Bedtime help!

[beckyboo1]

I know there's been threads before but I'm after a refresher of what you all do to LO's to sleep at a reasonable hour

Harry is 8 weeks and the only routine we have is that I spend a good hour and a half upstairs with him trying to get him to sleep either by feeding/ rocking etc.

This means it's usually between 9 and 9.30 when he goes down (apart from last night!!)

We don't bath every night cos in not sure this calms him down and with OH's work it's a bit unpredictable

I'm pretty surfed he's knackered as he rubs his eyes, flails his arms about etc but he just struggle to let go and settle

All advice and suggestions gratefully received xx

 

[LaurenMM]

The only thing I can really suggest is to keep persevering with the bedtime routine. Angel used to hate the bath but we kept on with it and she grew to love it. And at about 12 weeks I installed a proper bedtime routine usually bath at 6, feed by 6.30 and bed by 7 was my aim, obviously she used to take longer or whatever but she soon adapted to this really well. Now as she's older and having a 3rd meal it's half an hour later or so xx

 

[GregorysGirl]

Hey hunny,

At 2 mnths he is probably having 45 mins between naps??

If so Id try to time his last 'nap' to end at 6.45. (so if he naps for an hr put him to nap at 5.45).

That way he will be tired again at 8pm. Between 6.45 and 8 - bath (if bath night), massage johnsons bathtime lotion on bubs (if his skin is not senstive to do so)...feed him (if breastfeeding it can take upto 20 mins to reach the fatty milk which 'induces sleep' - if u dnt get to that he could just be soothed to sleep by the acted of nursing but not have a full enough tum to feel sleepy. Like us adults - lots of food knocks us out, lol.

Then wind, pop a dummy in (if u do so), rock in your arms for 5-10 mins and pop down in the crib.

This is purely from my own experience, worth a shot, others might advise differently, just wanted to help.

Hope it works xxx

 

[VikkiR]

Totally sympathise with this, until very recently my baby hardly slept at all but we now seem to have fallen into a routine where she nods off between 7.30 - 8.00pm after her milk after quiet but not lonely time from 6.30pm. We then put her in her cot in her own room and she'll sleep for up to 5 1/2 hours, just waking once after midnight for a feed, used to be around 1am have even gotten to 3-4 am if shes had milk at 10pm I stopped the second night feed a while ago and just cuddled her and/or brought her into bed with me. Infact the last few mornings she's woken, had a cuddle, gone back down and she talked to her teddies in her cot before falling asleep for another few hours. Compared to the hellish previous weeks it's like winning the lottery. My lo loves being rocked in the nursing chair when she's tired but can't sleep and if she's crying a lot as well we sit in the downstairs toilet as the extractor fan is very loud and this calms her down and usually sends her to sleep. White noise is brill! x

 

[GregorysGirl]

Thats a point ..... we used the slumber bear from about 2 mnths ish. BAsically its a bear which has a device inside which plays either white noise, womb noises, lullabies or u can record ur own. IF u dnt have one, another option is to download a whitenoise App to ur phone and play that at the top of the crib unti she falls asleep - its said to work for nearly all babies within 3 mins xxx

 

[TORino]

Since I've been doing my routine, getting T to bed has become really easy (I sooooo don't want to jinx this lol)

As mentioned above, it is because I am putting her to bed when she is ready to sleep and has been fed enough and is the right amount of tired to fall to sleep.

If he's rubbing his eyes and resisting it sounds like he has been awake too long and is overtired.

For example, we put T to bed between 6.30 -7. Going by the principle that babies can only stay awake for up to 2 hours, the last nap would finish between 4.30-5pm. We bath her at 6 and I feed her at 5pm and at 6.15. She is always asleep and I am downstairs by 7 every night. Most nights it is 6.40-6.45. I literally swaddle her, pop the dummy in and lay her in the crib.

Usually I can just walk out of the room and she is asleep before I have got downstairs, She is always ready to sleep using this routine. It works the same for naps in the day time. She is never awake for longer than 2 hours at a time in the day.

She often stirs/gets out of the swaddle or wakes but the dummy usually fixes it and takes 10 seconds to resettle and get back off. Ideally I'd like to remove the dummy buy I'm not brave enough yet.

Because I do a split feed around the bath, I have got enough milk into her for her to sleep a decent amount of time. I dreamfeed just before I go to bed and then she is fed again in the morning when we get up. I don't feed her overnight anymore.

She does wake around 4am usually, I wondered if it was to do with the birds or dawn or something. I always get her back off though. If she remained unsettled for longer than half an hour I would feed her.

 

[vickib_1984]

Our routine consists if bottle at 6 then at 6.30 we go up nappy change sleep suite we come down he watches older son play we then have snuggles and then up at 7 lay him down he kicks and chats to himself and by 7.30 he's fasto this is the same every night our baths are done in the morning as he gets upset at nights due to tiredness.....in the morning after breakfast he lives a bath and plays squeals and giggles while we're getting dressed


xxx

 

[Roo3]

I used to spend ages stroking my LOs face to get him off to sleep once we had put him down for the night. Then one day I gave him a muslin cloth to hold when I put him down after his bath and he dropped off straight away. He likes to stroke it against his face as he's dropping off to sleep. I used to creep back into the room about 40 minutes after he had gone to sleep and remove the cloth but now he's older I leave it with him.
With regards to bedtime, I would bring his bedtime forward by about 15 minutes a week until he was going to bed at the time I wanted him to! He goes to bed at 7pm now. I don't let him sleep after 4pm.
My LO only dropped his night feed at about 7 months and sleeps through most nights now.

