Bedtime Routine

Honestly, you may have to work with this and find out what works best for the two of you. What works with one doesn't necessarily work for another. You need to take into account her feeding times, bedtime, diaper changes, etc. and fit things in when they seem most appropriate. I WOULD make the book the LAST thing you do and/or combined w/ the nursing depending on your schedules. It may work great to do them back to back.

Don't try just one thing because it worked great for someone else. NO TWO PEOPLE and/or schedules and habits are alike.

My daughter is 9 weeks old and I have a bedtime routine down-pact! She usually falls asleep between 10:00-10:30 PM every night but u may choose earlier. First, starting about 9:15 she gets a bath, I put bedtime lotion on her(which works wonders!), dress her, make a 4 oz. bottle(for u nurse), burp, and rock her to sleep while reading a winnie the pooh book to her. By the end of all this it is a few minutes after 10:00PM and she is sound asleep. She then wakes up about 1:00-2:00AM, and again at 6-7:00AM for another bottle. I just recently started feeding her infant cereal b/c she was just always hungry, and it really did fill her up. She then began to sleep fully through the night, well at least til about 6:00AM. I hope this helps u! Congats on the bundle!

My son is 10 weeks old and we have had the same routine since week 6. We give him a warm bath, then put on a fresh diaper and pj's. Then I nurse/feed him. After that I put him in his swaddler sleep sack and rock him to sleep. Once he is sleepy and can hardly keep his eyes open, I gently put him in his bed. This has worked for us since week 6 and he has now been consistently sleeping 9 to 10 hours a night!! I truly believe the bath really helps him to know that its bedtime - I don't use soap and wash his hair every night ( I do this every other night) because I don't want to dry his skin out, but the warm water helps him to relax and know its time to sleep. Eventually we are going to add a bedtime story in the routine and will probably be after nursing. Good luck!

Our routine is the same as the previous post- except we brush teeth during (on on the off nights, instead of ) bath time. Good luck!

Congrats on your baby girl! We have our daughter on a routine that we begin around 730pm. She eats her cereal, we give her a bath, diaper & clothe her, then while I nurse her, her daddy reads a book to her. I continue to nurse her, and she usually falls asleep by 8-815pm. It works for us, good luck to you!

My daughter is a year old and this routine has worked wonders for us.
1. Bath every other night unless she got really dirty during the day or at dinner.
2. Change into clean diaper, pj's.
3. Story (1-3)
4. Song
5. Prayer's
6. Brusha Brusha Teeth
7. Nurse but not nuse her to sleep
8. Lay her down in her crib and give her her lovey tell her we love her and night night. Turn on her sound machine and that is it she is out for the night
Like I said this has worked for us.

My son is now 16 months, he was a nursed baby as well. Great to hear that you were able to breast feed! William's routine was (and for the most part still is-minus the nursing part);
bath time, book, breast then bed.
Good luck!

I give my daughter a bath and put on a fresh nightgown and diaper. After that I swaddle her and then nurse her and rock her. When she looks sleepy, I put her in her crib. My daughter is only 4 weeks so I don't include a book yet but I will when she gets older.

I would suggest the bath and diaper first. This way if she falls asleep while nursing or reading then you aren't waking her for the bath. If you can manage it possibly combine the last two and read to her while she's nursing. Might take a little coordination to work that out but then she can relax and listen to a story while she gets her night time food. I used to read to my son while giving him his bedtime bottle.

Hi,

I started my son on a routine of bath, books, bottle (or breast) and bed at around that time. It has worked great for us and he has no problems going to sleep on his own once I lay him down. He knows it's time to settle down when we start the bath. IN all our routine takes about 45 minutes but I'm not nursing so yours may end up taking longer. Good luck!

J.

I would do the bath, nurse, diaper change if necessary, bed and the story after the child is in bed.