When to start bedtime routine

Winnie

My son is 4 weeks old and just wondered when we should start a bedtime routine for him. I am initially thinking to wait until about 8 weeks so he is old enough to learn a bedtime routine........any advice appreciated?!

foxy06

Nothing to stop you doing it straight away. Things will probably not always go as planned though. Are you planning on putting baby upstairs after his planned last feed? If you are then go through your routine as planned (bath bottle bed say) then when baby wakes feed in their or your room rather than bringing them back downstairs. If you would rather keep baby with you make the house noticably quieter and darker and hopefully baby will cop the difference eventually. Hope that helps:)

Moonbeam

I am not sure what you mean by bedtime routine?
He is only 8 weeks old,do you not just let him sleep when he is tired and then bring him to bed when you are going?

January

Didn't really start a routine until baby was at least 12 weeks old... they were still waking every couple of hours for a feed then anyway...

implausible

When we first got our fella home, he was sleeping in his moses basket downstairs and we'd only bring him upstairs when we were going to bed ourselves, which could've been any time from 11 to 1. At about 5 weeks, I made a conscious effort to put him upstairs into the cot after he fed around 10 o'clock. He started to sleep for longer (probably because our room was so quiet) and eventually we got him back to 20:30! When he woke during the night, it was no lights, no talking, just feed and put him back in the cot. If he woke after 7ish, it was curtains open, up and downstairs. He really took to it.

I don't know if you'd describe it as a routine as such, but it worked for us.

Ayla

For both of our girls our nighttime routine - from day 1 - was a (breast)feed and playtime on the bed (nappy free baby play, massage, etc) for about 30-45 mins, then nappy & clothes on, lights off, last feed & into the cot.

Don't think there's such a thing as too early to start a routine - whatever you're doing now is all your baby knows.

How Strange

We waited until 12 weeks. He'd dropped his 11pm breastfeed at that stage so started putting him down at 9pm and within 2 weeks he was in bed at 7.30pm. He's almost 6 months now and we wouldn't be able to keep him up past 7.30 if we wanted to.

mrsberries

How Strange wrote: »

We waited until 12 weeks. He'd dropped his 11pm breastfeed at that stage so started putting him down at 9pm and within 2 weeks he was in bed at 7.30pm. He's almost 6 months now and we wouldn't be able to keep him up past 7.30 if we wanted to.

Just wondering how long your son would sleep until when you put him down at 9pm. My girl gets last feed at 11 and she normally sleeps until 8ish. Im considering gettting her to be earlier but not at the peril we have a 4am wake up call!

How Strange

He usually wakes around 6am, he gives us a rendition of the morning chorus, I give him a feed, he chats to himself for half an hour or so and goes back to sleep until 8. We usually get up at 8am.

The very odd time he wakes at 5am but I think these duper early mornings coincide with teething or developmental leaps where he's learning new things.

How Strange

mrsberries, that's from 7.30pm. We find he wakes at the same time regardless of what time we put him down at. One night a couple of weeks ago he slept right through to 5.45am (breastfed!) but since 5 months he usually sleeps til 3am and can go 3-4hrs until his next feed.

mrsberries

Thanks for that. Okay I think Im getting a good stretch with her so considering shes 14 weeks. Shes goes back asleep after her 8am feed until 10.30 or later sometimes! Prob should start readjusting that in coming weeks for an earlier bed/earlier rise routine but we've been just following her lead so far.

How Strange

She'll adjust it herself when she's ready My little fella used to sleep like that and around 3 months started wanting to get up at 8am, nap around 9.30, another around 11.30, 1.30 and 3.30, bed 7.30. This was established by following his cue