Please describe your nap &/or bedtime routine for your baby

[ourbabygirl]

I'm at my wit's end with my baby (almost 6 months old).... he's so impossible to put down for naps and bedtime, and I need all the help I can get! The books I read say to put him down as soon as I see signs of tiredness (rubbing his eyes, etc.), but he seems to get a second wind and it takes me for.e.ver to get him down. Same thing happens if my husband tries, though he waits until DS gets fussy no matter what you do with him/ where you put him... when I try that, he's so overtired that he's a nightmare to put down, too.
We've been swaddling him, and I think he still needs it because if we don't have his arms and legs in, he flails around and keeps himself awake. The only way we're currently able to get him down is to rock him... DH does it until he falls asleep; I do it until he's so drowsy that I lay him down and he turns to the side and falls asleep. I really don't want to keep doing this, though.
I try the bath at bedtime thing, but he seems to get woken up more by this, too.

Any tips?

Thanks! :bowdown:

[new_mom_mry]

I think it's great that you are putting him down upon first signs of tiredness. Have you tried placing familiar objects next to him when he is falling asleep, i.e. a Sleep Sheep?? This has worked for us--my DS is almost 5 months old and he just recently started falling asleep on his own (more or less) next to me in the co-sleeper, which in my opinion still beats hours of rocking him to sleep any day! For example, yesterday I put him down in the co-sleeper when he was tired, and I've noticed that he needs to feel as though he's spent a considerable amount of time with us being awake. He hung out with us for 2 or so hours after his last nap, and during that time he got a bath and also spent some time with DH who just got home from work. Then I nursed him and surprisingly he was still awake, so I put him in the co-sleeper and turned on the travel Sleep Sheep to the waterfall mode (not the big version--the travel one is much easier to touch for those little hands), and he turned towards it and began looking at it and touching it with his hand. Meanwhile, I took his other hand and gently rubbed it (for whatever reason he finds it very calming when we hold his hands or give him our hands to play with), and then he fell asleep....just an idea! I would imagine that one of those Fisher Price waterfall crib soothers would work very similarly....

[momm]

My DS is almost the same age. This is what we do, it has worked for us so far (touchwood!)
I know that he starts getting tired by 6:30 - 7:00 so I start an hour before. I give him his bottle, plus his solid meal now. Then we start wrapping up here, keeping toys away. I fill his bath and take him up and let him soak a bit. I dim the lights in the bedroom, turn on his mobile which has a nice melody, and apply Aquaphor all over him soothingly talking to him. Most of the time I read him Goodnight Moon although of course he doesn't understand it :)
I don't swaddle him anymore, haven't since 3 months or so. We get his overnights on, his pj's on and then I sit in the rocking chair with him on me, till he's almost asleep. I then place him down and hope for a long stretch :)

Good luck!

[ashleybama24]

My son at this age refused to go to bed unless he held my hand. I thought for sure he was going to go off to college still needing to hold Mommy's hand every night. Sadly he outgrew that phase within a few months (weeks? hard to remember at this point).

We do dinner, bath, pjs (DS hates lotion just like DH), read 3 books, and then it's time for milk and bed. I still nursed him to sleep or to a sleepy state until 12mo. Then we switched to whole millk which he still gets right before bed. He just drinks as much as he wants, hands me the bottle, says all done, and we snuggle. He is usually sleepy silly at this point and the slightest touch will send him into a fit of giggles.

How many naps is your baby getting each day? I found that when DS slept well all day...bedtime wasn't a problem.

We also gave DS a few minutes to cry at this age...ok DH gave him no more than 20...me I barely lasted 5 mins. Then we would go check to make sure he was ok, calm him down and put him back in the crib. He very quickly learned how to put himself to sleep. I personally think CIO is a little mean....they do need reassurance they are loved and you haven't abandoned them but at the same time they need to know you aren't going to come running at every fuss.

