How long before actually laying down LO do you feed?

spursgirl10

How do you guys lay your LO's down to sleep?  My LO has no set way.  If she's super tired she will just fall asleep.  Otherwise she needs a bottle to fall asleep then I lay her down after she's fallen asleep in my arms.  I kind of want her to be able to fall asleep without the bottle.  How should I do this?  Also I notice if I feed her well over an hour before bedtime she wakes up earlier than normal.  I have also heard it's not good for their teeth to have them fall asleep with the bottle in their mouth because the formula/BM will just be sitting in their mouth and that's not good.  Anyhow,  I'm curious how others do it.  Thanks in advance!

SeussicalOne

We have a routine. Around 6:15-ish we do a bath (if it's a bath night). Then he goes to his room for jammies, vitamin, brush teeth, brush hair. Then we go to my bedroom to lay on the bed and nurse. After he's done nursing, we rock in the glider. I usually read 1 book (sometimes twice if it's a short one) and then we rock and sing until he starts getting drowsy. At that point, he goes in the crib, still awake. I turn the Sleep Sheep on and the fans (pointed away from him, for extra white noise since we live in an apt.) and he goes to sleep. To get to this point, we had to do some Ferber a few months ago but most of the time he goes down with little or no crying. If he's really worked up, I'll usually take him out and rock him for a few more minutes and then put him back down and he'll go to sleep.

Doodle2011

loose routine...play, dinner (purees), bath, book, bottle, bed (hopefully very drowsy after the bottle).  She will fuss a minute or two but falls asleep really fast after all that.  We do a bath every other day, so on non-bath days we may do the bottle before the book, and if she is really sleepy the book gets skipped and she goes straight to bed.

spursgirl10

Good stuff.  I am going to try a mixture of everything you guys suggested tonight.  I have two weeks to get her on a routine then I go to the night shift so hopefully she will be use to it.  I go to night shift in two weeks and want to know that bedtime won't be a horror show for her.  Bad enough I won't be there to lay her down I want my husband to have a routine.  Thank you guys. 

mrsseguin

We feed DD a bottle right before bed.  We rock her in a rocking chair in her room.  She doesn't fall asleep eating.  We put her in her crib awake after she's done.  She falls asleep on her own.  Occasionally we have to go in to replace the paci.  I don't see a problem feeding them right before bed. 

LoveMaBaybee

L used to nurse to sleep and it was difficult because when he would wake up in his crib, he would cry and not be able to go back to sleep since he went to sleep with me there the first time. He eats every four hours now, and after two hours of being awake, I lay him down in his crib for a nap. The first couple of days he fussed quite a bit (I never let him full on cry, I always went to him), but now he just goes down in his crib and puts himself to sleep. Sometimes if he is really over tired, he might cry a bit and if he ever really starts freaking out, I take him out and just hold him for awhile, then put him back. The biggest thing I found was knowing when he was tired enough for sleep. He sucks his thumb now which is a large indicator that he is ready for his nap.

In the end, I found that so many different things work for different babies. If Liam was a good napper/night sleeper with nursing to sleep, I would have continued doing that. Good luck finding something that works for your family!