Suggestions to help baby wind down for the night

[Lipsmacker01]

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on things I can do to help my six month old girl go to sleep. We dont really have a routine for bath time, just really has one when necessary. I try things like reading books, lowering the lighting, stimulating her less, taking her to her room for a while so she knows that its her bed time soon, lots of cuddles.

Id luv to know what others are trying to see if it could work for us.

[Lipsmacker01]

Anyone??

[mumma bear]

With all 3 of mine we have a set routine.
Bath, milk, book ,toilet/nappy change and bed.
All done in about 40mins for the 3.
If we miss a step DD1 will complain she has missed x and takes some convincing to get past it.
My kids are asleep within 10mins of being put to bed and we have never had any problemsr ight from newborn stage.

My tip would be to find a routine that works for you and stick to it.

[KatiesMum]

Yep - routine routine routine .....

My DD used to be a bit of a pain to get to go to sleep ..... but since putting in a routine of bath, go upstairs to her (dimly light and quiet) room, bottle, cuddles and singing and into her cot she has been really great. This has been since she was around 4 mopnths (so has lasted 14 months with only a few hiccups every now and then) mostly she loves it and goes to sleep happily every time. I can now even go out for dinner or to a movie, knowing that if I put her to bed, then get someone (family) to come over, she will not wake up - it is BLISS!!!!

Anyway - different things will work for you but most bubbies like some kind of routine ....

Good luck :)

[mischief79]

Any suggestions to help a 3 week old settle for the night? We feed, burp, change and cuddle, soft music, soft lights and rocking...... SHE FIGHTS GOING TO SLEEP!!!
Does a routine help?

[mysonroger]

my night time routine from the very start with both children was the bath...even though people were telling me that babies don't need to be bathed everyday , i did it just to make an association between the bath and the big night sleep that hopefully followed. it was more for winding down than cleaning.

i agree with the others, routine is key to babies being settled and happy. babies need good day and night routines.

[mysonroger]

oh yeah, i had a really austere cot too. i wouldn't put toys or mobiles or anything in it. for me, cot was for sleeping not playing. mobiles , etc, can stimulate.

i think my DS had a plain muslin blanket to take to bed as a baby. but now they are 3.5 and 2.5yo, they have a few teddies , etc because they are great sleepers.

[Kangaskippy]

We have settled into a routine of dinner, bath, change, milk, bed (with a couple of songs) and now he will ask for a bath straight after dinner as he knows what's next...

I didn't try to create a routine, it's just how it happened...

[the_queen]

mischief79 - a 3 week old, if she's fighting sleep, she's either not tired or overtired. So, please learn to read her mind :D you either need to try rocking her to sleep earlier, or wait until later.
The best advice for a newborn is to breastfeed to sleep, breastmilk has sleep-inducing stuff in it so it's physiologically normal to feed bubbies to sleep. I still feed my 18 month old to sleep :)


Lipshmacker (can I call you that? :D) Do you use lavender oil at all? Scented candles, or burning lavender oil, or a bit of lavender oil in a warm bath. Lavender helps to relax humans. And, I would suggest breastfeeding to sleep, it makes life easier for mumma and bubba. :)

[mysonroger]

The best advice for a newborn is to breastfeed to sleep, breastmilk has sleep-inducing stuff in it so it's physiologically normal to feed bubbies to sleep. I still feed my 18 month old to sleep :)


)

that's not the best advice, that's just some advice.

i was definitely advised not to do this, and i had friends who did this who also experienced the baby waking up after anywhere from 5-20 mins later, once the 'milk drunk' wore off. then falling into a trap of constantly feeling they needed to breast feed to get baby to settle again. and mothers getting exhausted. i was never tempted to feed my babies to sleep and nor did i have to.

i agree though to not let a baby get overtired as this is really hard to get past. overtired babies display only subtle clues and you have to be keen and confident to recognise it. i had had a major incident one night when DS was so overtired he cried for hours and hours non stop. i was about to take him to the hospital because i thought there must be something wrong with him, then mum came over, he got into her arms and eventually crashed. he was just so exhausted, he was beyond tired.

so after that, i tweaked my routine to feed, play and down to sleep after 45 mins, no matter what signs he was showing because new borns don't stay awake long anyway.....usually about 45-60 mins does it for them. everything changed after that.....he was so much more settled, the 45 min feed, play sleep routine really suited him. as he got older , i would extend how long he stayed up.

the night time varied by the addition of the bath, as the 'play ' component and feed last, but not to sleep.

