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Bedtimes

What are your bedtime routines with your lo's, what time do they go to sleep and how long does it take?

We start between 6 and 8 and we bath, massage, feed, cuddles then put to bed but it can take about an hour to get Riley down. That hour is filled with dummy runs, rocking moses basket, hairdryer/music playing to get him to sleep or at least to stop crying. I'm not sure whether this is due to the blackout blind not totally blacking the light out, yet he can have fairly decent naps in the day.

xxx

Replies

  • Evan has a bath everyother night so depending what day it is he has bath/nappy change/babygrow at 6.30, i put my older 2 to bed at 7pm then sit down and feed Evan straight away, he feeds and falls asleep while feeding and is in his cot at 7.30pm (7.45pm) at the latest.....i wont here from him til 5.00am, he has a 5min feed from me in bed and i get him up at 7am.....image
  • You are so lucky! Either that or I'm just unlucky!

    Riley wakes to be fed 3 times after bedtime and before morning usually at around 10pm-11pm. 1.30am and 4.30am-5am. Luckily he falls asleep on the bottle at these feeds so there's never much of a problem getting him back down.
    xxx
  • we start top and tailing (bath once a week) at about 8.15 , followed by a bit of massage then into his 'pjs' (lately this has been a1.5tog sleepbag and a long sleeved bodysuit as it's been warm) and then has his bedtime bottle at 8.30pm. we put him down to sleep (usually awake) at 9pm and by 9.30 he's drifted off to sleep by himself. he doesn't usually wake again until 5.30am when he has a breastfeed. he usually goes back to sleep around 7am and wants another boob at 9.30am. xxx
  • we start bathing at 7pm, bath,massage, into babygrow and sleeping bag, bottle, story, songs & then she is put down usually still awake. 9 times out of 10 she falls asleep by herself with half hour or so but sometimes (like tonight) she'll fight sleep but usually a bit more milk and a cuddle see's to that. She'll then be dreamfed at 10-11pm and then she wakes around 3am for a feed and again about 5.30-6.00am. She's then awake till 8 or 9am.
    I literally cant wait till she sleeps thru the night but i guess she'll do it when she's good and ready.
  • I could have written your post a week ago-Max was exactly the same, it's such a horrible exxhausting way to end the day. I did alot of reading and have made some changes this week-tonight he fell asleep 10minutes after us putting him into his bed!!

    The theory is that it's all about over stimulation so the key is to get baby as relaxed as possible.

    I don't know if it's all a coincidence and he's just going through a new phase but this is what i found has helped:

    -a short nap (5pm) 2 hours before we plan to put him to bed(7pm), i can't get him to take this in his cot so we go for a walk as he always sleeps in his pram

    -the next 2 hours are low key, no exciting play-we walk around the garden, sits quietly in his chair, watches us having our tea

    -around 6.30 we go upstairs, all very quiet whispers. I used to bath Max now but although he tolerates it when he's happy, when he's getting tired it wires him up so i bath in the morning a few times a week.

    -top and tail, massage his legs, nappy change, into pj's.

    -we lie on the bed and have very quiet quick story then he has a feed if he wants one (bf on demand) then he's down in his basket.

    Now this is where we were going wrong i think. The reading i did said that babies take 10mins of grizzling/crying to get to sleep. I was sshing, rocking, picking up, hairdryer the lot. The last few nights weve left him to grizzle, if he starts crying i go in pat his tummy and shhhh, if he starts crying hard i pick him up and hold him-no rocking just hold him still.

    The first night we did this it took an hour, the second night 30 mins and tonight 10!! I suppose it's a gentle version of controlled crying, i couldn't leave him cry at this age but i was picking him up when he was grizzling and it was his way of getting off to sleep.

    Hope some of this helps you, got to be worth a try! Now if anyone can tell me how to get him to sleep through and not wake up at 5am i'll be a very happy mummy!!xx
  • I could have written this post!

    We are having real problems getting Ollie to sleep in the evenings. We dont have a time as such more a sequence of events we follow which goes-
    Naked time, bath, massage, into nightclothes and then we try offering cool boiled water with gripe water as Ollie can be quite windy in the evenings. He may take this or may not and then may have a feed or may not (he is still totally BF on demand)

    This is usually where it all goes wrong! He will get really sleepy at this time but whatever we try we cant get him to drop off and the tired-er he gets the harder it is to get him to sleep!

    Last night we had him all ready for bed by 8.30pm but it took until 11.15pm to get him actually asleep!

