Bedtime Routine Question!

ludali · February 2014

Just wondering about other routines...because I think our's is failing...I want to put DD down awake, but she's usually zonked by the end of nursing. She can nap after falling asleep on her own (not every time, but it does happen), but I'm having a problem at bedtime. Thinking I feed her before bath...just wondering what other Mommies are doing! :-)

lkobriant · February 2014

We do bath, lotion/pjs, story time, bottle/bed. He typically falls asleep during the bottle but it's no biggie for us. If he wakes up at night he's fine at going back to sleep on his own, unless he's hungry.

Leosmom13 · February 2014

Playtime on the floor, then at 7pm he gets a bath for 30 mins with dimmed lighting and music, then into bed with me for a feed again with lights very low and music. He sometimes falls asleep at the breast but mostly I put him down drowsy. I prewarm his crib with a hot water bottle and then remove it just before I put him down. HTH

TrueBeliever925 · February 2014

The only time I CAN get him down awake is bedtime. Weird. We don't really have a routine down pat so I'm of no help, but I thought it was odd he'll go down for bed awake but not nap times. He fights naps like no tomorrow unless you're cuddling him or he's in his jumperoo.

nnikki10 · February 2014

The 4 B's: bath, book, boob, bed.
Eta: she nurses to sleep so I'm no help.

MinnesotaMomma91 · February 2014

We do supper, bath, jammies, bottle during story time, then i sing to him, say bed time prayers then put him down to bed by 8, 8:30 at the latest. He goes down awake but drowsy. Hell usually root around in his bed grunting for five minutes or so getting comfy before he falls asleep.

ludali · February 2014

nnikki10 said:
The 4 B's: bath, book, boob, bed.
Eta: she nurses to sleep so I'm no help.

This is exactly us too.

BelhurstBride · February 2014

I nurse to sleep. I like to reap the benefits of the magic sleep powers of BM.

ludali · February 2014

And nursing to sleep is how I dreamed it would be as a Mom. I guess I read too many articles and books. Sleep has been so bad since Christmas and trying to think of little changes. One being nurse...then bath, then bed...I just don't know anyone who does it that way. As much as I want DD sleeping well, I love the cuddles and soothing her to sleep with nursing. But last night she got no more than 6 hours of sleep, so its hard to believe I'm doing everything "right". I know there isn't one answer, just wish she was a rested baby.

PB102012 · February 2014

LO falls asleep on her bottle as well.... Sorry

Caz1221 · February 2014

Our bedtime routine is bath, book, boob, then bed. We play white noise while she eats and through the whole night. We've been shush-patting LO to sleep and working towards leaving the room earlier and earlier so she can get herself to sleep. She's gone down on her own a couple times, but usually, she needs us to shush-pat for 5-20 minutes.

CourtJack · February 2014

Sounds like trying a new bedtime routine would be a good idea. If you're comfortable with giving up the nursing to sleep, try putting a different activity in between that and bed. I find giving a bath every night is unrealistic for me so I nurse, then quiet play time (usually just smiles in the mirror), kisses with H, singing a song and then bed. It's really a matter of trial and error. It may work, it may not. But whatever you do - give it a fair shot. Try it for at least three days. Good luck!!

V&G101808 · February 2014

I feed & rock LO until he passes out... laying him down awake doesn't work for us. He immediately rolls onto his belly when we lay him in his crib and if he isn't zonked out he thinks it's time to get up and party.

Routine:

Bath around 7:30.
Lotion, PJs, cuddles until 8:00.
Last bottle around 8 - 8:30.
Rock him till he passes out in his crib by 9 most nights. If I want extra sleepy baby cuddles I keep him with him until 9:30.

Soleil3 · February 2014

We don't really have a routine, I never did for my girls either. We do put Dude in bed at 6-7 depending on his cues, and he eats and then goes to sleep. Whether we do a bath before depends on the day, we don't read before bed at this age.

My experience between my kids has shown that it really depends on the kid how they want bedtime to go down, not so much the routine or parents wishes.

ludali · February 2014

Oh I hear ya @Soleil3... I think what I need to change is being more flexible. She's an early bedtimer like your's...but for some reason I cant stop watching the clock. I think part of it is DH's small amount of time with her before bed as much as I know that shouldn't matter. Some of it is me thinking of how things are "supposed" to go...from reading books, talking to people, even just seeing something in a movie! Sad yes.

I think I need to start bath time as part of our evening...not as part of bedtime routine. I know I start it too late...I'm starting bath time based on cues, not bedtime based on cues.

The end of each day is different each day for us...maybe like some of you. She's in daycare 3 days and with my Mom 2 days...no surprise, she naps way better for my Mom. I hope someday we'll all get to sit together for dinner, but I guess that's a big expectation of mine for these early days...

Thanks ladies for all the notes, I really appreciate the feedback. :-)

Edit: bad spelling!

ludali · February 2014

@HauntedRadio she's 7 monthd today and had been teething for what seems like 3 months now! But no sign of action in her mouth.

Ashesha13 · February 2014

V&G101808 said:
I feed & rock LO until he passes out... laying him down awake doesn't work for us. He immediately rolls onto his belly when we lay him in his crib and if he isn't zonked out he thinks it's time to get up and party.
Routine:
Bath around 7:30.
Lotion, PJs, cuddles until 8:00.
Last bottle around 8 - 8:30.
Rock him till he passes out in his crib by 9 most nights. If I want extra sleepy baby cuddles I keep him with him until 9:30.

