Thanks for the replies ladies. I know bath time isn't essential, but it is a really special part of the day that DH has with him where they have 'their time'. That's why we're loathe to make a habit out of skipping it. I also really do believe that even though he is really little he does recognise that the bath, massage and feed afterwards marks the end of the day and the beginning of the night. On the couple of occassions we've missed his bath he hasn't slept well.

Anyway we gave moving bath time back to after the 6pm shot a try and it worked pretty well last night. He woke up at 9pm for a feed and then slept through until after 3am and then again until 7am. It's been awhile since he's done 6 hours between feeds (he was doing it consistently for a couple of weeks there), so at this stage it's looking promising, but I will be interested to see how we go tonight...