s/o If baths are a part of your bedtime routine -

GuitaristsGirl

Are they actually relaxing/ calming for your LO?

My baby loves his bathtime.  He starts squirming and squealing as soon as we walk in the bathroom, and will spend as long as you let him playing and splashing around.  It gets him all kinds of riled up.

As a result, we've been doing baths as soon as possible after dinner, but then still letting him play (hopefully more calmly) and etc. to try to calm back down before we do bottle and bed. 

He is go-go-go, so we don't really have any down time before the crash, and I'd love to change that -- I just don't see bathtime being part of any "down time" routine!  Wondering what others' experiences are. . .

krissyh21

For bath time he splashes and plays and gets riled up, but after that it is calm down time with a couple of books. He relaxes right away after spending all his energy in the tub and falls asleep shortly after the last book is read.

Mouseygail

he does get all excited and squeals and such, but it doesn't seem to keep him riled up...if anything, at least for now, it helps get out a little bit more energy.   That being said, I don't notice a difference between the nights that we give him one versus the nights that we don't bother.  He goes down the same way each time...i think for him, changing into his jammies, and sitting in his rocking chair to nurse is what does it for him. 

qtpa2t

As much as anything, I think it's about creating a predictable routine.  How ever active or relaxed bathtime is, they get to understand that there's a bath, then a book, then a bottle, then bed, or whatever the routine might be.  Even if they are squirming and playing in the bath, I think the water is very relaxing to their muscles.

muppet.fan

krissyh21:

For bath time he splashes and plays and gets riled up, but after that it is calm down time with a couple of books. He relaxes right away after spending all his energy in the tub and falls asleep shortly after the last book is read.

Ditto this. We go from the bathroom into Elizabeth's room where the lights are dimmed and the white noise is on. We do lotion, pajamas, three books and by then, she's usually calm and quiet again.

laura&dan05

Dd gets pretty fired up in the tub splashing and playing.  When she gets out she gets to sit on the counter next to the sink and brush her teeth while we sing songs.  Then we go to her room where she gets her paci and blankie while we put her pjs on and comb her hair.  Her bedroom light is on a dimmer switch so we turn the light to a lower setting and sit in the rocker with her and recap the day (all the fun things she did) and we tell her it's dark out and talk about all of the things that are sleeping (sun, trees, animals, kids, moms, dads, etc).  Then we read 3 -4 books and she goes into her crib. 

I think if we were taking her straight from the tub to read books and go to bed it would be harder for her but since we have a few soothing quite activities it's not bad for her.

choco_lab

DS has dinner at 5:30, bath at 6 with DH and then DH reads to him for about 10 min in his room.  Then I go upstairs and read another 30 min.  He loves to read books so this calms him down for bed at 7.

roaringrock

ginny could play in her bath all night if I let her. but really, it's all about routine. even if the little girl is all fired-up after a bath she knows exactly what's coming next - cozy pjs, teeth, books, BED!