine. To me, it sounds like you have a pretty good routine going right now. Since your still getting the toddler into a routine, I would just continue what you're doing now. Is your LO sleeping longer stretches at night?

PurpleFrog15

We do a bath at 7 followed by getting swaddled, then nursing (and singing and prayers) then bed by 8. We started this immediately and he sleeps in his crib. We are thinking about switching bath and food, per our pedis advice that they should be put to bed awake and drowsy.

Lelo2006

We do a bath at 8, followed by a massage, about 2 oz from daddy in a bottle, swaddle, then breastfeeding. We've been doing this since about 4 weeks old. He's 10 weeks now and just started sleeping 6-7 hour stretches!