November 2015 Moms

Nighttime routine - start time

For those who have begun a nighttime routine with their LO, what time do you get it started? What time do you put them down to bed after you've finished? What time does you LO start the day?

Our LO will be three weeks this week and we have started to kind of get into a nighttime routine. We just aren't sure on the best time to start it. Typically we give her a bath, pajamas, feed, swaddle and rock her with sound machine on. Once she goes to bed, she wakes up every 3-4 hours to feed. We have tried doing this at 8:30 and in bed by ten. I find that if she goes down at 11 then her last feed will be at 6 am which is better than it being at 5 if she went down at 10 (for us).

Interested to hear how your LO are doing with routine!

Re: Nighttime routine - start time

  • Thanks for initiating a thread on routines, I am interested in *attempting* to start one with my LO.  I'm a FTM with a 3 week old baby boy on my hands, so I essentially know nothing about this topic, and desperately wish to learn!  Having said that I know it is WAY too early to expect my baby to follow a strict feed, nap, night sleeping schedule, but I did some reading and it appears you can at least begin to track your LO's natural sleep/feed rhythms and then arrange your initial idea for a schedule incorporating that data. Again, I am not speaking from experience as I am a FTM embarking on this routine thing, so would love any input from the wise mommas out there.  I just began using an app on my Android phone to track feedings, naps, diapers, growth, etc. and the app will spit the data back at you in cute little charts which helps identify the patterns.  Good luck to you!
  • I'm so lost and have no idea how to start a routine. I feel like my mind is just clouded with too many other things!

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  • DH and I just talked about wanting to start an actual routine. Not totally sure what all it will entail, but I'm pretty sure it'll be something along the lines of change diaper/into pajamas, feed, wrap in blanket (not swaddle - Zeke hates swaddling), read story and rock to sleep.

    At 2 weeks old, we're still working on sleeping without being held... So I'm not sure how well the routine will work.

    As for when to start the routine, I'm thinking I'm going to let Zeke lead that at this point since his eating is still a little erratic. My thinking is that the first time Zeke wants to eat after 8 pm or so, we'll start our routine.
  • I think it depends a lot on your routine as well. For me, my husband and I tend to be early to bed because he gets up so early for work. So I usually have the little guy in bed by 8 PM. Right now our routine is feed, bath (not every night right now, so if no bath, fresh diaper), swaddle, and lay down to sleep. I intend to add story into the routine, but for now the simple routine is about where we are at.
  • DD is officially a month today. How we've been doing it is letting her nap whenever throughout the day, but make sure she's up by 9:15-9:30 pm as we transition to our bedroom and start her night feeding at 10 pm. If she's really wide awake we do a few lullabies with her and then Lights go off, sound machine goes on and we feed for 10-20 minutes and when she starts to nod off a bit -diaper change, and then feed again until really sleepy. She's swaddled and DH rocks her until she's really ready to crash (pacifier falls out) and then down she goes into her bassinet (Pack n Play as we room share). We usually get a hour-hour and a half before next change at 11:30/12:30 and feeding and then 2 , 3 hour stints of sleep after . It took us a couple weeks to establish but it works for us. Wake ups in the night are very low key- we use tap lights for lights and keep talking to a minimum.

    So far as she is so little , baths and stories are thrown in intermittently but will become more integrated as she gets older.
  • ooooner said:

    Thanks for initiating a thread on routines, I am interested in *attempting* to start one with my LO.  I'm a FTM with a 3 week old baby boy on my hands, so I essentially know nothing about this topic, and desperately wish to learn!  Having said that I know it is WAY too early to expect my baby to follow a strict feed, nap, night sleeping schedule, but I did some reading and it appears you can at least begin to track your LO's natural sleep/feed rhythms and then arrange your initial idea for a schedule incorporating that data. Again, I am not speaking from experience as I am a FTM embarking on this routine thing, so would love any input from the wise mommas out there.  I just began using an app on my Android phone to track feedings, naps, diapers, growth, etc. and the app will spit the data back at you in cute little charts which helps identify the patterns.  Good luck to you!

