Please tell me your bedtime routine!

lilyvalley

We had another difficult night and I am thinking now would be a good time to start a bedtime routine.  I was thinking starting around 6:00 or 6:30 and give her a bath, massage, book and bed.  Please tell me yours!

abj22

We start around 6:15-6:30. Bath (every other night), lotion/massage, bottle, swaddle, book. Everything is done in the nursery (except the bath of course!) and we shut out the lights and turn on classical music. Afterwards we put her straight in her bassinet in our bedroom with the white noise machine on and lights off. She usually sleeps straight from 7pm-4am and then another few hours after that.

Good luck!!?

Laustique

We start the evening stuff around 5pm when Willem wants to clusterfeed.  Then around 6pm we do the bath (every other day) and then some chilling in the bedroom.  Around 7pm, we put him in his vibrating seat while we eat dinner, then we all move into our bedroom where Willem lies on the bed and we talk and sing to him.  We try to keep him awake until 8:30 when I feed him again.  We then swaddle him and allow him to fall asleep on the breast (bad habit, but wev).  Usually by 9pm he's in the bassinet.

MeantToBeWed

I have a night owl for a baby....

We start her "routine" between 8 & 9pm (depending on when we finish dinner). She gets a bath every other night. After bath we sometimes read a story in the rocking chair - and then I feed her until she falls asleep (admittedly, I feed her in the living room so I can spend time w/dh while he watches tv). Once she's asleep I'll lay her in her crib, unless we decide to co-sleep (then we lay her down when we decide to go to bed).

ll3414

We don't start our routine until around 8/9pm - but it consists of a bath, pjs and new diaper, swaddle, then last feeding.  We make sure all the lights are low and keep noises low.  She starts to fall asleep after we burp her - and then we bring her to the crib either asleep or drowsy.

Crazycrustacean

We start around 8 because she set her own bedtime at 10-11. SO I work within those confines so that hopefully she'll start to associate the bedtime routine with bedtime.

We do a bath (even if it's just water) every night, we play a little bit (to let her tire herself out), read, nurse & rock until she's asleep. We also turn down the lights in the house.?

So far so good. She starts to yawn as soon as the tub comes out. We're hoping that as she starts to associate these things with bedtime we'll be able to move her bedtime to a little earlier.?

?

847Christine

I feel sort of guilty reading everyone's responses...  I let Evie take a nap around 4 or 5 pm, so that when DH comes home he gets to enjoy some awake time.  I let her nurse on demand so we do that whenever she wakes up.  Then DH & I have her in the PnP or swing near us while we eat.  If it's bath night we do that next.  I read/sing to her during the day, but really haven't started doing that as part of our night ritual.  I let her fall asleep cuddled up on my chest most nights, or in the swing.  She usually falls asleep around 9:30/10pm & we take her into our room w/us soon after that.  We co-sleep & plan to indefinitely, so I guess as long as she's getting enough sleep that's all I worry about.  She also wakes up around 7am when DH's alarm goes off & then naps again starting around 9am, so I'm not too worried about how this will affect our routine when she goes to daycare next year.

Still, maybe I should start being more strict?  Ugh.  I question every decision I make.

KatieG.07

We're trying to set a routine... it's hard to be consistent it seems since his last feeding time seems to be all over the place.  But the plan would be: bath between 7-7:30, read/play with daddy, eat aorund, rock/sing, bedby 8:30.  Unfortunately, it seems that once we get him to bed, he'll wake up again 30 minutes later or less at least once if not more.  

It's definitely a work in progress and it seems that once something starts to seem routine, it changes again.  sigh.

mrs_ross07

when did you start your routines (age wise)? Conner is different every day. He's been sleeping all day. Yesterday he was up a lot. Needless to say, we had a very rough night.