Share your bedtime routines

homelyauthor

DH and I are still struggling to figure out some sort of bedtime routine for DS. We have a hard time getting him to sleep most nights (although once he's asleep he'll generally only wake up once during the night). We can generally get him to bed (sleeping) by 11pm, but sometimes not until midnight. What kind of routine do you do? And how long did it take your LO to adjust to it? 

Thanks! 

averlyna08

Ours is really simple. We bring him upstairs around 8pm, change his diaper and put him in pjs and then a swaddleme. After that I will nurse him for about 20 mins, and then if he's not completely asleep yet we will just rock him until he does. Most night's he's asleep by 8:30 or 9pm and will sleep until 6 or 7am. I hope that helps. It took him about a week to get adjusted to it but we also went by his cues as well. We used to put him to bed at 9pm and had a much harder time getting him to fall asleep.

Magical95

He goes in a bouncy chair while we eat dinner around and he gets his meds. He gets a bath around 7 and gets his pj's on and eats dinner and it generally takes awhile for him to fall asleep. Its either 8 or 9. But then he sleeps till 7 or so

mrsjanks

5 oz bottle at 5pm, rice cereal at 7pm, zantac at 7:45 followd by bath with Johnson's bedtime soap (tried the "good" soaps and they all broke him out), 5oz bottle at 8, asleep by 8:30. For 2 weeks now he's been sleeping until 5-6am, will eat, then sleeps another 2 hours or so.

alisonemma

I try to give her a feeding by 11:30 pm.  She seems to want to eat between 11 and 11:30, even if she's just eaten at 10 pm.  

Basically we put her in her Miracle Blanket before her last feeding, then give her a bottle.  She's usually asleep soon after.  We most often go to bed right away, but last night we wanted to stay up a little longer to watch the Voice on DVR, so I just took her upstairs to her Rock N Play next to our bed and she was OUT.  It was so nice.  

 

aubreyalise

we started the bedtime routine right before he turned 10 weeks which is when we transitioned him to his crib.

DH and i alternate the routine but one of us will take him up to his room with his bedtime bottle, turn off the lights and sit in the glider while feeding him his last bottle of the night. usually just the combination of dark/glider/bottle has him out. then we put him in his woombie in his crib, read him goodnight moon (we read it to him every night during my 3rd trimester), turn on his sleep sheep and he's out. we head upstairs at 7/7:30 and the routine usually takes half an hour. we don't give him a bath every night but on the nights he does get a bath it's right before the bedtime routine. we tried to have all of this around 8:30 but he let us know he has no desire to stay up that late! he'll sleep until just about 4am, wake up for another bottle, then sleep until 7/7:30am.

i definitely consider us lucky that he took to it from night 1 (which is more than i can say for me. i stared at the video monitor obsessively for the first 3 nights!) 

Artsywife07

We usually start around 8-8:30.  Bath if it's a bath night.  Put her in her sleep shirt and Halo sleep sack.  Then I nurse her in bed.  She's a slow eater at night and I let her nurse until she's about asleep, usually around 45 minutes; it takes longer if she's fussy.  Then I put her on my chest and wait a few minutes till she dozes off.  Then I move her to the Rock and Play.  Lately she's been sleeping till 3 or 4, when she gets up for a feeding then sleeps till 7 or 8.

skio

At 9:30 I turn down all the lights, run her bath and get her undressed. Then it's bathtime, diaper, lotion massage while talking to her softly or singing, dress, swaddle, nurse to sleep. The routine from start to start of nursing takes about 20-25 minutes, but she always nurses for a long time before bed because she's falling asleep - I let her go up to 45 minutes then put her down. She's in her crib by 10:30.

I'm slowly easing her into an earlier bedtime - it used to be 11:30 or midnight, but I've moved it earlier by 10-minute increments and will continue to do so until I have her asleep by 9pm. Right now, she sleeps from 10:30 until 8-8:30am.

I used to make sure she was out cold before putting her down, but now I can put her down awake but sleepy and she konks right out. I made sure to do the exact same thing every night and she caught on after a week or so. She definitely knows the routine means bedtime now, I can see her anticipate the bath, the lotion, and the swaddle.

I suggest starting a routine and sticking to it exactly (including doing it at the exact same time) for a week or two to get him adjusted, then start moving the start time earlier and earlier until it's where you want it. This is what my pedi recommended and it has been great for us. GL!

kgs0505

I give M his last bottle between 9-10pm. Then we take a bath, get into jammies, read a book or two with the lights low. Then into the crib. I put him down drowsey if he didn't conk while reading. Then he's down until 5or 6am. Wakes to eat and then back down for a couple hours. He took to the routine pretty quickly... a couple days or so.

hispenguin

DD has her last bottle at either 8 or 8:30, it all depends what time she's up after her afternoon nap. If she eats at 8 then we do bottle, bath, story, rock in the glider then swaddle and crib. If she eats at 8:30 we do her bath first, then feed, and do the rest.

For the longest time she wouldn't be in bed until 10/11 pm. We started roughly following the EASY routine from the sleep whisperer, and following the awake time guidelines. This has really helped. When we started this we were able to get her to bed earlier. It took us about a week to really get into the routine. It also helps to know DD's cues when she's tired so we know when we need to get her to bed.

mrsjanks

i wanted to add- we have been trying to follow easy since day 1. most of the time it works, but he never sleeps as long as he is "supposed" to. i think it helped him lots. he has been in his crib since day 1 and never fights sleep at night. he does during the day, though. it took him 3 months to sttn, but we get about 9 or 10 hours + 2 more usually.