    Which app are you using? I'm still waiting on LO to arrive but I plan to start implementing a schedule pretty early on...
  • Ceridwen77Ceridwen77 member
    edited November 2015
    My LO has been awake since 8:30am. No naps today (she's 3w old tomorrow). She just wants to sit and stare at us! I'd love to get into a routine but she's so unpredictable right now. Keep the ideas coming!
  • It's my understanding just from talking to my midwives and other mother that at this age (my son is 2.5 weeks) there is no real routine which is normal. He pretty much wakes every 2-4 hours to feed but I'm not too concerned about any more structure than that until about 2 months. I'm pretty much responding to whatever he needs right now, holding him if he needs it etc. he is coming upstairs to bed whenever my husband and I go to bed and coming downstairs for the day around 9am.
  • My LO has been awake since 8:30am. No naps today (she's 3w old tomorrow). She just wants to sit and stare at us! I'd love to get into a routine but she's so unpredictable right now. Keep the ideas coming!

    Wow, my LO has only been awake and not eating for an hour today. She is not awake enough to even start thinking about a routine. With DS, we started a routine at about 6 months.
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  • My LO has been awake since 8:30am. No naps today (she's 3w old tomorrow). She just wants to sit and stare at us! I'd love to get into a routine but she's so unpredictable right now. Keep the ideas coming!

    Wow, my LO has only been awake and not eating for an hour today. She is not awake enough to even start thinking about a routine. With DS, we started a routine at about 6 months.
    I'm at a loss right now. It's been 11hrs of her being awake. She eats normally (every couple hours) and starts to doze at the end of feedings but then as soon as she's unlatched for 5min her eyes are wide open! I just came upstairs and she's down with daddy because I'm worried my mommy smell is keeping her up. He's going to try to lull her for an hour or so. I don't know what else to do at this point. I'm considering driving her around the block if she doesn't go down soon. She always falls asleep in the car.
  • Is she unhappy or crying when she is awake all this time? If not and she is just content Inwouldnt worry. It's seems all babies are different but the they will likely sleep when tired and cry when hungry/gassy/need changing or just want to be held and stimulated by our voices etc
  • We attempted to implement some semblance of a schedule as soon as we got home and it's worked great! She is 4 weeks tomorrow sleeps great at night and goes down for naps pretty much on schedule every day (we follow the baby wise schedule). She is now very predictable which is a huge blessing. I know the criticism for baby wise is partially about decreased milk supply but I haven't had that issue at this point and will adjust as needed.

    For bedtime we feed on one side because she is hungry when she wakes up, bath time, fresh diaper, sing a song, feed on other side and put to bed. We do a dream feed around 11 and then she sleeps some nights until 4 for a nighttime feeding and sometimes until 7am when it's time to wake up. The nights she has slept through the night til 7 she also fed at 9 so she was cluster feeding at 7, 9 and 11.

    Working towards consistency with sleeping through the night 11:30-7 ideally by 8-10 weeks.
  • JodyS said:

    Is she unhappy or crying when she is awake all this time? If not and she is just content Inwouldnt worry. It's seems all babies are different but the they will likely sleep when tired and cry when hungry/gassy/need changing or just want to be held and stimulated by our voices etc

    She's content the majority of the time but will whine/cry a little if we stop moving her around or try to put her down. She's still going 13hrs later...
  • We do bath (not every night), change into pj's, singing/reading, feed one side, diaper change if needed, swaddle, feed other side to sleep, white noise and down in pnp. It usually takes me about two hours start to finish, so I try to start around 8 or 9 so that I can get to sleep at a normal time. She wakes every one to three hours throughout the night so it's impossible to plan when she wakes up. If I get a decent amount of sleep I get up in the morning with my husband and the baby, if I don't get any sleep my husband takes the baby downstairs and lets me sleep a few more hours.
  • We have nothing close to a routine and he's 5 weeks on Tuesday! We just started to attempt sleeping on our own during naps and that is not going over too well (co-sleep at night) We try to get him up around 8-830 pm to do a bath,feed and bed schedule, usually down by 10-1030 then awake again around 130,4, and 7
  • At 2 weeks, the closest we're doing for a routine is trying to keep naps in the daytime short- after 2 hours I try to wake her up, but she's not always cooperative!  We're also trying to keep the lights on, window blinds open, noise going, during daytime, and quiet, dark at night.  I don't think its helping much; we definitely have a "witching hour" between 1-3am where she's always up and fussy, followed by a few big (3-4 hr) sleeps in the early/late morning hours.  I should probably try to get her up early from the late morning nap, but I'm so exhausted that I need the sleep too.
  • This is baby #2 for us & our 3 year old isn't even on a routine lol I've always been a stay at home mom so never saw the need for one. Now that I plan on getting a full time job & putting the boys in daycare I am attempting to get them both on a routine. I try to get my 3 yr old to bed earlier each week since he used to take his naps 3:30-6:30/7:00 & didn't go to bed til 11-11:30 sometimes 12. Now we don't really do naps unless he's exhausted and I have him in bed by 9 as of this week
  • Our LO is 6 wks old and really likes to be wide awake until midnight or so. Sucks but before when she was about 3 wks she liked to be up for 2 hrs at 3am. So right now i go to bed most nights at about 9 for a couple hours she has some daddy time then i get up when its time for dad to go to bed. Then i only have to get up about 3 or 4 and goes right back to sleep. Hopefully as she gets older n sleeps longer we can push bedtime back to 9 or 10. We are just going with her of when she likes to be awake and sleep.
  • Take a look at the Moms on Call book. They have great schedules that worked for my first child and we just started using the schedule again with this LO about a week ago.
  • MoRay05 said:

