Night routine for almost 5 month old

Ciarrai76

My baby boy is 4 & 1/2 months old and I'm very unsure as to whether he should have a set bedtime routine at night yet. He sleeps really well through the night, he doesn't wake for a feed anymore, but it's the getting him down at night that I am not sure we are doing it right.

I am still breastfeeding him a small bit (currently weaning though), so I BF him around 8pm (after changing him etc) and he tends to fall asleep. I've tried putting him down into cot then but he either wakes as I'm waking upstairs or when I lie him down. Since he was born we would leave him sleep down with us in sitting room, give him his last late feed and he would go down to sleep. We are still sort of doing this, but the last late feed is now around 11pm (used to be a lot later) but is what I think we need to stop doing, but I can't seem to get it to work out. He just seems to want to stay awak and won't sleep for long or not all. How should I do this or is he still very young for a strict routine?

Sorry if this is a bit jumbled up & confusing to read, I keep having to stop & start the post!

hollymartins

When is his last nap of the day? Our son was going to bed around 9pm at that age but from what my friends told me he could be going down around 7pm. I realised he was having a catnap around 5.30-6pm then he'd be awake for a couple of hours before getting a bottle at 8.30pm before sleeping around 9pm (then having a short feed during the night).

So we gradually moved his bedtime to 7pm, each week for about 6 weeks we fed him about 15 mins earlier. So now at 8 months old he starts getting tired around 6pm, we don't really have a routine but I guess my husband comes home around 6pm so he plays with him for a half hour then he gets a bottle at 6.30pm, nappy change and into his babygro then he goes into his cot for around 7pm and thankfully sleeps through until the morning.

So my advice would be to see if you get him to bed earlier if you can.

Ciarrai76

hollymartins wrote: »

When is his last nap of the day? Our son was going to bed around 9pm at that age but from what my friends told me he could be going down around 7pm. I realised he was having a catnap around 5.30-6pm then he'd be awake for a couple of hours before getting a bottle at 8.30pm before sleeping around 9pm (then having a short feed during the night).

So we gradually moved his bedtime to 7pm, each week for about 6 weeks we fed him about 15 mins earlier. So now at 8 months old he starts getting tired around 6pm, we don't really have a routine but I guess my husband comes home around 6pm so he plays with him for a half hour then he gets a bottle at 6.30pm, nappy change and into his babygro then he goes into his cot for around 7pm and thankfully sleeps through until the morning.

So my advice would be to see if you get him to bed earlier if you can.

His naps aren't for long in the day, and he doesn't tend to have any later than 5pm. When I BF him around 7.30/8pm then he falls asleep, but tends to wake again. Then he gets his last bottle around 11pm. I just don't know If we are doing things right. He won't stay down in cot if I bring him up too early too. I keep second guessing myself & worrying I'll get him into bad habits.

hollymartins

Every baby is different, he's still so young, if someone told me 4 months ago that my son would be sleeping 12 hours at night I would have laughed bitterly in their faces Growth spurts and teething that can throw off a routine. In fact at 4.5 months my son went through a short period of sleep regression but he settled down again. I wouldn't worry about bad habits, if he's sleeping and feeding then it will fall into place, the first 6 months are tough going but many babies settle in to a routine.

Ciarrai76

hollymartins wrote: »

Every baby is different, he's still so young, if someone told me 4 months ago that my son would be sleeping 12 hours at night I would have laughed bitterly in their faces Growth spurts and teething that can throw off a routine. In fact at 4.5 months my son went through a short period of sleep regression but he settled down again. I wouldn't worry about bad habits, if he's sleeping and feeding then it will fall into place, the first 6 months are tough going but many babies settle in to a routine.

Yeah I am probably putting too much pressure on myself! He is teething and woke a few times last night crying but I managed to settle him fairly quick thankfully.

forgodssake

He sounds like he is doing perfectly ! I Have 3 kids, to be honest, never tried any set routine just went with them! and they never gave me any bother really . He is still very young , you are doing brilliantly x

drunkmonkey

Think it depends on what time you want them to wake in the morning, we've a 2yr old that goes to bed at 8.30 (after a paw patrol double) and wakes up at 8.30 and a 1yr old that goes to bed at 7.30 and wakes at 7.30, he gets a bottle then and falls asleep for another hour and then I get both of them up.

Friends have put there young ones to bed at 6 and wonder why there walking at 6am. Think you can figure out what's going on.

Your little one is still very young though might take them a while to fully settle or maybe not you could get lucky, we did with one not with the other.

I think a simple rule of thumb is of there rubbing there eyes anytime after 7 it's time for bed. You'l notice it happens around the same time every night.

There all different though. Best of luck with it, think your nearly over the worst of it. Can't speak for what happens after 3yrs. Were just at the jumping out of cot stage but have managed to get him to stay in his room and go to bed after 3 nights. Hoping it lasts, it was rough few nights getting kicked in the head at 3am.

Ciarrai76

Thanks! Its nice to hear I'm not doing too badly!
Thankfully he sleeps through the night, has done since abut 2 & 1/2 months old, which is great. He is usually awake anytime between 7.30am and 9am, but its been about 8.30am for the past few weeks. I can't complain really. He's going through that phase of being very alert now and tonight he's been totally wired and 'chatting' all evening...all day actually! He's gas! Apart from the teething his sleep at night hasn't been too bad through out this 4 month phase!

Lucuma

Ciarrai what I have found is that they start to settle into their own routine over time and any time I was scratching my head about what to do it meant they were about a month off settling into their own routine! I bet you'll notice a big difference in the next 2 months.
My baby is almost 7 months now and she's in bed by 8pm most nights, she wants to go to sleep by then and settles straight away.