What's your bedtime routine?

[Lily_Pad]

I'm finding it hard to stick to the bath, massage, feed then sleep routine every night - often with getting dinner on, and giving DD her medicine (she has quite a large dose of anti-seizure meds at 8pm every night, which is too late for a baby in my opinion ), I just end up frazzled trying to get everything done and she ends up getting put in bed at about 9!

I'm slowly trying to encourage her to sleep through the night.
So what's your bedtime routine? Do you stick to it religiously? And does it help your baby sleep?

[UmmInayah]

My DD2 is 14 weeks. We don't really have a routine apart from bath, boob bed. Seems to work okay for us. I don't stick to the routine very strictly as it does depend what time she has woken from her last nap.

I am trying to sort out day sleeps first and then hoping night will come with it.

Is your DD around 12 weeks? (I am guessing by your counter in your sig?). Its great you've started a routine, and honestly I don't think it matters what it is as long as it is consistent. Could you maybe give the meds before boob and then bed?

[KatiesMum]

My DD is 3 .... and yes we religously stick to the routine - but its important to note that the TIME is not the important part.

She doesnt have a particular bed time ... its usually between 7 - 7.30, but has often been earlier or much later depending on how tired she is and what we are doing.

its the actual routine thats important. We all (DD, DH and me) go upstairs, have shower, brush teeth, put on jammies etc. Then Daddy says goodnight and goes downstairs. I give her a small cup of milk and read her a story. I say goodnight, give her a cuddle etc and sit on her bed for 5 minutes, then go downstairs.

Same routine, same order etc every night.

It works a treat. She sleeps really well, usually has no issues with going to bed, and sleeps through the night. Is basically happy in her room .....

Good luck whatever you do

[Baby Girl]

Sounds to me like you are trying to fit so much in at bedtime which is often the most stressful time of the day.

Could you maybe try massage and bath in the morning or late afternoon instead of at night? Then you can concentrate on just the feed, meds and sleep.

Personally, I wouldn't be too worried if she isn't going to bed until 9pm. DD1 used to go down for her final sleep at about 10-10:30pm until she was about 5 or 6 months. Eventually she started going down at 7:30 ish.

If bubs is settled and sleeping well when she does go down, don't stress out about the clock. Follow her cues and relax, you are doing a great job.

ETA: I always had a routine for putting bubs down for a sleep no matter what time of day it was always the same when they were that little. As they got older, we had a dinner (6pm), bath (6:30pm) and bed (7:30pm), routine that we stuck to fairly strictly (not crazy strict). It didn't necessarily help them sleep better but it definitely helped them know when bedtime was coming up and made it a much easier time on all of us.

[Nowhere]

Hey

My little one is also on alot os anti convulsions and i find it can mess the sleep routine up, With mikis night time routine we try to do a majority of meds between 5.30 and 6.30 then we put her down, then she has more at 10 and more at 12 ( has a tube so can med while sleeping ) When she came home from hospital at one point the bulk of her meds was at 8 but we found it to late, So we slowly changed to 6 only down side is the am dose is due at 6 also


What meds is your DD on and can the times be tweaked over time or not

[kar]

we have the same routine and cut the massage because it was just too much to fit in.
So, we do bath, BF, bed.

[amymay]

Hi,

I have a 3.5 yrs old and a 7 week baby.

We have a night routine, shower ds 1 and bath ds 2 at the same time. Dress in pjs. I then bottle fed D2 2, he plays for a while we i get tea and eat it as a family then he ready for bed. cuddle and bed. in bed between 7-8 depending on when he woke and started daily routine in the morning. I feed every 3 hrs and just trying to master his day naps as he is a catnapper as he has had constipation issues.

he sleeps well at night always has. feeds only once about 1-1.30am.

cheers