Bedtime Routine

morninglory530

My LO had his 2 month check up yesterday and our pediatrician gave us two pieces of advice for sleep: 1) have him sleep in a different space and 2) try to put him down sleepy but still awake so that he will get good at putting himself to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night. She said that if you miss the four month mark on that skill, it becomes more difficult for them to consistently sleep through the night and they get trained to need you to go back to sleep.

He's been sleeping in his own room for quite some time, but I've been nursing him to sleep for about a month...it works, but I don't want him to need that to fall asleep indefinitely. My husband and I don't necessarily love the idea of letting him cry it out. Does anyone have a bedtime routine or some tricks that work well for their little one and achieves this precarious balance?

jlkapp85

We do a washcloth or full bath then a story. Lavender lotion and massage then swaddling seems to make our little guy sleepy and relaxed.

mdaugherty8

We do similar to jlkapp85. We do either a full bath then lotion or just lotion, clean diaper, bottle, then swaddle. We only swaddle him at night, along with putting him in the bedroom (versus he naps in the living room with us during the day) with the lights out, so he tells the difference between day and night. We also read a book sometimes. My baby is 7 weeks old and has been sleeping through the night since 5 & 1/2 weeks.
Also, I've read in a few different books that babies don't learn to self soothe until 4 months. So letting them cry it out this early would not be productive.

cam12345

I read the baby whisperer and it has worked amazing the author does not believe in cry it out and she has the same notion of putting them down stil just slightly awake, j highly recommend this as my 6 week old is now sleeping 5-6 hours at a time in the night now! It's a lot to explain but if you can pick up the book and follow what she says your kid will sleep!

morninglory530

@cam12345 I've been looking into the baby whisperer books and find them interesting. Which one did you use?

Mincholas

I always take my LO upstairs to her room between 9:30-10:00 change her into her pajamas and give her a clean diaper, then give her her last bottle and while in feeding her I turn on her sound machine and projector and we sit in the rocking chair and she nods on and off and i put her in her rock and play and she sleeps 8+hrs every night. She will 8 weeks this week

slipsintothesea

We do bath time then I lotion him up and get him in his pj's. Then, we go in my room and I feed him and we snuggle until he falls most of the way asleep. He is colicky and loves his nighttime bath. We normally put a wash cloth on his belly and he loves it.

lizmanninger

What time does your baby go down?

slipsintothesea

@lizmanninger I usually start the routine around 9 or 9:30 and he goes to sleep around 10 or 11.

morninglory530

Thanks for the advice! We've been playing around with a routine and are finding it helpful. I have been reading him stories and it's fun, even though he doesn't understand much.

Do you follow an amended version of your night routine during the day? Thinking about bed time routines has made me think a lot about sleep during the day. I've been loosely following a eat - play - sleep pattern and it seems he is getting more sleep in general. However, he won't always nap in his crib during the day...but will in a swing or in a baby carrier. His naps could be anywhere between 20 minutes and 2 hours. He is 9 weeks today.

alyssaswi

Well I'm a big advocate for early bed times, I don't want a two year old that won't go to bed until 11. No judgments on mammas with later bed times I just prefer my LO go down earlier. We start bed time routine between 6:30 and 7. Turn out the lights in the room, turn on the fan, change diaper, lavender lotion and massage, pajamas, swaddled and feed. He nods off at the end of feeding and I put him right in his cradle. The first week or so after I started this schedule I had to go in to pacify and soothe him back to sleep at least once within the first couple hours. I only went in when his fussing escalated to crying, now usually don't have to soothe as he's figured out how to put himself back to sleep. The last thing I do is dream feed at 10 (feeding without waking) then I go to sleep and he sleeps until 3, then is up at around 7. During the day I also follow eat, play, sleep unless he's so tired he can't stay awake to play which only happens sometimes during growth spurts.

xuxachi

I also recommend the baby whisperer - it's really good for setting up a target schedule - even if it doesn't work out, having an idea of what we're working towards helps me a lot.

Also I find that my DS goes to bed on his own easier earlier on the day and it gets harder as the day goes on. I like to think that those early naps when I can lay him in his bed awake and he falls asleep is training for doing it better at bedtime. I have to rock a bit to get him sleepy and snoozy at bedtime, but it isn't too bad.

ltrodriguez05

@alyssaswi how you do the dream feeding my LO wakes up when I am going to feed him... Regarding bed routine we bath him, change him, feeding between 9-10 he goes to sleep around 10:45-11 and normally wakes up around 5:45-6 two days ago he woke up around 7am... My LO is going to be 9 weeks tomorrow. Dreaming that he sleeps 8+ soon

socherlowe7

My LO is 7 weeks and we are good at going to bed and naps for the most part still slightly awake. However, he has reflux which is under control but will only eat 3ozs at a time and we are having a hard time getting more than 3hrs of sleep at a time at night ( 3hrs is not always, other times only 2.5hrs) how can we get him to either eat more to sleep longer or just to just sleep for longer stretches at night?

erikani

Our doctor said to feed as much as you can just before bed time and this will get baby to sleep longer. So we went from feeding 3-4oz during daytime feedings to 6-7 oz for "bedtime meal". We start feeding at 7pm, mixed with changing diaper and getting her in her pj's (our trick to keep her awake since she starts to nod off after 4oz). By 8:30-9pm she's drunk on milk and out.

We also have a daydreamer upright bed thing which helped put me at ease. Ours has mild acid reflux and the bed was handed down from a cousin whose baby had gurd.

Now, baby only wakes up 1 time at most, the other night she slept 10hrs! Take it day by day. Baby is 7 weeks old now. We have been doing this since Week 4. We will up bedtime feeding as her daytime feeding amount increases to keep consistent.

mrspidge19812015

My lb is 10 weeks old about 6.30/7.00 he has his bath and then between 8 and 9 he has his lost bottle and is asleep by 9.30pm latest and is asleep then till 7.30/8.30am next morning

bjacobs93

My little one has been sleeping through the night since she was about 7 weeks...give her a bath around 8 get pjs on lotion her down play for about 20 mins then she gets fussy ready to eat and go to sleep, I give her about 2 ounces of breast milk and a little bit of cereal and then let her nurse if she is still hungry (sometimes it's only been about an hour and a half since she's eaten so she won't eat as much) I rock her for a few minutes after shes finished until she is almost asleep and then put her in the bassinet.

BabyIxolib

My sister in law just had her 4th baby 3 months before I had mine and I noticed how they put her down to sleep while she was still awake and how easy it seemed, she smiled and handed me the baby whisperer book. Within a week my little one was going down awake too:)