- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Minnesota Babies
Bedtime routine
Do you all have a bedtime routine? If so, what is it?
We have a loose bedtime routine for Carly, but we are starting to be more strict about it since we all are in need of some better sleep! The one thing I really have a question about is bath time. I know she doesn't need a bath every night, but should we give her one every night since it is part of the "bedtime routine?" Or, do you think we could do a bath every other night without throwing off the routine too much? I'm really don't want to do any type of sleep training (at least not yet, but give me about a month more of this no sleep, and I may change my mind!), but I want to make it as easy as possible for her to get the sleep that she needs.
Wouldn't it be nice if each baby came with their own instruction manual?! 
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Bedtime routine
Photo taken at 16 months old
We have a "routine" (if you could call it that) that we've done since Annie was 2 months old and she's an awesome sleeper. I have no idea if the routine helps or not, since she's always been pretty good - who knows. It does seem that learning to fall asleep on their own is something that is really key to staying reducing night wakings considerably - that way when they wake up they don't expect nursing/rocking/singing/whatever to go back to sleep.
We do a bath 2x per week and it doesn't seem to matter either way, but every baby is different. Our routine is pjs, nurse, book, bed. That's it. If we do a bath it's before pjs. Sometimes she cries for a minute or less when we put her in the crib but that's pretty rare these days. If she wakes up at night (she does once every few weeks) we do leave her for 5-10 minutes and she almost always puts herself back to sleep on her own. Usually it's just a very brief cry and she's asleep again before we'd even get to her bedroom. I know we are very lucky though, what works for her won't work for every baby.
Up until 4 months or so, it was nurse, pjs/swaddle, book, rock for a few minutes, bed. We stopped swaddling at 4 months, and sleep got even better because she's a thumb sucker. Once she rolled over and started sleeping on her tummy it got better still.
Even if you don't want to sleep train, Ferber's book "Solve your child's sleep problems" has a lot of great tips. Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child is another good one.
She does not go to sleep on her own at bedtime....I wish! She will fall asleep on her own in her swing. I usually nurse her to bed, which is probably bad, but it works! I have been thinking about getting the homedics soundspa because I think it might help. Or the Baby Merlin's sleep suit, which supposedly works wonders...but who knows.
My Bio
Married Bio
We started Olivia on a schedule when I went back to work, at 10 weeks. Bath every night at 8:00 (not soap every night), diaper and PJ's and time in the rocking chair. We'd give her a bottle, rock her until she fell asleep, then put her down. As she got a little older, maybe around 7 months, she'd finish her bottle, get a little sleepy, then go into her crib to fall asleep on her own. At 13 months she was off the bottle/formula, went to bed on her own and it's been that way ever since. We have a sound machine and have used it since she went into her own room...she loves crickets. Now she has a whole list of things she NEEDS to sleep with...that's fun.
I don't know how things will work as the baby grows. Right now, we give them baths at the same time, DH puts Olivia down and I nurse the baby to sleep...she goes down around 9:00/9:30. They are going to end up being in the same room, so I don't know how that's going to work!
Ian just fell into a routine of his own and we've kind of stuck with it...I mean we do have a routine but the sleep aspect of it is all his. We do baths on Wednesday and Sunday and that's the only thing that throws the schedule off a bit. Daily its come home, eat dinner, play for about an hour, jammies, and wind down time, then I put him in his crib with a blankie and leave...he puts himself to bed.
I know its really controversial but our Pedi was very supportive of "trying" to put down "drowsy but awake" to learn it. I wouldn't say we did the full CIO but she said it was ok to let him go for 5-10 minutes before we went in to soothe and try again. We never really had to do too much he always seemed to settle himself in a minute or two, I think it was mostly us leaving him alone in his room that was the bigger issue, once he realized he was really tired he just closed his eyes and went to sleep.
We have somewhat of a routine, but we don't always follow it. Ellie goes with the flow pretty easily so we don't have to stress over following the routine.
I get home from work between 4:45-5:15. She usually eats when I get home. Then we play for awhile together, then she will play by herself. Around 7pm we feed her some solids. She goes in the bath after that. If she is not too tired. If she is overtired she just gets crabby and is a bear to bathe and dress. We do baths often though, she loves the water and it calms her down. After her bath we put her pjs on and play or read until she is rubbing her face. Then I'll give her a small bottle before bed, lay her down and run her FP seahorse and she's out.
my read shelf:
Our routine for DS is PJs, swaddle, bottle, bed. We turn on his seahorse and he usually puts himself to sleep if he didn't fall asleep while he was eating. We started putting him down drowsy or awake from early on. There are occasions where he may fuss for five minutes but then is out. He still gets up once a night.
We had to sleep train DD. As hard as it was it was one of the best decisions we made. She would never go to sleep on her own and then was up several times in the middle of the night. She finally started sleeping throught he night at 9 months but now she's an awesome sleeper. She'll usually sleep 11 or more hours at night. I think we learned our lesson with her so that's why we started DS off drowsy but awake an early age. You live and you learn. Now we just need to get him to sleep throught he night...
Children Photography Photo Credit: Heather Barta Photography