Do you have a bedtime routine for your baby??

Whitelight · Jul 20, 2014

Hi moms..

I delivered my second child 3 weeks back and till now she has been a very easy child. She drinks milk and goes right back to sleep for another 3hrs. Last night she slept at a stretch for 9 hrs.

The only issue is she is all fresh at 6 pm and takes a longer time to go back to sleep,usually 10.30 or 11 pm. Yesterday i got lucky,she slept early. I read online that if we introduce certain bedtime routine babies will relate that to sleep and it helps them to slowly fall sleep without a fight. I have been giving her a oil massage ,a warm bath followed by feeding and some white noise...this do relax her and she do sleep but gets up an hr later and she is fresh again!

I have tried waking her up at around 4 pm... So that she will be a little tired, but she seems to have more energy
So, ladies do you have any tricks that can help me out here??

hope2b · Jul 20, 2014

Looks like your baby is struggling between day and night confusion. At this age, barely a month, night time routines are not so about sleep, than practice. Babies just feed and sleep upto 16 hrs till 3 months. My suggestion is that, if she gets up at night, don't turn lights on. Keep quiet, white noise, feed her as per demand and gently sush her to sleep. Keep doing that till morning. My ped advised me to feed her every 2 hr's till few months. Once she completes 6 months, you can religiously start a routine. Like dinner, anight shower, quiet play, may be a book, kiss, and goodnight. Again feeds as per demand.

jigisha321 · Jul 20, 2014

she sounds like a cutie pie ..full of mischief..

Crooning to her and rocking her gently in your lap may help...also try keeping the light dim and gently running your fingers on her scalp can make her sleepy,considering she has fed on demand and has a full tummy

Avoid giving her small naps just before bedtime...but sometimes babies do get adamant and want to sleep when they feel like it..hopefully things will improve with time..don't worry..

guesshoo · Jul 20, 2014

Yes. It definitely helps. I started later but I have friends who started the routine almost immediately after they brought their babies home.

Wouldn't your little one need 17-18 hours at this stage? Please check it up. Instead of waking the child up, could you tweak her routine by pushing her nap time earlier and making sure that she is up at least 4 hours before bedtime? Or push the bedtime by half an hour or so.

Even if your child is bright eyed, a sleep routine will make them happy to sleep as they know what to expect next. For her night sleep, you could make sure that the routine is more elaborate and the lights are completely out with curtains drawn.

If she wakes up what do you do? There is this great baby whisperer technique called "wake to sleep". It worked wonders for me. Also check out cluster feeds before bedtime and dream feeds. It will help your child sleep longer at night times.

Whitelight · Jul 20, 2014

Dear guesshoo,

thank you very much for your suggestion. I tried to read everything about " wake to sleep" technique... I am going to try that for sure.

My baby is otherwise a good sleeper..she sleeps for 17-18 hrs. My issue is she is wide awake between 6 pm and 11.30 pm. I wish she could go to bed by 7/8 pm ( that is awake time between 3/4 pm to 8 pm ) i know its difficult to get babies this young to follow our schedule but i want to start some routine now so that she can relate to it and finally start going to bed by 8 when she is around 3 months old.

She is a big baby so her paed doesn't want me to wake her up before 3 hr for feeding. When she wakes up i change her diaper ,feed her ,burp her and put her back in her crib , switch on the white noise and walk away.... After 5 min or so i check on her and she will be fast asleep.

Thankyou very much..

Whitelight · Aug 19, 2014

Hi ladies..
An update here..

My baby is 1 month and 3 weeks old. Things have changed a lot..for good. I have a bed time routine in place and she is already relating that to sleep time. I give her a nice warm bath at 7.30, she really enjoys that. By around 8 she will be in her pajamas and i feed her. I make sure she doesnt doze off during the feeding...she will be drowsy but still awake. I then dim the lights and switch on the white noise ( she likes the sound of a water fall) and then i put her in her bouncer ( doc said that was ok because she gulps a lot of air during feeding ,so keeping the head raised will help her to get some quality sleep)
She will take another half an hour to put herself to sleep by sucking her thumb( self soothing method ) . By 9 pm she will be fast asleep.after another hour or so i slowly move her to her bassinet where she sleeps till 5 in the morning... 8 hours at a stretch ..no feeding breaks too. At 5 i feed her and she will go right back to sleep for another 3 hours. After that she wakes up every 2-3 hrs for feeding . Her wake times are increasing now during the day..we have tummy time, we go for walk with her in the stroller in the evening..she enjoys looking around.

So this bed time routine is working for us....

Gae3 · Sep 25, 2014

Hi Whitelight,

I have also started a bed time routine.Since I am in Bangalore I cant give an evening bath.So for now I am just following a massage with baby lotion followed by sleep suit and then switch off lights.Then I feed him.And put him in hammock.
I have to swaddle it for good 15-20 mins and then he sleeps.

can you please share how your baby got adjusted to the new routine?
And any suggestion for me.I do use white noise when he is too cranky else the whole night of white noise I get head ache.He prefers a hair drier sound in white noise.

Also he was colic till 3 months.Hence I just did watevr would put him to sleep or soothe him.Since month 4 he is better.And now he is in 5th month running.
So i tot I could start sleep training.

Whitelight · Oct 8, 2014

Hey Gae,

My daughter has been following the same sleep pattern as i mentioned before. But i have made some changes. The weather is getting very cold here so giving a bath late in the evening is out of question. I give her a bath in the afternoon. She is not dependent on any routine now.. By 8.30 i feed her and put her in her bassinet. I switch on her fav lullaby , switch off the lights and leave the room. By 9 she will be fast asleep.

I suggest you try any routine that your baby likes..but strictly stick to the routine for at least 3-4 weeks . Then the baby will start relating to the routine and the time. Once his biological clock is tuned to that time you can alter the routine,that will not affect the baby's sleep. I used to play the sound of waterfall...which my daughter liked very much. But over a period of time it was getting boring so i switch to -Lullaby (2 hours long) Baby Bedtime music - fisher priceits very soothing for us adults too . Just play till the baby goes to sleep.

hope this helps.