Bedtime routines

danish16 · June 2012

I keep hearing and reading about (seemingly) everyone having bedtime routines for their LOs, starting as early as 6 weeks. We don't really have one for DD (almost 3 months old), and I'm wondering how hard we need to work on setting one up. She usually falls asleep between 8:30 and 10:30 pm and sleeps until 6-7:30 am; she has been STTN for about a month now. Other than zipping her into a sleep sack (over what she has worn for the day...), we don't do anything special. We let her fall asleep downstairs with us (either in her pack n play or on her playmat on the floor), and then we move her into her crib upstairs when we go to bed (she usually only stirs a little bit). I only give her a bath once/week (dry skin), although I do usually wash her face and hands every morning when I get her dressed for the day. We read books and play during the day, and I also let her decide when to nap, play, and eat during the day. She does have a rough routine of eating during the day (every 3 hours or so); naps and play time vary from day to day.

Tell me your stories - sleep routine or not? How young did you start? What is the benefit (as she is already STTN)? I plan to have one for her when she is older; I guess I just think she is still a little young for that.

klmbbb · June 2012

If your LO falls asleep easily you may not need much of a routine. For us, our LO wasn't sleeping well, at night and especially in the daytime for naps. The routine is supposed to be a cue to them that it is soon time to go to sleep for the night. It seems to be working for us, but then again it may be that her sleep patterns have just matured. Also, now that I don't sleep in the same room as her, we are both sleeping better at night since we're not stirring/waking each time the other one stirs or wakes.

For our routine we close the curtains, do a bath (which she seems to enjoy), have some light play and read a story (if she's not too tired), feed (if she will take it), then H walks/rocks her to drowsiness or sleep. Sometimes there's a lullaby in there too, time pending. We try to have her asleep by 7pm every night.

Edit: she wakes 2-3 times during the night to feed.

vanverth · June 2012

If your LO sleeps when she wants and eats when she wants, she has established her own schedule.

jlw2505 · June 2012

It sounds like she is on her way to establishing her own routines which is great. I would add a specific bedtime routine though - not so much for right now but to get into the routine for when she is older. I found that it has been really helpful for us. We have been using the same basic routine since the girls were a few months old with a few tweaks to fit their age.

What we did at around 3 months was to get the girls changed into PJ's and we would then nurse/have a bottle and then wash up (brush the gums, wash face, neck, etc). On bath nights we would do the bath, put on PJ's and then go ahead with the rest of the routine. After we washed up, we read baths and then put the girls to bed sleepy but not sleeping as we wanted them to learn from the get go how to put themself to sleep vs being rocked to sleep or anything. Diaper changes took place before we read book.

As the girls got older, we adjusted the routine to fit their age - when done with bottles but still drinking milk out of a sippy before bed we would have that after getting into PJ's but before brushing teeth so we would sometimes read one book while they drank and then would read 1 or 2 more after we brushed teeth.

Now that my girls are 4 and 6 (in 2 weeks), we still have routine that looks about the same - after dinner and play time, we do showers every 2-3 nights and sometimes more if its really hot/lots of sunscreen use, etc (as infants we did baths every 2-3 nights), the girls get themselves into PJ's, take vitamins, brush teeth and hair and pick out clothes for the next day and go potty. We read stories and they go to sleep.

The kids know what to expect since we have always done bedtime the same and honestly, if I think about my nighttime routine, it is close to the same!

BrideBuddies · June 2012

I think at 3 months, it's more about the parents getting into the right routine, moreso than the child.

Now that mine is 2 1/2, he knows his routine leads up to bedtime. Not that he ever goes willingly. But that's another thread!

Our routine is pretty similar.. face it, there's not much to change around, really!

urbanflowerpot · June 2012

I just went with whatever was working for us - when it stopped working I found another path to the same destination. DS is a terrible sleeper - he used to wake up 1-3 times before I went to bed and then 4-6 times until morning. I was close to insane. He's doing really well now, though, and when he was older establishing a sleep pattern is what helped (and still does). It starts in the eve when I am making dinner - he has joined me for a few months now playing with pots and canned food - spatula "cooking" with me. We eat as a family, then H strips him and I get the bath ready. Bath, one episode of Gabba, then off to bed. That's what it's been but it could change. If we have something disturb it I try to keep at least the end - like jammies and a few minutes of Gabba, kiss Papa night night and then bed. You'll find your own groove when you need to but that is ours since you asked

genekelly · June 2012

We established a routine early on, by 12 weeks I think. It hasn't helped LO sleep through the night since until 10 mo, he woke up 3x a night. He still wakes 2x a night now.

I think it does help him switch gears esp as he's gotten a little bit older. He is go, go, go until we start the routine. I'm not sure he'd make the mental switch from playtime to bedtime unless we had a routine going. We never really scheduled any of his naps or bedtime and went off his cues. We start the bedtime routine ~30 min before we want him sleeping in his crib. HTH!

danish16 · June 2012

Thanks for all of the ideas everyone! Will start to work on adding some bedtime routines in little by little.

stever · June 2012

Now we do bath, story, brush teeth, another story, try for sleep(he's going through a not wanting to go to sleep phase).

When DS was your LO's age we didn't really have a routine. Bath and nurse when he seemed fussy, that was the routine.

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