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nighttime (bed time) routine

ericaanne0720ericaanne0720
in Babies: 0 - 3 Months
I have been trying for the last 2 weeks to establish a bed time routine with my DS. It consists of bathing, pjs, swaddling, nursing with white noise, rocking him and then into his cradle. He fights me a little bit some nights, but for the most part falls asleep. The entire routine takes me about an hour or a little longer. After all of that effort my DS only sleeps for maybe 1.5-2.5 hours. Then he is up and down for the rest of the night. During the day I just let him nap whenever he gets tired. He will nap for 2-3 hours at a time, nurse, and then fall back to sleep for another few hours. I do not turn on white noise for him or even worry about the "household noises" around him. The only thing I do the same as his nighttime routine is swaddle him. So, I am wondering should I just let my DS fall asleep at night when ever he is tired and not push a bed time routine right now? It does not seem that a nighttime routine is encouraging him to sleep any longer. Do you have a set routine with your LO or are you just letting him fall asleep at night when he/she is ready? I usually start my routine at 8:00 pm and by 11:00 is up again (and never really ever falls back to sleep). 
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Re: nighttime (bed time) routine

  • mben1119mben1119 member
    At less than a month old, a routine is almost impossible to establish.  
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  • Ashley&ScottAshley&Scott

    We've always followed DS's lead when it comes to his schedule. When he was 4 weeks he was usually going to sleep between 9-10pm & sleeping 3-4 hour stretches at night.

    Now at 11 weeks he goes to sleep around 8-9pm sleeps 5-6 hour stretches at a time.

    An we may be different from others but we don't really have a complex routine. We just feed, burp & snuggle, he usually falls asleep without a problem. 

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  • ericaanne0720ericaanne0720
    Tonight my DH and I are trying something different. I am not going to lock myself away in the nursery for an hour with our normal routine. I just swaddled, nursed, burped, and then placed our DS in the RnP. I did it all in the living room where he usually takes a nap. It was nice to have it all done in about 25-30 minutes with the company of my DH. I feel like a lot of nights my DH and I do not get to spend any time together because I am in the nursery trying to get our DS asleep and then heading off to bed shortly after that.
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  • Lena122Lena122 member

    I started a routine similar to yours at 5 weeks and DS would wake every 3 hours to feed and go right back to sleep. At around 8 weeks he dropped 1 feeding so he was sleeping 5-6 hours and then another 2-3. At 10 weeks he now sleeps about 9-10 hours without waking up.

    I probably started the routine a bit too early but it made me feel like I was doing something so I stuck with it. He's mostly STTN now so I guess it wasn't completely useless.  

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  • snowflakemomsnowflakemom member
    We have started a bedtime routine with all of our LOs from the very beginning, so I do believe in doing the routine, but it certainly doesn't need to be an hour long process. A simple bath time, swaddle and feeding is all we're doing for DS right now. With DD#1 I think I did bath time, swaddle, and a book while we rocked.
    Mom to DD#1 December '06, DD#2 Feb '09 and DS March '12
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  • ChrisaloydChrisaloyd

    imageericaanne0720:
    Tonight my DH and I are trying something different. I am not going to lock myself away in the nursery for an hour with our normal routine. I just swaddled, nursed, burped, and then placed our DS in the RnP. I did it all in the living room where he usually takes a nap. It was nice to have it all done in about 25-30 minutes with the company of my DH. I feel like a lot of nights my DH and I do not get to spend any time together because I am in the nursery trying to get our DS asleep and then heading off to bed shortly after that.

     

     

    This is exactly what I do.  I usually feed him about 9:00 while we watch TV...he falls asleep eating and I put him to bed. I don't  do any long, drawn out routine at this point. Some nights he gets a bath..some times he goes 2 or 3 days without one. It really just depends on his mood and what I'm doing /need to get done around the house v

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  • Blair621Blair621
    Our bedtime routine is very similar to the one you were doing.  Our LO is 5 weeks old and for the past week or two I've fed him, DH and I bathe LO together, swaddle the LO and DH puts him to sleep.  Which is usually a little rocking before putting him in his crib slightly awake.  LO wakes up about 3-4 hours later and DH gives him an expressed bottle.  I don't know at this point if the routine is helping LO, but it's helping me.  I like the routine - and it gives me a bit of a break while allowing DH & LO some QT.  I think that overtime LO will take to the rhythm of our evenings and appreciate knowing what to expect.  Also, I think the routine is establishing the bookends for his day/night.  Which I've read can help them differentiate their days and nights.  Maybe instead of doing the routine solo ask DH to help you out with it??
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