[newg]

DD2 is almost 8 months. I have discovered that she needs a pitch dark room to sleep for naps and bedtime.
So I went out and bought room darkening curtain liners to put behind her regular curtains, and no lights in her room except for the little animal that puts some stars up on the window for a few minutes as she's falling asleep.
We also use a sleep sack and I play some sleep music.
As I'm getting her ready to lay down I make sure the room is already dark (I do have a little light on so I can see, which I turn out once her diaper is changed...), I talk very quietly, or not at all. I have been doing this with DD since she was 4 months old, so the routine is becoming familiar to her.
I have found she will fuss more if I don't get her down before she's actually tired......but I let her fuss and she eventually settles down.
It's possible you may have to do some sleep training for your DS too.

[ashleybama24]

Opps forgot we have a white noise machine and a nightlight...TykeLight Glomate.

[star04]

We used at that age a Halo sleepsack, nightlight, and Sleep Sheep. I BFed, and they usually made her sleepy. We also thought it was ok to let her cry for 15-20 minutes if she ever did. Nowadays, she'll cry before I put her down (only for nap time) but then is immediately quiet when I leave her room!

[Uno-Mom]

We used at that age a Halo sleepsack, nightlight, and Sleep Sheep. I BFed, and they usually made her sleepy. We also thought it was ok to let her cry for 15-20 minutes if she ever did. Nowadays, she'll cry before I put her down (only for nap time) but then is immediately quiet when I leave her room!

Yup, same here. Except for the sheep. We did and still do a fan for white noise. (Sprog's room is right next to the kitchen so we need to muffle the sound a little.)

We too feel comfortable with some crying. 15-20 minutes is all Sprog needs to sort herself out and settle back to sleep, on the rare nights when she does cry. There have been times when she's sick or something and we didn't feel ok letting her cry. We've found that actually messes her up because it interrupts her sleep cycle! Then she struggles more the next night.

[nfowife]

Okay, I have a 3.5 month old and so far she is turning out to be the best sleeper of my 3 as a young infant. The other 2 were great by about 10-11 months. But I'm older and have 2 other kids and I just was going crazy with the sleep deprivation this time around. So here's what's working for me currently:
-I am a stickler about limiting wake times. This, I think, has made the biggest difference. I am vigilant about not letting DD2 get overtired because at that point she is going to have a hard time falling asleep and when she does the nap will probably be really short.
Here is a handy chart I found regarding wake times by age:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B3NCCVQDDR5GZDJjNmZiNDYtNWZlMy00ZTUyLWI5MDg tZjZlY2E2N2I0ZGMz&hl=en&authkey=CNLzlsUE

-Night sleep usually gets better sooner and easier than day sleep....so if you can get nights under control the way you want it, and just do what you gotta do to prevent overtiredness during the day...do that. A real nap routine is still going to be forming in a 6 month old.

Here's our schedule at 3.5 months:
I generally let DD wake when she wants (except thursdays as we have somewhere to be at 9:30 so I wake her at 6:30- that way she's going back to bed around 8 and can get a good hour nap before we have to be on our way). She has been waking around 7:30. I don't follow the clock persay, except that from each wakeup I know that she will need to be back sleeping about 1:45 later if that makes sense.
So for example today looks like this:
wake 7:30
nap: 9:40 fell asleep in car and transferred-1:15(I know I stretched this wake time a bit but preschool dropoff for DS is at 9:30 so it had to be)
wake up at 1:15 (to ensure a nap before we have to go to dance class)
nap 3:00-4:00
bedtime 5:45ish
I expect she'll wake to feed 9:30-10, and 3:00 (about 45 minutes each time, I do a full both sides feed)

So she'll nap not quite 5 hours today, which I like to get a good 5 hours of daytime sleep from her. But because of dance I'll have to cut that short. On a day when we're home in the afternoon I would let her nap until 5 at the latest which would give us about a 6:30-6:45 bedtime, which I prefer. When we get home from dance she'll be ready for bottle and bedtime pretty much immediately.