[subaruforestermum]

Routines are not the be all and end all....they arent for everyone...

I never really had one, DS developed his own in regards to last feeds etc...

Try a calm bath, then a massage, just to rub moisturiser of some sort, whatever you use....all over!!!

I also found dolphin music, and the sound of the sea worked for DS, relaxed him, and settled him down! Also soft Classical music.

[Tam-I-Am]

At that age we had a bedtime routine that consisted of:

-Low lights and play/story
-nice warm relaxing bath
-baby massage and pyjamas (later on introduced a grobag)
-breastfeed and cuddle
-wrap and to bed

It worked very well indeed :) right up until she was 2 years of age when we stopped breastfeeding. At 9 months, we stopped wrapping and started putting her in a grobag, then breastfeed and bed. At 2, we do all the same things, except now its cuddle, lullaby and bed, rather than breastfeed.

I think you just have to find something that works for you - but if you teach your baby that certain things are associated with bedtime, that makes it a lot easier :)

[Lipsmacker01]

Thank you ladies ill definately give some of those suggestions a go. Dont know how the grobag will go with summer coming up but might come in handy a little later. Never occured to me that lavender can do the trick although I know its in the baby balsam vicks and that smells yummy.
Im going to try the bath before bedtime a bit after tea time as I know she usually falls asleep soon after a nice relaxing bath. I know routines work with some people and not with others.
She just crashed after reading a book with me :)
I do trust my instincts and yes I know it cant be perfect every time. What worked for us early on when she was a newborn is different to now when she is six months old as hopefully she will be able to settle easier.

Thank u again mummies:)

[elissas]

I figured out with DS after awhile that one problem is that he gets physically tired before he gets mentally tired. So if he hasn't tired out his brain by bedtime he'll push himself and his body and end up overtired. It's hard to wind down when you're brain's still ticking over.

So after about 3 or 4 in the afternoon we do more mental adn creative activities, like puzzles, drawing etc.

Also the quickest way to get tired is to make your eyes tired, I figure it works no matter how old or young you are. So we do more visually tiring stuff too later in the day. Not stimulating like tv or anything, but things like puzzles and drawing that i mentioned before.

Of course, you'd need to adjust the activities to suit a 6mo!

[~mia&ryan~]

I found that being consistent worked well for DD.. She always new what was coming next.. She knew that it was dinner, bath, milk, book, cuddle, bed...

Also try to slowly wind down things from an hour or so before you are going to start the before bed routine.. Keep things quiet and calm, dim the lights if you can and just try to relax bub..

[danik]

Hi there

Our nightly routine is dinner, bath, milk and then bed. DD loves having a bath so it's a nice way for her to wind down from the day. The routine spans 2 hours from dinner to bed.

I think it's best to keep your routine simple and follow it the same way every night. DD loves her routine because she knows what's coming up next.

[mischief79]

the_queen, yep, I think DD gets overtired and doesn't quite know how to get to sleep yet. During early evening she can be awake for up 4-5 hours no problem, and it's only as soon as I start "quiet time" that she starts to cry and grizzle. During the day she's great, awake for about an hour and then nap for about 1-2 hours with one bigger sleep.

mysonroger, I agree with not feeding to sleep. I tried that for a few days and found that she'd wake up within 15 minutes and be ready for more. I felt used and abused!! (That's what I'm good for now, a portable milk machine!!!) I'm going to try and start a nighttime routine and stick to it as much as possible. Not much to lose in these early days except more sleep!

Thanks for the words of advice