    The worst thing is this is Hubby's main time with Ollie and it is spent with him screaming and us both snapping at each other as we are both tired/hungry/wanting to shower etc.

    We have tried a dummy which he will take sometimes, rocking him, cuddling him. I really dont want to leave him to cry.

    Oh and Kel, Ollie still wakes 2-3times a night for feeds also!
  • We have been lucky with Peter in that he has gone to sleep fairly quickly at bed time since we started his routine at 4 weeks. At the moment it is:

    6 - massage. He still doesn't like this very much so I do this first in case he gets wound up.

    6:30 - bath with dad who then gets him into his sleepsuit and sleeping bag.

    7(ish) - bottle of EBM and burp

    7:15(ish) - story

    If he hasn't fallen asleep during his story he is put down and his mobile is turned on. He will usually then fuss himself to sleep in about ten minutes or less, although he has been known to lie quietly chattering to himself for up to 45 min. Occasionally he demands to be fed again, usually for 10 minutes or so and will go to sleep while feeding. I'm not mad about this but he only does it very occasionally now so I don't think it is a habit.

    He will then wake to eat 2-3 times during the night and is now refusing to go back to sleep after 6 am which is a bit of a pain. But I guess you can't have everything...
  • My lo doesn't go down very easily at all most of the time. Sometimes we put her down at 8.30 and she is still not down at 11. But, it isn't that she is awake really, we sort of decided that it was because she was getting really bad wind. She would fall asleep, but then wake up and cry. We'd get her down, and then she'd cry again. It got to the point that if we lay her down, she'd get upset. But it seems to be getting better...hopefully.
    Pixiebob, what you said about stimulation was interesting though. I may see how I can apply that.

    xx
  • With Millie, her daddy does her bedtime routine most nights, he gives her a bath between 6.45pm and 7.00pm depending what time she will be due her bottle, then he gets her into her sleepsuit and sleeping bag. He will then give her a bottle around 7pm - 7.30pm and whilst he is feeding her in her room on the rcking chair I stand next to them and read her a story, her fave is room on the broom (or is that my fave?! hehe) she is usually very sleepy if not asleep by the time she has finished her bottle and 9 times out of 10 is fast asleep as soon he lifts her up to his shoulder to wind her, she sometimes will do a burp sometimes not and then he will put her down and mostly she doesnt wake up until around 6am and then I give her another bottle, I treat it as a night feed so keep it as dark as I can and dont talk to her although its hard as she normally gives me the biggest smiles at this time that make my heart melt, but I just give her a little smile back and whisper that I love her as feel a bit mean if I dont....must be soft!! lol and then she will usually fall back to sleep on the bottle and I'll put her back for another couple of hours! image We usually get up for the day around 8am.

    xxx

    [Modified by: Beth24 on June 03, 2009 10:29 PM]

  • depending when kayleigh is due her feed (can be anytime from 7.30 -9pm, we usually bath or top and tail her just before her feed, feed her then take her straight to the bedroom to settle her, mostly around 9-9.30pm, she really fights sleeping though and sometimes can take a while even 2 1/2 hrs then sometimes she'll want a top up of feed or another nappy change lol but sometimes she after feeding/winding i can put her in moses basket and she'll gurgle, kick about for a while and just drop off to sleep herself! She mostly sleeps through the night waking around 6ish for feed but odd occasion she wakes once in night for feed. xxx
  • yes the sleep thing is a huge topic. We tend to do bathtime around 6.45pm, small massage and change then a feed at 7.15pm (this was a lot later around 7.45-8pm up to 2 weeks ago) but now she falls asleep on us by rocking and we take her up to bed when she is fully asleep. Our little un will wake upon putting in her cot unless she is completely sparko so we are gradually reducing the time she is sleeping on us before we put her to bed. she is now falling asleep at around 7.45 (after 20 mins feed) but not going up to bed till around 8.45. She wakes for breastfeed between 1 and 2, she goes easily back into her cot then and then feeds again at 5 when she will not return to cot but comes into bed with us until 7.30am.

    At 10 weeks old I'm still trying to gradually encourage good sleeping patterns but I'm no good at tough love so crying out is not an option for me. This is possibly going to bite me later.

    We are winning battles gradually but I'm trying to pick which ones I actually worry about. e.g. I'm assuming she'll extend the time before her 2nd feed which means eventually she'll wake at 7am for feed.

    Anyway goodluck!
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