Bedtime Routine for a 8 week old...

Shannon - posted on 06/17/2011

my kids have their own sleep routine lol they were born with it.

both my babies slept through the night since day one i was worried at first but now its the norm they also take 1 to 2 naps during the day its great

Michelle - posted on 06/17/2011

I have a 6 week old, we tried breastfeeding but she would not latch correctly so I exclusively pump and feed via bottle. I have started a routine at 4 weeks that follows:

The times very by a 1/2 hour or so sometimes, depending on her.



6am bottle - then back to bed

9am bottle - play time then morning nap

11 am bottle - playtime then nap (sometimes she will not nap before next feeding or she will catnap in her swing)

2 pm bottle - playtime then nap

5pm bottle - playtime, walk outside or just play in the swing. Sometimes she'll catnap in her swing.

7am - feeding is closer together, kind of like a cluster feed relax, catnap

9pm - (every other night is bath) bottle and bed time.



I pump 6 times a day. I get about 3 pumps in while she is up. I just put her in the swing or bouncey seat next to me and we talk or I'll read to her.



She is now sleeping 5-6 hours straight, she just started doing this, this week. YAY!

Melissa - posted on 02/08/2011

At that age with so many feedings and only sleeping through the night 5 hours or so at a time I reccommend bedtime at 10pm...that way the longest span of sleep will be while you are sleeping...then it will naturally transition as they start sleeping longer to 8pm. For us that happened at 3.5 months old. So try to follow ur babies naturall schedule but adjust the long spans of sleep at the same time you sleep. our routine did not include bath every night but our boy slet fine either way. So 10pm bedtime, he slept for 4-5 hours, then woke in the morning at 8am. He would wake at 2ish and 530ish for feedings then we gradually stopped the 5 am feeding and when he woke put him in bed with us. I suggest u going to bed early and have dad feed the baby at night then at the late feeding (before 11pm) wake and do that feeding then sleep the 4-5 hours that ur baby sleeps............Just know that by 3 months it gets easier and hopefully ur LO will sleep longer. Your doc will let you know how long he is comfortable letting you baby sleep so you might be able to start stopping one of the late night feedings!

Gina - posted on 02/07/2011

I bathed my babies every night, i find it settles them better. A routine is great but at this age they are foiling your attempts almost daily. It changes so much until about 6 months. Have a routine but don't be down on yourself if it doesn't work. It won't be long before the 11pm feed is gone. I tend to get them off to bed at around 7.30pm, then this sets them up for later on. Then I would go to bed around 8.30 or 9.30pm. Your sleep is just as important as theirs. Bf sucks the life out of you and makes your soooo tired. Just don't be hard on yourself, 8 weeks is so early, you will be fine. My 3rd son was a little bugger regarding sleep at first and now he is 8 months and is fine. The best thing that I did was relax and take my cues from him, then he settled down quite well. Also just when you get a routine they change it on you. You have to laugh or you will pull your hair out.

I dont know if you use a dummy but I swear by them. I find that when they wake up in the night (I have them in the bassinette next to me in the room), when they are very little, I just pop the dummy in and they will go a little longer (5/10mins) and then wake up in a few minutes for that feed. It slowly gets them further apart.

I had so much trouble with my 3rd son and his sleeping during the day. He was a big baby and he was just so hungry regardless of me having a huge milk supply. I was feeding him after a while every 1-2 hours during the day and then he would sleep all night. This was around 12-14 weeks. I ended up giving him farex/rice cereal early because I couldn't get him to take a bottle and he needed more than I could give him, he has never looked back.

Just remember not to be hard on yourself and be flexible but do what you can handle. I used to feel guilty with my first son that I didn't like co sleeping, but someone said to me "you do what is right for you", and it was the best advice. There is no wrong answer really. Good luck.



Ps Also have a glass of water after a feed in the night, you will feel more awake in the morning because you are very dehydrated from the feeding in the night and this makes you feel tired.

Kimberly - posted on 02/07/2011

I started my daughetrs bedtime routine at about four weeks. She has colic/reflux so we made it as part of her bedtime routine to have a bath/shower every night followed by a massage which helped relax her and keep her skin from drying out then we would have stories or just small play like songs for a bit then I would bf her at 730 to sleep, would wake around 2am and then up for the day between 6-7am. Lots of people do a dream feed at about 11pm but she never took to it.I followed my daughters leads too with changing the routine little bits but she is now 15months and we still do pretty much the same thing every night except bedtime is around 830!! Just try it for a few days which ever you decieded so they get a chance to get used to it too.
ps if your worried about baths everyday just see how your little one goes my daughter get two a day sometime but we also live in a very hot place and she get dirty!!!!

Julie - posted on 02/06/2011

your during great. i did baths for my baby every night because it relxaed me and it help my baby fall asleep. i think it was 6 hours sleep at night but it sure helped after the first 4 weeks of every 3 hours wake up call.

Aislinn - posted on 02/05/2011

It's never too early to start a routine! Though I've read that you don't really -need- to start bedtime routines until 3 months, babies like consistency. We started our regular bedtime routine at around 6 weeks.

I would worry about drying out baby's skin doing baths every night. We do every other night.

As far as when to do bedtime, I would try to find a time that is good for you and/or work around a time set by your baby. For example, I noticed around 4 weeks that my son was falling asleep between 10:30 and 11 every night for a long sleep (at the time 4-5 hours). So I started putting him down then. Over the past 3 weeks I've been slowly moving bedtime earlier to better suit our (my husband and I) schedule, moving 15-30 minutes earlier each week.

Sharon - posted on 02/05/2011

When our son was newborn I would go to bed around 9-10pm, and then my husband would give him a dreamfeed at 11pm each night (expressed milk). He started sleeping through at 9wks of age (approx 830pm-6am with a dreamfeed)...this is what his feeding schedule looked like at that age.

6am / 9am / midday / 4pm / 8pm / 11pm.

For our littlle man, baths don't calm him down, he wakes and gets excited, always has, so we have to have baths in the late afternoon or morning.

We didn't have a bedtime routine as such...just fed him and snuggled him for awhile, and got him into his bassinette usually around 9pm. We didn't start with a feeding routine, but noticed he liked to feed 3hrly in the morning and 4hrly later in the day, so we just worked around that, then the schedule kind of made itself happen.