 

[vickib_1984]

Also a comfort blanket helps James loves his


xxx

 

[katie_lou]

I have a routine of bath , bottle and bed and ruby is asleep by 80 every evening . Xxx

 

[hellywelly]

I have gone on the principle of about two hours awake time each time so tonight E napped from 6 til 7 as I knew OH was going to be home a little later from his day out, so we did small feed at 8pm, bath at 8.30, then bottle and she has gone straight down at 9.15. She is normally in bed for 8.30 - whenever we start the bath the routine is always approx 45mins. It might be worth persevering with the nightly bath if possible. E goes crazy in hers, laughing, splashing etc and it doesn't calm her down either BUT it is her cue that the night is drawing to a close and then it's PJs on and the next bottle is ALWAYS up in our dimly lit bedroom. She then either drops off at the end of the bottle or is so drowsy that she drops off when she hits the mattress!

Like Tor I don't want to jinx myself but I have also been trying to make sure E has more regular daytime naps (I think we might have been reading the same book!! lol) and I think having more routine in the day has paid off at night as well. I'm hoping that as she goes longer through the night we will gradually pull bathtime forward to 6.30/7pm but until then I am quite a night owl so 8.30 is fine! I'm sure as Harry gets bigger he will start finding a rhythm of his own. x

 

[VikkiR]

Agree with Torino, watch out for the signs that they are sleepy, I know with mine once she's overtired it's hard work getting her to sleep. I've got a lionheart slumber bear too, brill and yep of she has 2 naps in the day even if it's just 30 mins she usually sleeps better at night x

 

[TORino]

I have gone on the principle of about two hours awake time each time so tonight E napped from 6 til 7 as I knew OH was going to be home a little later from his day out, so we did small feed at 8pm, bath at 8.30, then bottle and she has gone straight down at 9.15. She is normally in bed for 8.30 - whenever we start the bath the routine is always approx 45mins. It might be worth persevering with the nightly bath if possible. E goes crazy in hers, laughing, splashing etc and it doesn't calm her down either BUT it is her cue that the night is drawing to a close and then it's PJs on and the next bottle is ALWAYS up in our dimly lit bedroom. She then either drops off at the end of the bottle or is so drowsy that she drops off when she hits the mattress!

Like Tor I don't want to jinx myself but I have also been trying to make sure E has more regular daytime naps (I think we might have been reading the same book!! lol) and I think having more routine in the day has paid off at night as well. I'm hoping that as she goes longer through the night we will gradually pull bathtime forward to 6.30/7pm but until then I am quite a night owl so 8.30 is fine! I'm sure as Harry gets bigger he will start finding a rhythm of his own. x

I was just reading your post there and thought to myself, wow thats exactly what I do but just a bit earlier in the night!! haha. Yes. I'm pretty sure you are right

I can't knock it though, I've resisted posting about my successes at night incase I jinx myself but I have done this for a few weeks now. When we put her in her own room I got 2 decent blocks of sleep and I feel like a new woman!

 

[hellywelly]

There is lots about the routine lady that sends a shiver up my spine Tor but she seems bang on in other areas! Also I totally agree about her own room - we went from a restless night with 4 wake ups to a proper sleep with one or two when she went in her own room. Well, one really but I count 7am as a night feed as I always get her down again after this for a couple of hours!! lol

 

[TORino]

Yeah, I feel exactly the same, I have adapted it to create Vicky's version lol. I had nothing to lose when we started out tbh. And it works wonders for us. The 2 hour thing is spot on.

 

[Samsgirl]

agree....we try not to let hannah be awake for more thsn 2 hours during the day.....you can tell anyway that she starts to get tired if she is awake any longer. most days we get the tired signs after about an hour and a half...x

 

[beckyboo1]

Ok ladies thanks for all the suggestions. I'm keeping note of when he's been awake 2 hours ish. But what do you do then?

Just put them down awake?

Night times are so unpredictable with oh and what time he gets in from work. And part of me wants him to bath Harry. As its the only real time he gets with him. Plus the fact he's usually away 1-2 nights a week so time with him is precious

He does have a muslin which he likes to snuffle along with sucking his fingers/thumb (we don't have a dummy)

When we were on Hols he was managing to self settle a bit but not so much now we're home. But I have started to leave him and then go back up to him when he doesn't settle

I guess perseverance and maybe a few lessons to the hubby about night time. The way I'm feeling now I could gladly swing for him.

 

[Samsgirl]

yeah...if they are tired anyway then they will usually drop off. most times she makes a fuss but never for very long and its usually tired moaning or cries. she has now got to know that once she goes in her bed, this means naps. quite often she will drop off within about 10 mins

the afternoon naps are harder, she fights these...so i always take her for a walk around 4/5pm and she has a nap in her pram x

 

[BevG]

agree....we try not to let hannah be awake for more thsn 2 hours during the day.....you can tell anyway that she starts to get tired if she is awake any longer. most days we get the tired signs after about an hour and a half...x

same here alyssa gets whingey after an hour and a half to 2 hrs and so i put her in her pram for naps and it works out that her last nap ends round 6, bottle at 7 and often shes then asleep by half 7 or 8, later if her last nap ends later but its 9 the latest using this routine of awake for 2 hrs sleep for 1. tho sometimes she sleeps longer and is awake a lil less

 

[beckyboo1]

New day today ladies and despite being full of a cold with my nose streaming I'm going to make a real effort.

So Harry woke about 7.45 after one get up in the night. (he finally fully went to sleep around 10.30)

He had a feed a but of quiet time while mummy found the matchsticks to prop open her puffy tired eyes. Then went in his swing while I had brekkie and then we played on his mat. He started to get a bit fractious so I picked him up face him a cuddle and he started to drop off. He's now asleep in his cot and in back in bed! Think he'll only sleep for 40 mins ish cos that's his usual timings

We'll see....watch this space!