Advice on bedtime routines please!

[Lindsay]

Advice needed!!!!

I tend to bath Jacob between 7 - 7.30pm and then give him a feed but he won't go to sleep till 11 / 12pm!!!! I have tried putting him in his cot after his feed but he is wide awake and wants to play and cries to be lifted out. I must admit I haven't left him for any length of time to cry in his cot. It is getting quite waring though and we don't have an evening to ourselves as we stay upstairs in the darkened room so that he can see it's night!

What does everyone esle do at bedtime?

Xxx

 

[Rosieroo]

Hi

It does get easier My routine is bath at 6 to 6.30pm, dressed in grobag, bottle of ebm and bed (between 7-7.30pm). Works for us

She used to go bed around 9pm but we gradually brought it forward. She wont sleep now unless she's in her grobag!

 

[Lindsay]

Hi Kina

I bought a 1.0 tog grobag yesterday for him so am going to try that out tonight. When you put your daughter down does she go straight to sleep or does it take a while for her to go to sleep? If I put Jacob down he will cry until we get him back out and can only be put down if he is asleep in our arms first

Xxx

 

[Rosieroo]

When you put your daughter down does she go straight to sleep or does it take a while for her to go to sleep?

She used to feed to sleep and it was a lot easier to put her down then - now she is usually awake when she goes down, has a little moan then goes off. She's at that clingy age so when she sees us leave the room she gets really upset, so we have to try and sneak out!! If she gets too upset she wont go to sleep - the other night when it was boiling it took 2 hours to settle her properly, in the end once we'd put her in her grobag she settled almost immediately.

Hope Jacob gets on with his grobag

 

[Lucy]

Hi Lindsay

When Olivia was Jacob's age she used to do the same thing. When she got a bit more active she seemed to get really tired earlier and earlier and now I think I'll need to move her bath to 6.30 rather than 7 because she's starting to get overtired by the time she's had her bath now.

like Kina's Ella, Olivia always wears a grobag or sleepsuit with grobag type bottom and so I think she associates it with bedtime. Some nights she'll go to bed and chatter to Mr Rabbit for a bit but after munching on his ears she'll drift off. Other nights she wont settle and then cry - if it's a winey broken cry I leave her for a few mins to see if she'll go to sleep but if its an upset continuous cry then I pick her up and sing a lullaby then put her back in the cot and stroke her face and that usually settles her off.

Lucy

 

[Lindsay]

Thankyou for your replies, I will keep perservering with bedtimes and hopefully he will get into more of a routine soon. The grobag is all ready for tonight so keep your fingers crossed he likes it!

Xxx

 

[nicki]

Hi Lindsay,

Here's Jamie's routine (If it helps!) These are aprroximate times tho. it may vary by half and hour depending -

0730 - feed (he's having 260mls)
1310 - feed
1730 - feed
1915 - bath time
1930 - bedtime.
2230 - feed

Once he's had his bath I put on his winnie the pooh lightshow thing which plays a tune & I put his fresh nappy on thenput him into his grobag. We then have a little dance to the tune! & I tell him its nite nites, put him down, pop in the dummy & stroke his forehead for a couple of mins, give him a kiss & leave the room.
It took a little while to establish what was best for all of us but now its great. When it was really hot i put him down in just his nappy & he was very unsettled all night. He doesn't like change!
If he does cry when I leave the room I wait a minute then put his dummy back in his mouth & leave. It never takes him long to drop off.

Hope it goes ok for you & the grobag works! Let us know how it went.

xxx

 

[lauramumof2]

Im pretty much the same as Kina and Lucy. When she was that age she was sleeping by the time she went through though.

Hope the gro bag works, i was delighted to find out today that they go up to 6 years, jess loves hers to bit.

 

[Dee1985]

im very lucky as Dior and Harley have the same routine,

between 7-7.30pm i bath Dior get her out while she sits on her dresser drying of i bath Harley, then once he is washed i let the wather out he lays on his sponge talking to himself i then dress dior, she sits in her cot and talks to me while i get harley and dress him. then dior will go to sleep then Harley will have his bottle fall asleep when he has ounce left then he is asleep then at 12am/1am when i go to bed i give him a dream feed then he is up at 7am

i dont no how i got him into a good routine, but i think its because i tryed to get his the same as Diors.

when will jacob have his nap?? the last nap before the 11pm one??

some times i find Harley can get over tired and then hes a nightmare to settle???

 

[Dee1985]

i found with Dior she used to like being squashed in her cot and swaddeled with 2 blankets rolled up and placed either side of her that way she felt she was safe as if i was cuddleing her???? try that?

but harley is the oppisit he like to just where a nappy to bed with no blankets and sleeps all stretched out

 

[lauramumof2]

thats a pretty jammy routine dionne, well done!

 

[Lindsay]

Dionne, he is normally really tired about 6pm and may sometimes drop off for about 30mins, we have tried leaving him to sleep for as long as he can so that he isn't over tired but it doesn't make much difference - really don't know what to do for the best, he didn't go to sleep till 11.45 last night and wanted to be held which was making him hotter and hotter

Xxx

 

[Lindsay]

Well last night Jacob was getting tired and grizzly at 5.30 while we were at my mum and dad's so I gave him a feed, he fell asleep in his car seat on our way home at about 6.15pm. He woke up again when we got back home and was really grizzly so at 7pm we decided not to bath him but to give him a feed and put him in his grobag, he was asleep at 7.30 and slept till 12.30 he stayed awake then till 2am but then went back down till 5am, had another feed and went to sleep again till 8!!!!

So tonight I am going to bath him earlier when he starts to get grizzly at about 6 / 6.30 give him a feed and see if he will go down early again - bet he dioesn't but it's worth a try eh?!!!

Xxx

 

[Dee1985]

having a bath always knocks Harley out, i swear by the sleepy baby bubble bath to

 

[bossbump]

My jodie seems to been a good routine she just formed it herself i just went with it. She gets up between 7 and 8 she has a morning nap and an afternoon nap also a nap about 6 i feed her about 7 she goes to bed at 8 with her light show falls asleep about 8 .30 with lots of bum cream and i give her a dream feed 10:30 without winding or changing her unless she poohed.

i read in a book never give the dream feed after 11 oclock. When i have done that in the past she wakes about 2 am she has been in this routine for about 6 weeks now though i think we cracked it.

Sometimes overtieredness can be the cause of not sleeping of a night Jodie has done it when i kept her awake more in the day to make her sleep at night.

Try the Baby Whisperer Book by Tracey Hogg it worked for us i think jodie is a good baby too. Good luck

 

[bossbump]

ohh dirrr i forgot the Bath too i bath her just before her 7 ish feed. She has a bottle in her towel.

 

[Cat&Noah]

When we first started giving Noah a routine we did the same as my sister in law. Basically put them to bed in the dark and they will prob start crying, leave them for a few mins then go into them still in the dark, and without any fuss or stimulation stroke their cheak till they have calmed down again then leave the room again, they will start crying again, this time leave them for a fe minutes donger than last time before going in and stroking their cheak again, keep doing this each time leaving it longer till you go into them, the longest we left noah was 15 mins a thing, but after doing this for just about 3 nights, he no longer cried and just went to sleep on his own.