developing a bedtime routine

Kristi221

Tell me about your bedtime routine. We don't really have one yet. I'd like to put her to bed around 8pm so DH and I have some time to ourselves. She usually wakes up between 10 & 11:30 to eat...and recently also scream and cry off and on for the next 2-3 hours. Then she'll sleep till 4 or 5am when this happens.

I've heard bath, bottle and bed as a routine, but do you do that every night? She doesn't need a bath every night. What time do you start and what time is LO in bed by? Also, when did you start this? I'm thinking 3 weeks is too early still, as she still needs things to be done when she's ready, not based on my schedule.

orangedaisy85

Once J's umb cord fell off we did the bath, bottle, bed routine. It's worked well for us. And J has slowly eased his bedtime earlier on his own. We started out beginning the routine at 8, and bed by 9. Now we're usually starting the routine about 6:30 and bed by 7:30-8. I know they don't HAVE to have a bath every night, but I believe it helps J to relax for bed.

Geback723

We started our routine around 5 1/2wks old.

6:30pm - Bottle

7pm - Bath

7:30-8pm - Cuddle Time

8pm - Bedtime

She has been STTN in 10-12 hour stretches since. She doesn't nap a whole lot throughout the day anymore either. A couple 45min-hour naps and that's it. 

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

loveforlife2009

We started at 3 weeks. Bath, nurse and cuddle to sleep. She loves baths and even though she doesn't need one every day I feel bad not giving her one when I know how happy it makes her. Also I think it makes her relax and realize it's bed time.

Neighner20

Doesn't it dry out their skin giving them a bath every night? 

bulldog_mama23

With both of my kids, I started a bedtime routine at 4 weeks.  Bath, eat, swaddle, bed.  I really believe that the bath every night helps to relax my kids and they seem to fall asleep easily and DD was sleeping up to 8 hours a night at 6 weeks and DS was sleeping the same at 5 weeks.  I have never had dry skin issues with my kids, I just lather them with lotion after their bath.  I don't wash hair every night though, just a couple of times a week. 

swg2008

I give my DD a bath every night, I also lotion her after her bath too, to prevent her skin from drying out, but our routine is feed between 5:30 and 6:30 (varies when she goes through growth spurts) then bath around 6 or 7 (depends on what time her feeding was) then cuddle time till bed time around 9.  DD sleeps great through the night, works for us. HTH

jim7496

Hmmm.....my routine is similar to PP but I wasn't doing the bath every night.  Now I think I might.