Ours is similar to this. Even just a book gets LO riled up so its usually just pjs, nursing, rock to sleep with me or hand of to DH to rock to sleep. LO slept great after about two months but since about the 4 month sleep regression then crib transition we've had trouble. Also like V&G if LO isn't out he rolls to his belly and is ready for play time, he literally goes from drowsy to ready to play in the blink of an eye. I really can't tell of he's teething or not but gas has always been an issue so maybe that. I'm ordering a probiotic today to see if that will help

bl190004 · February 2014

DS started to fall asleep nursing nearly every night and was having horrible nighttime sleep around Christmas and in a desperate attempt at some sleep for all of us we started switching up our routine to teach him how to go down awake... We do bath (if bath night), jammies, nurse like before, then DH comes in and we swap.. He reads DS a book even if he's really sleepy and puts him down after so he's more awake. It's worked really well for us.

Jlhkandme830 · February 2014

Our routine is the same every night--
7:00 to 7:30-bath, lotion, pjs
7:30-nurse. DS usually doesn't fall asleep.
8:00-bedtime with daddy (we co-sleep right now) with the sleep genius app.

He'll go to bed drowsy with DH and either cuddle or talk himself to sleep.

LJUTCMommy · February 2014

Like @Soleil3, we don't really have a routine. I tried to start one, but I found out a few things pretty quickly. Baths make DD excited. She is ready to party after one, not relax. Books are too stimulating for her to be a "wind-down" activity. While I can nurse her back to sleep, I cannot nurse her to sleep.

Essentially, I just wait until she's acting tired (usually 2-3 hours after her last nap), then I do pajamas, swaddle or sleep suit depending on the temp, then walk, hold and rock until she's out. Drowsy, but awake does not work for us.

TL;DR. In summation, all the babies are different.

kkay1982 · February 2014

I'm with team hold tgem till they sleep. If he is not totally out he'll be wide awake the second we put him down. On occasion it's exhausting, but most nights I love the cuddle time.

Mae0926 · February 2014

I've just started a different routine because what we were doing just wasn't working. We do bath(3 times a week), pjs, nurse, book or just some massage, and than I put her down semi awake. She might fuss just a tiny bit, usually just getting comfy, but I always stay there until she's asleep. If she starts crying I pick her up, rock her until drowsy, and back down. So far, so good. I was nursing her to sleep before, and as much as I love that, she just wasn't sleeping well. Since switching, she seems to be much better. Also, by no means am I letting her CIO. Just wanted to get that across...

MammaBear81 · February 2014

We do the "eat play sleep" routine, so LO doesn't eat right before bed. We just change diaper, put in PJ's, give him his paci, hug/kiss and then put him down on his back (which he promptly rolls over to his belly) and then falls asleep.

janneann1127 · February 2014

TrueBeliever925 said:
The only time I CAN get him down awake is bedtime. Weird. We don't really have a routine down pat so I'm of no help, but I thought it was odd he'll go down for bed awake but not nap times. He fights naps like no tomorrow unless you're cuddling him or he's in his jumperoo.

Yes! Mine too. He can go down awake after his night bottle and any MOTN feeding, but he fights napping like a champ. What is up with that?!

roxpink · February 2014

We do purée around 7. Then it's play around and watch DD1 take a bath. Then it's bath time, lotion, pjs, nurse her ( which she usually falls asleep ), then I sit her up and we read two short board books ( that way she goes to sleep awake but drowsy) and then in her crib where she sleeps and wakes up around 6:30-7am

kwrecks · February 2014

LO goes to bed late, so our "routine", if you can even call it that, is that around 10 we bring her in her room with the lights dimmed and change her diaper and put her in her jammies. Then I nurse her in her room and when she's done, I swaddle her and turn all the lights off except get night light and rock her to sleep. Sometimes I play the lullaby station on Pandora.

ludali · February 2014

roxpink said:
We do purée around 7. Then it's play around and watch DD1 take a bath. Then it's bath time, lotion, pjs, nurse her ( which she usually falls asleep ), then I sit her up and we read two short board books ( that way she goes to sleep awake but drowsy) and then in her crib where she sleeps and wakes up around 6:30-7am

And she doesn't get pissed being woken up?? LOL mine probably would!

TrueBeliever925 · February 2014

janneann1127 said:

The only time I CAN get him down awake is bedtime. Weird. We don't really have a routine down pat so I'm of no help, but I thought it was odd he'll go down for bed awake but not nap times. He fights naps like no tomorrow unless you're cuddling him or he's in his jumperoo.
Yes! Mine too. He can go down awake after his night bottle and any MOTN feeding, but he fights napping like a champ. What is up with that?!

I have no idea! Although I'd rather fight going down for naps than bedtime, so I guess it's a good thing

roxpink · February 2014

ludali said:

roxpink said:
We do purée around 7. Then it's play around and watch DD1 take a bath. Then it's bath time, lotion, pjs, nurse her ( which she usually falls asleep ), then I sit her up and we read two short board books ( that way she goes to sleep awake but drowsy) and then in her crib where she sleeps and wakes up around 6:30-7am
And she doesn't get pissed being woken up?? LOL mine probably would!

I wouldn't say she fully falls asleep when she nurses, so when I sit her up to read she automatically opens her eyes. After we are done reading and I put her in her crib she is already drowsy and falls asleep easy. I did the same thing with DD1.

BelhurstBride · February 2014

HauntedRadio said:

We do purée around 7. Then it's play around and watch DD1 take a bath. Then it's bath time, lotion, pjs, nurse her ( which she usually falls asleep ), then I sit her up and we read two short board books ( that way she goes to sleep awake but drowsy) and then in her crib where she sleeps and wakes up around 6:30-7am
And she doesn't get pissed being woken up?? LOL mine probably would!
Don't worry, she's rocking this mom thing.

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