How Did You Decide/Settle on Your Bedtime and Routine?

Question

We began a routine, bath with daddy, diaper-pj's on, nurse, cuddle on rocker over 3 months ago when my son was 3 months old. We first started around 8:30 to be asleep around 9pm. After trying this for a month or so we decided to move up bedtime because he would get tired and fussy before 8:30. Now, we start around 6:50-7:00 and he is asleep by 7:45.

What's your routine and how did you pick your bedtime?

When do you start to push back bedtime?

Answer 1

I started one about a month before returning to work.  Mine was about 3 months old as well.  Did basically the same as you have, including making bedtime a bit earlier.  It's trial and error and I just went by her signals as to when she needed sleep.

She is almost two now and we're still basically on the same schedule.  She has dinner around 5, play, etc. then a bath around 6:30.  She is in bed around 7ish and overall is great about it..I've had not a lot of trouble with her going to bed - she is ready, as our day begins very early.  

Answer 2

We try to stay flexible and let Ian help decide his own routine.

Around 6 or 7 we do dinner (depending on when Aaron gets home from work). Then he gets a bath or baby wipe bath. Then we play for a little bit. Then a book (sometimes 3....we just read until he's getting tired or done with books)...then he says night night to daddy (hugs and kisses)...daddy puts the crib rail down, clears out any toys from the crib, turns on the night light, and hunts down a paci, and turns off the light...then I breast feed and tell Ian night nights...and into the crib he goes....we try to make sure he's in the crib no later than 8....but sometimes it ends up being closer to 9 and he's normally asleep with in 10 mins of being in the crib. If we have to move his waking time we just push bed time forward or back by 15 or 20 mins and normally that helps. Our son is 10 1/2 months old...and we didn't start doing a bed time routine until he was 8 or 9 months....bad on our part...but we were just going with the flow until recently when he stopped co sleeping with us.

Answer 3

My children's bedtime is 7pm and has been since the day they were born.  They are 4 and 5 now and sleep for 11 - 12 hours a night with no problems since they were 10 weeks (I used to wake them for a feed at 10pm then straight back down again and nothing till 7am then at 4 months I stopped the 10pm feed).

The key to it is just do it and be firm.

Answer 4

I don't really have one, my son usually falls alseep at around 10pm when he is nursing.. he gets his bath early, around 6pm..and i wouldn't want it any other way. I get home at 5 from work & we spend precious time together before he goes to bed =]

No bedtime routine here

He is 6months old

Answer 5

I started a bedtime routine at 3 1/2 months (tubby, lotion, dress, bottle, cuddling in glider chair, put down in crib awake).  It took just a couple days for my baby to take to it and now we do it every night without exception.  

I got into a routine because when she was 2-3 months my baby just went to "bed" whenever -- it was usually around 11pm -- which just left me and my husband so tired!! And, my baby was sooo cranky the last few hours until she went to bed. We thought she was developing colic or maybe had a bad reaction to her vaccinations, we didn't know why she was so cranky! then my sister, who has a baby, said, maybe she's just overtired. I dismissed it. She encouraged me to start a bedtime routine, so I did.

I think we started the routine at 8pm because that's when she started getting cranky each night. so, i thought if she slept instead of being awake then she wouldn't be so cranky. voila! problem was solved immediately. she hasn't been cranky like that since. (7 1/2 months now).  

she goes through phases when she wants to go to bed earlier (7pm) and phases when she wants to go to bed later (8:30).  The time she wakes up in the morning always determines when she'll be tired at night. She's ready for bed 12 hours after she wakes up, on the nose. amazing.

Answer 6

I really let Johnny pick his routine.  Usually, dinner around 6:30, then play time, then bath time (every other night is bath night though).  And usually he just wants his evening bottle and to be cuddled around 8:30 and he falls asleep.  :)