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@eurekaanchovies: I don’t think it’s too early. We started doing a night routine when my baby was about 4 weeks old or so. We only gave her a real bath every few days and would give her a quick sponge bath on the days in between in the early evening. And then, we would change her into her pjs and make sure the house was quiet, turn all the lights down low and feed her. If she woke up for a feeding in the middle of the night, I would keep the room dark while feeding her. It took her a few more weeks before she slept through the night, but I think that creating a repeatable routine and dimming the lights/turning off the tv and other distractions helped her learn the difference between night and day. She's now almost a year old and we still have the same routine.
Before 4-5 months, babies brains don't actually have the capacity to have bedtime expectations. You can start a routine anytime, but it will really benefit your baby after they reach that 4-5 month milestone. That's a good time to introduce a nightime lovie too.
We do the bath/bottle thing but we don't turn the lights down low nor do we make the house totally quiet (baby is 7 weeks). My kid needs to learn how to sleep through a hurricane if need be so in our house its important to learn to sleep in the car and to noise.
I'm thinking that after the holidays we'll get a good routine down and we're going to start sleep training next week but other than that we're going with the flow.
We do try to get him asleep and in his room NLT 10pm though right now. It's more for our own sanity.
We started right away and we were amazed after a few nights that he started to get tired about a half an hour before his bedtime - definitely made our lives easier in the months that followed ;)
My son is going on 7 months and we don't really have a bed time routine. I nurse him around 6:45pm, then feed him some baby food. Then I change his diaper, we snuggle for a bit and I nurse him to sleep around 7:30 to 8:00.
Sometimes the time changes depending on how tired he is and how his day went. We need to get into a night time routine soon, but haven't done more than this yet.
As soon as possible! The earlier, the better IMO. So many parents don't do this and don't realize they're making their lives harder. Children THRIVE off of routine, they love it! They're more well behaved, they're happier, etc. If you start it sonner, you won't have to deal with those nights of a screaming toddler. Sure there are exceptions and I'm sure some bees will agree, but in general, children love schedules! Good luck!!
We started a routine at about 8 weeks. Bath (we went in the water every night, but only washed her with soap twice a week), lotion massage, pjs, bottle, and rock to sleep. I think we started out with bedtime at about 8:30 or 9:00, but in the last year and a half, we've made a lot of adjustments depending on her needs.
I think routines are helpful, not just for babies but also for their parents, but it's true that babies don't start to make associations until later in life. If you feel like a routine would help, though, go for it! It certainly won't hurt!
Wait, hang on...sorry for this (hopefully minor) threadjack, but you only bathe a newborn every few days? Man, I have a LOT to learn over the next few months. Where and how do you learn this stuff?????
@heathaah: Lol, well, I learned these things during my birthing and baby care classes provided by the hospital, but you could also read a specific baby care book (like What to Expect the First Year) for info on stuff you might not know.
Around 6 weeks, just before I went back to work, we initiated a bed time routine. The routine was for me as much as for him.
I started a bedtime routine pretty much when we got home from the hospital. With bedtime being about 8:30 (bath, lotion, bedtime story) and then he'd wake up for a feeding around midnight or so until he didn't need that feeding anymore. This is STILL DS's bedtime and he's 7.. I've NEVER had problems with him at bedtime, even through the summer & on weekends, b/c it's how he's always done it.
I'm big on bedtime and even when other things were more adujable and lax that was one thing that I was pretty particular on sticking on. lol
We started Lauren on a bedtime routine around 3-4 months old. We change her diaper, say our prayers, read her a story, give her a bottle, and sing quiet lullabies until she nods off. Before 3 months I don't think she had the capacity to recognize the routine, but that's just my intuition. I do think it's great to have a bedtime routine though!
We have a pretty simple bed time routine that we started pretty early. Just change her diaper, turn the lights down low, put her in her pj's, and give her a bottle and rock her and she falls asleep.
Something that I don't think anybody mentioned was that you probably don't want something in the routine that you can't take with you if you travel. Like don't make a CD part of your routine if you don't have a CD player available to take with you wherever you go, or you might have some problems getting your little one to sleep!
DS is 7 weeks old and we've been following a routine for the last 2-3 weeks now. He gets a bottle sometime between 7 and 8:30. Then, he gets a bath, lotion, pajamas, swaddled, and rocked to sleep.
We started a bedtime routine immediately after getting used to the whole new baby thing and have stuck with it for the past 5 years (excluding occassions of travel etc). Tons of the parents I know are floored that we have our son fed, cleaned, teeth brushed stories read and put to bed by 8pm when they struggle to get their kids (same age or younger) down by 10pm or later (which I think is just absurd).
Kids thrive on routine and if you start early it helps negate the bedtime battle a little when they are older ["but I don't WANT to go to bed!"] - not saying it will be completely irradicated with routine, but it helps. Because we introduced books early, made it fun our son looks forward to reading bedtime stories (but knows that he has to do all the other things before he gets read to). In this way it can help develop delayed gratification in kids, which is good groundwork for future work ethic & reward systems prevalent in today's society.
You can never start too early :)
@heathaah:Go buy What to Expect the First Year. It's pretty awesome, and covers tons of this minutiae that I would have been lost without!
Idon't have a set routine,since she's only 2months, but I am trying because I go back to work soon. I think it helps because they do get used to what happens, i.e. routine.
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I'm a SAHM. My husband and I really want to start a bedtime routine with our baby. One that includes a bath, a bottle, and a story, and maybe a chat about how the day went once she's old enough to talk.
My question is, when do you start this routine? My baby is a newborn so we aren't bathing her every single day just yet, and since she sleeps so much during any 24-hour period, we're not really sure if she understands the difference between night and day just yet.
Is starting it now too early? What's your experience been?
Thanks!