Bedtime/your routine

brittandjoe

Ok so has your routine changed since LO was younger? We are really starting to hate bedtime. It is taking up to an hour for LO to go down...that's when we start rocking her...I'm not even talking about bathtime and all of that. We've pretty much done the same thing with her every night since she was about 2 months old...with the exception of bathtime. We used to do it every or every other night but now we're down to 2-3 times a week because the winter weather has made her skin really really dry. But she gets a bottle, we rock her, she has music, we sing....but it's taking longer and longer for her to go down. We're so exhausted by the whole thing that by the time she's out we're ready for bed. What is your routine? Do you still do bathtime every/every other night?

MrsSR

She gets a bath at 6 or 6:30. 

Then she is brought into her room and gets a thick layer of cream or vaseline on her belly and back.

After that it's pjs and a warm bottle (6-8 oz).  One of us holds her while she is fed.  While we feed her the lights are off and her dolphin is on. 

Sometimes she still won't go down and is fussy.  This is when she is overtired.  If that happens then it's off to our bedroom (she sleeps in our bed).  There we turn off the lights and turn on her sound machine to heartbeat and turn it UP.  Usually she is out like a light when that happens.  After she is out we put the machine on rain or ocean sounds. 

Sometimes I feel that me holding her, singing, playing music, etc just makes her overstimulated. 

Vermillionsss

We wait until she is tired,  and then put her nighttime diaper on (3 layers, lol). 

Then we put her into her woombie or just swaddle her (*gasp* we still swaddle!), and rock her until she's out. Usually it takes anywhere from 10-40 minutes to get her to go down peacefully. She's usually down for the night by 7pm.

kbaseman

I feed my DS his bottle while rocking him in the chair in his room with the lights off. Then change his diaper and put him in his sleep sac. Next, we read a book to him and rock him for just a few minutes then he goes in his crib and falls asleep within a few min.

kg_08

Our routine has always been to get PJs on, nurse, swaddle. (now a one arm swaddle)

She 95% of the time goes down without a peep thankfully and knows it's bed time. We keep it totally dark in her room so I think that helps. We never got into the book reading or bath time before bed because both seem to make her more awake.

vcusano

Bedtime is 8pm.  I make his bottle, take him upstairs and put pjs on, take him in my room to give him his bottle in the dark (I watch tv with low volume while he has his bottle).  As soon as he has his bottle he starts to fall asleep and I put him in his crib.  The whole process "usually" takes about 30 minutes.

shirls

We have done the same routine since about 2 months. We do bath, lotion, PJs, sleepsack, nurse to drowsiness, bed. The whole process takes about 30 minutes and he's in bed by 7. DS goes down pretty easily now b/c he is tired from the day (not a big napper).

He didn't always go down easily, especially when he was younger. There were nights when it seemed like I was rocking or singing for an hour or more before he even got sleepy.

Mrs.Cford

Our routine has changed since DD was younger; most of it has stayed the same but we usd to rock or bounce her to sleep and it became a nightmare (sometimes an hour or more of bouncing) so we did CIO at 6 mos and haven't looked back since Bedtime also used to start at around 8pm but we have slowly moved it back around 5-10minutes at a time every few days so it now starts at 7pm.

7pm - it begins... nurse, bath (every night but only use soap every 2nd or 3rd night), cream & mini massage, pj's - big light goes out - rock, read a story (she keeps her pacifier for this part) - table lamp goes out, just a night light now - turn on monitor, turn on white noise machine, take away pacifier, rock and sing for a few minutes (she usually gets pretty drowsy and starts putting her thumb in her mouth), then we put her in her crib, give her lovie, put her blanket on her and leave the room - sometimes she fusses for a few minutes but for the most part she goes right to sleep - this whole process usually takes about 30-45 minutes so we have our night back at 7:30-8:00!!

She sleeps from 7:30 until 8am - waking once to nurse somewhere between 2 and 4am