    Take a look at the Moms on Call book. They have great schedules that worked for my first child and we just started using the schedule again with this LO about a week ago.

    Do you have your LO in the crib already as the book suggests? I'm trying the schedule, as it's actually nearly identical to what our pediatrician suggested, but I'm just not comfortable having him in the crib yet. However, after being up since 2 this morning (it's now 8:30, my time), I may be willing to try it!
  • ooooner said:

    Thanks for initiating a thread on routines, I am interested in *attempting* to start one with my LO.  I'm a FTM with a 3 week old baby boy on my hands, so I essentially know nothing about this topic, and desperately wish to learn!  Having said that I know it is WAY too early to expect my baby to follow a strict feed, nap, night sleeping schedule, but I did some reading and it appears you can at least begin to track your LO's natural sleep/feed rhythms and then arrange your initial idea for a schedule incorporating that data. Again, I am not speaking from experience as I am a FTM embarking on this routine thing, so would love any input from the wise mommas out there.  I just began using an app on my Android phone to track feedings, naps, diapers, growth, etc. and the app will spit the data back at you in cute little charts which helps identify the patterns.  Good luck to you!

    Which app are you using? I'm still waiting on LO to arrive but I plan to start implementing a schedule pretty early on...
    I use Baby Tracker
  • Thanks for the Tips y'all!
  • SJFTCA said:

    MoRay05 said:

    Take a look at the Moms on Call book. They have great schedules that worked for my first child and we just started using the schedule again with this LO about a week ago.

    Do you have your LO in the crib already as the book suggests? I'm trying the schedule, as it's actually nearly identical to what our pediatrician suggested, but I'm just not comfortable having him in the crib yet. However, after being up since 2 this morning (it's now 8:30, my time), I may be willing to try it!
    @SJFTCA I put him in the crib for the morning nap. I rotate between the swing, lounger, etc for afternoon naps and at night he is in the rock n play next to our bed.

    With our first child we didn't put her in her crib until she was 3 months and we had transitioning problems.

    As long as you have the baby in the crib once a day to get them used to it you are good to go.
  • brizer21brizer21 member
    edited December 2015
    We go up around 7:30-8pm. We will bathe him if needed, fresh diaper, and outfit change. Then I will feed him from one side, change diaper if needed, swaddle, feed other side. I keep the lights off, white noise on and will turn the tv off if I have it on. He usually falls asleep nursing and will go in his bassinet or RNP next to bed and falls asleep between 9 or 10. He only wakes up once between 4-5, then DH will bottle feed and I will pump then he goes back down until 8 or 9 then we are up for the day. He seems to be setting his own schedule and it's working quite nice.

    During the day we are working on eat, wake, sleep schedule with longer naps as needed. We try to make sure he's got decent wake time before bed, but find that if he sleeps good throughout the day he sleeps better at night. We did this schedule with DD when she was little and she was/is the best sleeper! Fingers crossed her little brother is too!

