how can i do a bed time routine

Yolande - posted on 01/02/2010

Quoting Kirsten:

My son went through the same thing. It sounds difficult but I don't let him sleep past 3:30 in the afternoon and when I work his Nonni makes sure he doesn't sleep late either.. His bedtime it 7 to 7:30. So he is up anywhere between 3 and 4.5 hours before bed. It was challenging at first but now it is the best part of the day. I start his bedtime routine about 1 hour before bed. First we have tickle time to get any extra energy out that he may have, 5 minutes. Then he watches a little educational video in his bouncy chair, 23 minutes. Then it is bathtime, 10 minutes. Then it is lotion, massage and jammies while I sing lullabies to him, 10 minutes. Then a book by daddy, 5+ minutes. Last a 6 oz bottle of expressed Breastmilk (so I know he is getting enough) with 1 1/2 tablespoons of rice cereal to thicken it up. When I lay him down he gets a pacifier and his teddy bear. He has been sleeping through the night 7pm - 7am in his own crib for 5 weeks now.

It was a gradual process. He dropped one waking at a time until he was no longer waking up. Now he does wake up once and a while here and there but he puts himself back to sleep. If he wakes up really crying hard (which happens occasionally); I go in pick him up, tell him he's okay, bounce him gently while I hold him tight until he calms down and then I lay him back down and give him his pacifier, I never leave his room with him I stand right by his crib untile I lay him back down (usually 2-3 minutes). He might cry out a little more but usually he is so tired he falls back to sleep. - Good Luck!!

 

I've wondered why my son doesnt sleep after his 1pm (when he wakes up from his afternoon nap) and he now wants to go to bed at 5.30pm!! It makes it so difficult cause then he wakes up later - not tired at all! The other thing is, in the morning he's fine, but after hes awoken from his afternoon nap he NEEDS to be in the arms ALL THE TIME. So this is 4 and a half hours where my hubby or I cant do anything. I know he needs attention and we give him plenty, but this is a bit overkill? Ive tried just leaving him where he can see me while i carry on doing what i need to do, but he screams like you wouldnt believe. Any advice for this?

Hana - posted on 01/02/2010

our son was doing the same thing. he had a pretty set nighttime routine but would still wake up 4 or more times a night. we eventually realized he wasn't in need of anything, but was used to having us come in the second he started crying. this was so hard, but what we ended up doing was letting him cry for about 5 min, then going in his room and telling him he is ok and that we love him while covering him again and giving him back his bear. then, we let him cry for 10 minutes before going back in. we made sure to NOT talk too much when we went in there, to make it as dull as possible. this was so hard to let him cry but after about a week, he was only waking up once or twice a night. now, 2 weeks later he is sleeping through the night with the occasional wake up. i hope this helps, and good luck!

Hillary - posted on 01/02/2010

Right now, your baby thinks you are her bed because you are rocking her to sleep, so when she wakes up somewhere othan than on you she is not in her bed to her.

During the day when it's time for her nap, put her in her crib AWAKE but drowsy. (Also not so tired that she is inconsolable.) She needs to learn to soothe herself to sleep and she needs to learn that her crib is her bed. She will hopefully develop some soothing mechanisms on her own, like sucking her thumb, to put herself to sleep. She may cry at first but give some tough love (I know it's hard!) and let her cry for 5 minutes before you go in to pat her on the back or tickle her neck for a moment. I did this with my son and after 1 day he was sleeping through the night at 2 months. (I know that is rare, but it worked!)

Line - posted on 01/02/2010

My daughter is going on 8 months. She's been sleeping through the night since she was 2 months old. I always stayed with the same routine, it starts at 6. We play for about 15 minutes so she gets a little extra tired, then it's bath time for about 15 min. i let her play with her duck and slish slash a little. After i get her all relaxed when i put lotion on her with a little masse and put on her pyjamas. At 6h45 she eats her cereal in her high chair, then i deam the lights and give her 8oz of milk in the rocking chair. She doesn't fall asleep on me, we just give her her good night kisses and put her in her crib with her teddy and blanket. She sleeps from 7pm to around 6am. I am gonna start incorperating a bed time story in there soon. Also i dont let her nap after 4h30. Good luck and i hope you get some rest soon!

Linda - posted on 01/02/2010

Wow, I'm impressed with the 7pm sleep times, good for you!
My baby girl is 7 months 1 week old and I cannot get her down for the night before 10pm...sometimes shes up until 11 or even later. She naps twice a day and sometimes gets in a third if I'm driving home from my moms house. She fights me every night when I try to put her down. But oddly enough during the day I just have to place her in her crib with a teddy and a blanket and she doesnt fuss to sleep.
But at around midnight every night she lets out a cry and I go to give her her dummy and rock her a little and she falls back to sleep. But her cry is more like a scream not a whimper or anything. But once I get her settled she does not wake until her 7am feeding and then goes back down until 9ish. Its exhausting! and I never go to sleep until after her midnight cry because its worse when she wakes me in my sleep.

