What is your little one's night time routine?

[Liviam]

Like so many many mums out there I am exhausted with a little one who is not sleeping through the night and as hard as I've tried I can't get us all into a routine. I am feeling completely lost at the moment and readily admit that I have no idea what i'm doing.
So I was wondering what your little one's night time routine is? I want to see if there are some tips and pointers out there that I can steal and try on Olivia.

Thanks in advance everyone.

Luv Dan.

[Olive]

ours is
5pm dinner
6.30 bath
boob
7pm bed

she really know this is the night routine and goes to sleep straight away, yes we have the odd night were she wakes but not often and also the occasionaly night when were out and the bath is skipped but we still change her on the floor and do massage the nappy and boob, so some of the routine is teh same, id just be consistant

[SJmumof2]

what really worked for me is the curtains!
during the day when my babies have naps i leave the curtains open so that they know it is daytime.
at night i make sure there room is nice and dark....and if i needed to feed them or anythin i did it in the dark without moving them too much. my kids were bottle fed so i would change them and feed them without takin them out of bed.
then when they woke up anytime after 6am i would open the curtains up and blind them with the sun so they new it was day! i would make so much noise and grab them out of their cots straight away.
i think its really important for kids to know the difference between night and day. my little boy is 3 now and when he sees that the sun has gone down he tells me its time for him to go to bed. and sure enough he is still up at the crack of dawn with the sun!
good luck

[Beach Mama]

Hey hun , not that mine is working right now but its been the same since she was born (nearly)
615- dad comes home, reads her a book
630 - quiet play/bathtime every 3rd day
645 - into sleeping bag and a cuddle and walk around the house to settle her down with dad, curtains drawn, lights down etc (she knows once she has that bag on that its nearly booby time! so cute!)
7 -730- feed and to bed

Like I said - this has been the same since day one - I know its not working right now as far as sleeping though goes - but she thrives on knowing whats happening I think, and if we go out, I have to feed her once we get home and at least part of the routine stays the same.
Some other things you could try are massage or a lullaby cd with a quiet story.

[Visitor7]

Mine is the same as AJP's. I am persistent with the bedtime routine. Even if she isn't going to go to bed at her usual time, I still do everything else at the same time.
Definitely keep noise & lights at a minimum during the night. If Nina wakes during the night, I never turn on any lights, and I make very little noise.

[Enchanted]

Hey hun,

We don't really have a bedtime routine so I can't give you any words of wisdom so to speak but I do have a handy book! It might help, it might not but it has some info about settling your bub that I can scan and email to you if you like?!? PM me and let me know if you would like it

Hope you get some more great tips...

[Feathertop]

We do:
stay awake playing until 7pm
then bath (every second day) and into sleepsuit
feed to sleep
wrap up and put to bed

He then gets a dreamfeed at 10.30 and then sleeps to around 7.

Oh and the curtains! He's been waking later since we made some curtains from Sunout material from spotlight. We do the same thing with pulling them back during the day, and when it is sleep time (day or night) they are drawn to make it dark.

[Erin_25]

Our routine is much the same as AJP & Jodi. I find Charlie is really cranky around 5pm & would go to be then if I let him, but we would be up waaaaay too early. So I feed at 5pm & play with Charlie to keep him amused til DH gets home, then we try hold off as close til 6.30 for a shower or bath, that way he's all relaxed when he has his bottle, burp, into his sleeping bag. Pop him in bed wide awake & walk out...usually we don't hear a peep & he's been sleeping through the past month now. I think it's due to unwrapping him as he's always asleep on his side or tummy. I also have a radio going day & night, he seems to like the noise.
As for curtains, much the same here. At night if he wakes we make little fuss, little as possible light etc. During the day I get him up, open curtains etc.....though I too still close them to make it dark for arvo sleep.

[Liviam]

Thank you all so much for sharing your routines. I think we are just going to perserve and I really like the curtains idea of open during the day and closed at night.
I'm just going to have to spend alot of active play time to try and stretch her out to a feed about 5pm instead of 4pm so she can go to bed and stay there.
Thanks for everything, yet again, ladies.

Dan.

[MumofLewis]

Dreamfeeding saved my life!! DS was waking at 1.00am, 4.30am and then not going back to sleep for hours, but as soon as I started dreamfeeding he now sleeps from 7pm - 5am with the dreamfeed about 11pm.

[lee75]

Ours varies
Today it will be (roughly the same give or take half hour)
5pm - bottle
7pm - bath
7:30pm - bed
9:30pm - bottle, I have attempted the dream feed, but DS always wakes up for this bottle!!!
Straight back to bed, then we don't hear from him until 7:30 - 8am

[Tyige]

Ours is roughly the same everyday.
4.30-5pm Dinner
Bath when dinner is finished
A bit of a play then bed and Bottle at 6-.6.30.
DD generally wakes around 6-6.30am and sleeps all night.

Ellie

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Ours is:
4.30-5, DH arrives home and plays with DS
6.15 dinnertime, followed by porridge (the dietary secret of making a baby sleep)
7 naked time
7.15-7.20 clean teeth and bath.
7.30ish out the bath, into bedroom. Sleepy CD goes on, DS is gently patted dry in my arms. Nappy on, sleepsuit on, read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Sleeping bag on, lights out, breastfeed and prayers. If DS doesn't go to sleep then rock and pat to sleep in arms. Into bed on tummy, pat bum for ~30s to make sure he's asleep.
8pm DS is asleep and I'm in the sitting room.

DS does wake up at 8.30-9ish for a pat back to sleep but then can go through until 4am (sometimes feed and sleep, sometimes just patted back), then again until 7. I'm happy with this! Sadly he now has a cold and DH wasn't back last night so we were up every about 45 minutes, but at least I had 2 good nights before that!

At 6 months your baby could be teething, that's VERY painful (I remember my 3rd set of teeth) and so I'm not getting too upset with DS as I can see three teeth coming. I would rank teething as more painful than contractions. Less painful than an adult sit upon broken feet. Less painful than a hand of pain. So pretty high up the pain list.

[tempus moriendi]

Did your wee one used to have a routine then fell off it? Or did she never have one at all?

We used to put our babies to sleep in the car seat next to the bed (the type of seat that detaches from the base and rocks). Then when they woke up I'd bring them in to our bed to nurse then stay there the rest of the night. After they'd slept all through the night without ever being brought into our bed for about a week we moved them to their own rooms. But I have to say, they all slept through by three months.

(But I'm not boasting--they were easy sleepers, but resisted potty training even after all their little friends were in underpants LOL!)

Good luck