    Edited to add he's 4.5 weeks
  • Tristan is 6 weeks old and there's no way to implement a routine for him. He's constantly cluster feeding around the clock. He's gaining roughly a pound a week and already in 3-6 months clothes so I'm hoping the growing slows down soon. Routines are hard because I also have a very needy 2.5 year old that needs to be in bed by 930.
  • I start getting my lo ready for bed time around 930, he's downstairs right now with dh so I'll be heading down there any minute. I bathe him every other day so on the days I don't bathe him, I change his diaper, give him his Zantac, swaddle him, and then go make his bottle and put it in the warmer. Once we are all done, we go upstairs, I feed him and then by the end of the feed he's normally asleep so I set him in his rnp and he'll sleep in there until around 530am when he wakes up to eat. When he wakes up then to eat, sometimes I'll just feed him upstairs and set him back down in the rnp or we will go downstairs, change diaper, eat, and I'll set him back down to sleep in his swing or his rnp that is downstairs to sleep. The rest of the day he eats 4oz of formula every 3-4 hours.
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  • Elliott wakes up from his afternoon nap at 6 (starts at 4), has a feed, some play time including naked kick time, then at 8 we have a bath (every other night), massage, another feed, some cuddles and lullabies, then into his bed awake by 9 and he settles himself to sleep in about 10 minutes.

    He wakes up about 12 to 12.30 to eat, back to sleep for 1, another feed at 3.30 back to sleep at 4 and wakes up about 7.30-8.

    During the day he naps at 10 for an hour, 1 for about an hour and a half.

    I'm working on him dropping the 3.30 feed by 8 weeks (currently 5 weeks).
  • @Kanne0729
    Kanne0729 said:

    I start getting my lo ready for bed time around 930, he's downstairs right now with dh so I'll be heading down there any minute. I bathe him every other day so on the days I don't bathe him, I change his diaper, give him his Zantac, swaddle him, and then go make his bottle and put it in the warmer.

    You give your baby Zantac? No wonder he sleeps!
  • @skabanak it's probably for reflux my DD was prescribed that.
  • I wish we had a routine. I am unsucessfully trying to impliment one. Our LO is wide awake and fussy from about 11pm till ~5am. She will fall asleep at the breast during those hours but once I try to move her, even to change her diaper she is screaming and wide awake. Its so frustrating.
  • smnewby said:

    I wish we had a routine. I am unsucessfully trying to impliment one. Our LO is wide awake and fussy from about 11pm till ~5am. She will fall asleep at the breast during those hours but once I try to move her, even to change her diaper she is screaming and wide awake. Its so frustrating.

    Ditto. It'll pass. I'm not too concerned about a routine until LO is a little older!

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  • brizer21 said:

    @skabanak it's probably for reflux my DD was prescribed that.

    Really?? Wow! I've never heard about giving a baby that!!! Learn something new everyday :)
  • @skabanak crazy right? For the record it didn't really work for my DD and I just stopped giving it to her. The dosage depends on weight and since newborns are growing like crazy it's impossible to get it right.
  • I do have a bedtime routine with LO. We start at 7:30 with bath, pj's, diaper, nurse, swaddle nurse other side, rock to sleep. He sleeps in the Pack n Play with white noise. Some nights it takes 45 minutes, others it takes longer.

    I have a few questions about your schedules.

    1)A few ladies mentioned that they were working on dropping a MOTN feeding. How do you do that? Are you BF or FF? Are you feeding on command? If not, how do you keep LO from crying bloody murder until the next feeding?

    2) Also, naps. If you LO naps at certain times, do they stay awake the rest of the day or do you just make sure they nap at those times? Also, what do you do if they don't want to nap? What if they get fussy during the nap? Do you have a nap time routine too?
  • brizer21 said:
    @skabanak crazy right? For the record it didn't really work for my DD and I just stopped giving it to her. The dosage depends on weight and since newborns are growing like crazy it's impossible to get it right.
        Are you giving her a different medication? Have you found something that works better? I was just curious because my DD is 3 weeks old and has been taking Zantac for the last 5 days with so-so results. I feel like I'm hearing a lot of people say that Zantac isn't that effective.


  • Zantac is most readily prescribed and safest reflux medication for newborns/children. Try to give it right before a feed. Most of the time (I know prescribing habits vary from place to place) but here it's mostly prescribed twice a day to infants so it's best to do as close to 12 hours apart as possible. I would go with "first" morning feed and last feed before bed. Also, it tastes TERRIBLE. It's really difficult to get kids to actually take and not spit up their dose. If you ask the pharmacist, they can probably flavor it grape for you (grape is the only flavor that kind of masks it's terribleness) to help with actually getting your LOs to drink it. It can be mixed into a bottle but even then it can overpower the whole taste of the bottle, so I would maybe try mixing with a teaspoonful of milk and see if they would take that out of a syringe rather than adding it to a whole bottle.
  • @alexiskaren this was my first born so it was over a year ago but no we just stopped her and didn't try anything else. She eventually grew out of it although she continued to spit up through 9 months, it just didn't bother her anymore.
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