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Babies: 0 - 3 Months
night time routine for 6 week old - help!
What is your night time routine for your 6 week old? Right now ours is a big mess. I start getting my older son ready for bed at around 6:30. He takes a long bath during which I breastfeed the baby. Then I help him get his pajamas on, brush teeth, and we read several books (during which the baby always eats again - frequent eater in the evenings!) After my older son is settled in bed around 8:00, the baby is sound asleep. Should I wake him then for his bath, or wait until he wakes up on his own around 10 or 11?
Also, the baby is still waking up every 2-3 hours throughout the night, so I thought I'd try the highly recommended white noise machine and seahorse, How do you incorporate those into your nightly routine?
TIA!!
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Re: night time routine for 6 week old - help!
I don't have another lo to take care of, but heres our routine :
If it's bath night, we start that at 730 or 8 (we don't follow a rigid time, just yet) usually takes about 15 minutes. After bath, we go up to her room and get her dressed for bed, I feed her, we read 2-3 stories and we rock for a few minutes. I try to lay her down right around 9. At that point, I turn on the noise (our monitor plays wave sounds or music). DD is getting a Seahorse for Easter, so I'll turn that on when I lay her down instead of the music on the monitor.
If it's not bath night, we get her undressed and wash her face and neck and then continue on with the rest of the routine.
She wakes up around 1 to eat, 4 and then 6 or 7. After I feed her when I lay her back down, I turn on the noise, again. Even if she's still pretty sleepy.
I'm trying to establish a routine for my 7 week old right now. Started last night in the pack and play as she's been sleeping in her bouncer until now. She used to sleep for about 4 hours, but started waking up more so I decided to transition since I'd be up anyway. I have started with a bath after her feeding around 6. Last night it took until 7:45 to get her to be asleep. Then she woke up a LOT but that's because she was sleeping in a new place.
Do not wake your baby for his bath or bathe him at 10 or 11. The bath should be the first thing that signals it's bed time. At 10 or 11 he already knows and that could actually wake him up. I would bathe your baby right before you give your older son his bath and then continue with everything you've been doing. Good luck!
At six weeks (and even beyond) it's pretty normal to wake every 2-3 hours to eat. We like our white noise machine, but if your baby is waking because of hunger (again, normal at this age) it's not going to help.
Our routine has always been pretty simple: sleeper/swaddle, read a book or sing a song, turn on white noise machine, nurse to sleep, put baby in co-sleeper. Since she's still in our room, she goes to bed at the same time we do (we generally head in there between 9:30 and 10pm). Over the next few weeks, we're going to work on transitioning her to her own room and moving her bedtime earlier.
GL!
Oh, and to answer your bath question: I wouldn't do either. I know a lot of people have baths as part of the nighttime routine, but I've read that for some babies it can actually be pretty stimulating. I certainly wouldn't wake him for a bath or give him one so late.
We tend to do baths earlier in the evening and it's never been something DD needs to wind her down.
We have a 2 year old in addition to LO so they get a bath at the same time. DH gives DD a bath in the tub while I give LO a bath in the baby tub on the counter. She loves to look in the mirror, and just sits and stares for as long as I let her.
Then I take her downstairs and give her a massage, put some calendula lotion on her, dress her in a onsie and baby legs, and then swaddle her. I then nurse he on the couch till she falls asleep. She will sleep in the PNP until we go to bed at 10 or 11. Then I change her again, turn on the white noise, swaddle her and feed her again. We co-sleep/bed share depending on what she needs. The longest she has slept is 4 hours. Most nights it is 3 hour stretches.
Pretty much this. Isn't 6 weeks kind of young for a routine? Our DD's last feeding ranges from 8-9:30, like pp said, so I don't know how we'd really have a routine yet...
DD february 2010 | DS october 2011
*please excuse my typos, bumping from my iphone*
I would bathe LO before you bathe your older child. Then I'd go about the rest of the routine you stated. I think that would be a good way to signify that it's time to wind down.