Bedtime routine

[MissLauren]

My LG is three weeks old today and I'm just wondering at what age do mums put baby to bed at a specific bedtime? While I understand that its recommended that babies sleep in the same room as parents for at least the first six months - which I am doing, I mean in the sense of taking baby upstairs at a particular time, and putting her down in the moses basket (which is in my room), and then me going back downstairs for an hour or so?

I'm keen on setting up a bedtime routine when the time is right (I've read about 6 weeks is the earliest to really start), so at the moment I'm just trying to differentiate between day and night for her, i.e. during the day - lots of natural daylight, regular noises like the TV, chatter, washing machine etc, then in the evening - dimming lights, turning volume down on TV, etc. Is what I'm doing enough for now? xx

 

[Pumpkin9]

Sounds good to me.

What you can do is do the same things in order before bed (so nappy change, feed etc..) regardless of time so that your baby gets the signals of bedtime, but yes as you say normally 6 to 10 weeks is when you can start to establish a routine, think it really depends on the baby

 

[Mackmummy]

I don't think we did much of a routine before around The three month mark and even then the routine was more for me so I knew when to do what rather than for baby, babies don't start producing melatonin until they are around six months so they can't put themselves to sleep etc so it's hard for them to follow any routine but it's always good to start one to give you an idea. I found With oscar that I have changed his routine as we have gone along because he started slotting into his own times etc. after months of screaming baby and horrible nights! He is now getting somewhere! He's five months old now so it took a while to get it right.

We used to keep oscar in the Moses basket downstairs with us until we went to bed then took him up with us. I then Tried starting abed time routine from six (bath or top and tail, read a story bottle then bed) but that was too early for him and he would end up having a meltdown! He has his last day nap at 5.30 now (half an hour) then we play a little longer then start his routine at 7. So tonight is bath night so quick bath at 6.50 then we have in the night garden at 7 then story time until 8 but he never lasts long so I put the lullabies on and give him his bottle and he's out like a light. One thing I have worked out is that if oscar doesn't have regular naps in the day, the evenings can be horrendous! It used to take us six hours to get him to bed! Now he has at least four half hour naps a day, for some reason he won't sleep longer than half an hour! And now, from starting his stories to him sleeping it can be about ten minutes!

Sorry, gone on a bit! But I just remember how hard it was for me to get to the right routine! Good luck x

 

[Durhamchance]

I started with Blake at just 3 weeks. I don't think you can start to early. We watched him like a hawk on the monitor at first, but it was nice to just have a couple of hours in the evening to ourselves.

 

[Ella1979]

Yep, what you're doing seems fine to me too. With our daughter, we just let her set her own routine and by around 3.5 months she was having a bedtime of 9pm, a couple of months later it was 7pm and then she brought it forward again to 6pm. With our son, we actively tried to get him into a routine that fitted with our daughter, but even so, we didn't start that until he was around 12 weeks old. By "actively", I mean we would do a bedtime routine at around 5pm, with a bottle around 6pm, then upstairs to bed in his cot. We fed him whenever he woke in the night, so for a while he would wake at 2am, which wasn't great (e.g. we could have given an additional feed at 11pm or something to get him through, but we were focusing on bedtime being a set time), but after a while he would wake later and later for that night bottle until he no longer needed it.

Just differentiating between night and day is enough at the moment. Certainly we found that our daughter was able to get herself into her own routine with no real input from us (we fed on demand, put her down when she was tired) and our son we made fit the routine. So both ways seem to work!

 

[Louise2013]

I didn't make much effort with this at the start and then found myself feeling pretty 'behind' everyone else, so worked really hard to get into a bath/bottle/bed routine that always saw him in bed by 7.30 with consistent naps in the day, but I'm starting to accept my LO just doesn't need much sleep! Even as a newborn he rarely slept in the day and I kept waiting for this magical '16-20 hours of sleep a day' to appear; in reality, he has never gone longer than 12/13 in total including his naps... Naps are rarely longer than thirty minutes but it's taken me nine months to work out he just doesn't 'need' as much sleep as 'the books' tell me

I think it sounds like you're doing great xxxx

 

[Mummybexee]

I started at 8 weeks because I enjoyed as a newborn being able to go out - once you start a routine - you can't pick and choose when you do it. Oscar had bath bottle and bed from 8 weeks and we don't deviate now.

If you enjoy going to friends and staying out alittle bit I'd hang fire but if you stay in every night I guess just crack on

 

[Maud]

Ours started going to bed before us at 4 months. It was lovely to get our evenings back (although not so much ATM due to teething)

 

[MissLauren]

babies don't start producing melatonin until they are around six months so they can't put themselves to sleep etc

I didn't know this! Definitely something to bear in mind.

I'm in no rush to set one up, but I like to plan ahead haha I'm trying to let things come naturally and just go with my gut instinct, but i'm finding myself wondering and worrying sometimes if every little thing I do with her is going to make a difference or not in the future.

Thanks for all your input though! Puts my mind at rest that I don't necessarily need to act straight away and can carry on the way I am.

On the topic of sleep while we're here, have any of you travelled with a newborn? OH's family live a fair bit away, so when we visit we tend to stay for a couple of nights. I have a travel cot but MIL said she was too young to use it. I personally don't see why, and having a small car, there is not a chance we can fit in the moses basket aswell as everything else! She'll be 4/5 weeks depending on which weekend we go xx

 

[littlemonkey]

We always let LO set his own routine. I remember at about 6 weeks trying to introduce a 7pm bed time and LO having none of it! Wish I'd never wasted my time! It wasn't until he was about 5-6 weeks we noticed a pattern of him settling for the night at a particular time. Then that gradually got earlier and earlier until he settled himself around 7pm when he was probably about 5-6 months old.

The thing is there really is no right or wrong with it. It's about what suits you and LO best. Also don't listen to people who will tell you doing xyandz will guarantee your LO sleeping through the night. Your LO will do it when they are ready.

 

[Louise2013]

On the travel thing, we've been away a lot since LO was born as we have a lot of family abroad (LO has racked up 16 flights in nine months!) and if you can get a Koodi bassinet I cannot recommend them highly enough. It packs small enough and light enough for hand luggage and are fab. We used it on our first trip away at 4 weeks old when visiting family a few hours away. At six months we moved up to the bigger Koodi bubble travel cot and they are fab. We bought a traditional travel cot before Lo was born and I've never even used it! Which reminds me, I must get it on ebay..... If the travel cot is your only option though I see no reason why it's not okay? Have a lovely break! Xxxxx

 

[Lyllian]

I'm leaving my lo to work.out her own routine. I bath her at same time every night but is getting earlier as she's falling asleep earlier. Was 1 am then midnight we.are now at 10pm to go.down properly and sleep through. I personally don't stress over it my lo keeps me right

 

[T84]

You'll probs find that time wise lo will set her own time and it'll get earlier and earlier as she gets older. Like the others say have a loose routine by differentiating day and night and maybe a bath bottle bed routine.

With the travel thing, I'm sure a travel cot would be fine but I know my friend uses one of these to stay at her parents and her lo is almost 4 months and still sleeps in it occasionally http://www.poddlepod.com x