Jodie - posted on 01/02/2010

My little boy is 71/2 mths old, he doesnt sleep past 4.30pm in the afternoon, and goes down to sleep around 7 or 8. He wakes up a few times during the night, but just for his dummy and then goes straight back to sleep. I am going to try and leave him tonight and see if he puts himself back to sleep, as it happens 2 or 3 times and I need my sleep, haha.

Kirsten - posted on 01/01/2010

My son went through the same thing. It sounds difficult but I don't let him sleep past 3:30 in the afternoon and when I work his Nonni makes sure he doesn't sleep late either.. His bedtime it 7 to 7:30. So he is up anywhere between 3 and 4.5 hours before bed. It was challenging at first but now it is the best part of the day. I start his bedtime routine about 1 hour before bed. First we have tickle time to get any extra energy out that he may have, 5 minutes. Then he watches a little educational video in his bouncy chair, 23 minutes. Then it is bathtime, 10 minutes. Then it is lotion, massage and jammies while I sing lullabies to him, 10 minutes. Then a book by daddy, 5+ minutes. Last a 6 oz bottle of expressed Breastmilk (so I know he is getting enough) with 1 1/2 tablespoons of rice cereal to thicken it up. When I lay him down he gets a pacifier and his teddy bear. He has been sleeping through the night 7pm - 7am in his own crib for 5 weeks now.

It was a gradual process. He dropped one waking at a time until he was no longer waking up. Now he does wake up once and a while here and there but he puts himself back to sleep. If he wakes up really crying hard (which happens occasionally); I go in pick him up, tell him he's okay, bounce him gently while I hold him tight until he calms down and then I lay him back down and give him his pacifier, I never leave his room with him I stand right by his crib untile I lay him back down (usually 2-3 minutes). He might cry out a little more but usually he is so tired he falls back to sleep. - Good Luck!!

Carolyn - posted on 01/01/2010

son who is also 7 months use to be the same way. he would wake up about every hour in the night unless i would hold him or lay with him in my bed. I finally figured out that if i gave him a pacifier or something to suck on that he would go to sleep. and i extended him bed time routine. before i lay him to bed i typically give him a bath and let him play in the water lil while then i would play with him on the floor. he likes music too and the sound of a tv or someone talking, he has recently started this since he is teething. so i give him a humrysph dissolve strip.. Good luck!

Rachel - posted on 01/01/2010

she has a night light and mobile on ill try extending her bedtime and some bed time milk see if works thankyou

Emma - posted on 01/01/2010

Hi there
Hvae you thought about extending her night time routine to include a bedtime story or something, so that she is ultra pooped when she finally goes down? With my lil gal we do a long bath with bubbles and rubber ducks and then poddle through to the nursery for some tummy blowing time and then a nice story with pictures - we don't always manage a full story before she starts getting edgy for her night time bottle, but it's just a little bit of night time calming - and then she has a night time bottle with bedtime milk in it. The bedtime milk has a bit of cereal in it to make it a thicker feed and I have found that this helps her sleep through the night. Perhaps buying some bedtime milk to give a go might help? Hope that helps a bit ,,, Good luck! Hope you get some relaxing evenings soon! xxx

Marianna - posted on 01/01/2010

well, how does her rooms looks like? does she have a night light? and did you try some sounds? this is my third one and I found out, they respond very well to a static noise,or white noise, so if you have a fan, or better yet a radio, I just simply turn it itnto a static noise ( you know, where there is no radio station,just je noise), or there are other, if you want, like sound of rain... just see at what volume suits her.

hope this helped...

Marianna - posted on 01/01/2010

well, how does her rooms looks like? does she have a night light? and did you try some sounds? this is my third one and I found out, they respond very well to a static noise,or white noise, so if you have a fan, or better yet a radio, I just simply turn it itnto a static noise ( you know, where there is no radio station,just je noise), or there are other, if you want, like sound of rain... just see at what volume suits her.

hope this helped...

Marianna - posted on 01/01/2010

well, how does her rooms looks like? does she have a night light? and did you try some sounds? this is my third one and I found out, they respond very well to a static noise,or white noise, so if you have a fan, or better yet a radio, I just simply turn it itnto a static noise ( you know, where there is no radio station,just je noise), or there are other, if you want, like sound of rain... just see at what volume suits her.

hope this helped...