Bedtime routines « Back to Group Discussions

[KM84]

How many of you have settled into a bedtime routine? What is it? We've been trying to find one that works for us but it's been a little challenging because we've been traveling.

At 8pm we bathe, feed, and change her. Then I swaddle her and set her down to sleep in her room. 

Around 9:30pm I go up to bed and my husband is "on duty." When she wakes up (about 2 hours later) he takes her downstairs and feeds/cuddles her.

At 2:30 he brings her upstairs (usually sleeping) so I can feed her and then I take over. If I'm lucky I can get her back to sleep by 3:30.

Between 5 and 6am she wakes up and wants to be fed and tends to be really fussy, at which point I take her downstairs so my husband can sleep uninterrupted until 9am.

She's been having really intense reflux ( but the dr said it's normal ) so we've been putting her to bed in her bouncy chair so she can be more upright. I know it's not the best for her ergonomically, but when she's flat she tends to choke on her spit-up which can be really scary. The doctor said if it keeps up she can prescribe something, but would rather we just wait it out.

[Astraia]

I'm not sure you can say our routine is a good one... Usually Everett wakes up from a late afternoon nap at about 5:30 (or: whenever we sit down for dinner, whether that's 4:30 or 7, he finds a way to wake up!) and then goes to sleep at 7, despite our best efforts to make him sleep earlier or later. The kids then wake up him at about 7:30 when we bring them up to bed, and then he's over tired and cranky and takes the next hour+ to fall asleep, and is seriously unhappy until he does sleep.

Most of the time during the day we put him to sleep in the baby swing (in our bedroom, where the only air conditioner is- so we've got white nice and cool air to counter the very tight swaddle that he requires to sleep). At night - or any time after the kids to go bed, around 7:30-8 pm- we put him in our bed to sleep. He's usually right out at that point, and sleeps solidly until I come to bed at 10:30 or so. He wakes up almost immediately when I come to bed, but doesn't wake again until about 2:30 and then again around 5.

I've found 5 am to be when all three of my kids get into that half asleep/ not really asleep/ nursing and squirming constantly so we both just doze until I finally give up and get out of bed. Not sure if all kids are like that, or if it's just a summer thing...? Not sure.

I'm assuming as he gets older he realize our routine with the other two kids, that "settle down" time, and then (hopefully!) continue to go to sleep shortly after they do, and I can keep my evenings to myself. Really loving my evenings right now!

And here we are- 7:06, baby is awake! Just in time for Orrin to say, "i'm sleepy, mommy, brush teeth?"

[MeredithA]

Deacon's bedtime routine is as follows:

He has an evening nap and wakes around 5:30-6pm. He then eats and is held/cuddled by me or DH (usually switching off so we can cook dinner somehow) until 9 when he eats again and then falls asleep in our arms.

We carefully (fearfully!) lay him in the bassinet next to our bed, praying he won't wake.

Then I shower or clean up the kitchen and go to bed. Deacon wakes between 3:30&4:30 to nurse and again at 7am.

7am comes and he nurses and either (a) falls back asleep until 9 - yay!!! Or (b) wakes up grumpy at 7

He is a good night sleeper overall but is getting increasingly crabby and nap-resistant during the day.

[MLog]

We have no bed time routine.  I guess we should start trying to establish one, especially since I'm back at work.  Our routine would probably look something like this until DS starts staying with the in laws while I work (end of August):

DS and I arrive home from work between 7 and 8:30pm depending on the day.  I eat dinner while DS spends time with DH.  Bathe DS, feed DS, put DS to bed in the bassinet no later than 10:00pm.  From what I can tell DS would probably sleep until about 2:00am, then eat again around 4, 6, and 8 and then we'd probably get up for the day.  DS probably wouldn't sleep between the 6 and 8am feedings.  If DH is home he would take him during that time so I could get more sleep, but if DH has to work early I will have to get up with DS which will make for a very long day.  I may need to start back on some caffeine.

But really so far we haven't established many routines at all so we'll just have to see.

[lightheartedmom]

I guess our bedtime "routine" has been dictated by DD's fussiness...she's 7 weeks old now and there were a few days last week where I thought maybe we were seeing light at the end of the tunnel, but no. Still colicky. So...our routine at night is something like this: 5:30 I start looking at the clock PRAYING it's time for the older kids to go to bed because it's just enough already and I'm over being a mom, okay? (and I adore these children with every fiber of my being, for real) Around that time I'm also making dinner which means DD is being worn in the Moby or sitting in the kitchen in her bouncy seat (the point here is that I am never out of her field of vision and definitely that no one else is holding her). Dinner around 6:30-7:30 depending on how efficient I am, older kids are generally in bed by 8:30 or 9. Almost every night at 8:00 or soon after, DD3's fussy time really kicks in, so she's always in the Moby at that point. I wear her through the night time routine with the older kids and frequently she sleeps through that part (if i try to put her down though, she'll immediately kick the fussing into high gear). After that I usually take a shower with her. This is her happiest time of day - none of my kids have loved being in the water as much as she does. Seriously, I wish I could get a really good photograph of her adorable, peaceful little face in the shower. Followed by the intense grief of the water being turned off, compounded by the extreme outrage of being dried off, diapered and dressed. Mixed in there somewhere is gas and pooping. She's generally resistant to nursing around this time too - another first for me as a mom, she's my first where the boob hasn't been the font of all consolation. If she's worked up, she wants nothing to do with that. Oh well. After shower, usually there's another hour of half-hearted fussiness (sometimes it's full blown screaming, but thankfully, not as often), followed by her giving up and nursing and then she finally drifts off to sleep around 10:30/11. (As I'm typing this she's sleeping in the moby, but if I put her down, she'll be awake and angry)
Once she actually goes to sleep, she does quite well through the night - sleeps about 3-4 hours at a time, usually nurses quickly on one side and then goes back to sleep. Our sleeping arrangements suck right now. DH is on the futon in our living room and usually I'm out there with him the first half of the night, until one of the older ones wakes me up to come and sleep in the bedroom (that's usually around 3:30am...from then on I'll sleep in the big bed in the bedroom with DD2 and DD3 and DD1 in her toddler bed next to me...basically our house is all beds these days. I don't love it, but that's what it is). She walks up around 8:30or 9am for a big feed and diaper change and then usually goes back to sleep for another hr or two.
If it weren't for the colic, she'd actually be a really easy sleeper...it's just the lead-in to bedtime that leaves me wasted. And again, it's only a "routine" by virtue of the fact that it's the only thing that works for us right now.

(I haven't been on here in a long time! I miss this DDC)