For naps at home I swaddle and nurse to sleep, and she currently naps in the swing. She doesn't really nap on the go except for Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons as we have gymnastics and dance for the older kids and well,that's life. For nighttime I swaddle and rock/walk and bounce and "shhhh" for about 10-15 minutes until she is just about asleep, then put her in her crib. Some nights she goes right to sleep, others she might fuss (not cry, she's too young for CIO though I am not against it by any means). If her fussing is escalating I will go in and pick her back up and rock/walk/shhh her for a few minutes back to drowsy and put her back down. I usually only have to do this once if at all. I also use a white noise machine and it's on pretty loud for naps and night. All my kids have them in their rooms to block out each other's noise.

Once she has been weaned off the swaddle for nighttime (I expect this will be in about a month, she has already started to break out of the miracle blanket occasionally) I will be putting her in the crib for naps too, but she naps so well in the swing right now I'm happy with it.

I also give one bottle of formula each night before bed. I don't think this makes a difference in sleep though- it didn't do much for a few weeks after we started. I just want her to take a bottle so I give her one every day, and bedtime is convenient for me to do it or have DH do it. Or if I have to go somewhere at night I know DH can get her to bed without me (since I dont' nurse to sleep for bedtime). Except for the one bottle she is nursed.

My first advice would be to look at your wake times and make sure he isn't overtired. Then first step would be to address that so that it's easier for him to go to sleep. At 6 months you totally can do CIO with or without checks and I bet within a week or so you will see marked improvement (start with nighttime). CIO at night combined with limiting wake times during the day and I bet you will have a much better sleeper and happier baby! If you are not against CIO, that is.

[PGTB]

DS is 11 months old. Our nanny gives him solids dinner between 5pm-6pm. DH and I come from work and play with DS until he gets sleepy, then it's bath time, then nursing session and he is asleep while nursing. We co-sleep and I lay with him in our bed to nurse him to sleep. As soon as DS falls asleep I get up and leave the room. We keep the room dark with the white noise machine running to muffle the noises from neighbors and ourselves in the living room.

DS usually insists on certain amount of closeness with mommy, nursing, hugging, cuddling before he starts his long sleep cycle. If he is too tired he would crush right away during the nursing session, then he would wake up 30 min later and cry for more. I usually interrupt my dinner to go and feed him again, then he is asleep after 5-10 min of nursing. He would then sleep for around 2 hours before waking up again. DS still wakes up every 2-3 hours to nurse.

If he has energy after initial nursing session, he would play, pull up on the headboard, crawl all over the bed and climb on top of pillows, my body, shower me with kisses and hugs and this can last for 20 min to an hour. He also intermittently nurses during his play. When he has enough of nursing he would unlatch and turn over to the other side and sleep. Usually, then he is asleep for 2 hours - no waking 30 min later to nurse again.

[Giantbear]

I can't speak to naps, as i am at work so my wife is the nap queen, but bed time is daddy time. we started a routine from day one home from the hospital and our 10 month old is a sleeping champ. We play until around 7:45 on bath nights and 8:00 on non bath nights, i then bathe her, dry, lotion and put her in her nighttime diaper and pj's. Then it is off to the couch for a couple of books and some fruit for a pre bed snack. After sitting in my arms for 5-10 minutes, need to make sure the food stays down, its off to find mommy for a good night kiss and wave. My daughter loves to wave goodnight. We then go to her room, grab a cold paci, and the two of us close the door, turn on the monitor, close the window shade, turn on the white noise and turn off the light. I then stand with her for about 5 minutes with her on my shoulder to calm her. usually, she will try and go horizontal in my arms and i will lay her down on her side in the crib with a simple teething ring. I rub her toushy for a bit and leave her playing. Within 10 minutes she falls asleep and will 90% of the time sleep until 7:30 the next morning.

We had a baby nurse the first week who really stressed routine and that it was never too early to sleep train. Couple that with my old pediatricians advice of conforming the baby to your schedule (i used to wake her at 11 for a bottle) and we have a sleeping champ.

[babyfiorina1]

My girl was so difficult to be put to sleep as well. I'd put her down on her crib as soon as she's about to fall asleep. Then she would open her eyes as if she knew she's being put down in her crib. Then about a month ago, I started to swaddle her again (she's 6-month old now and I'm still doing this for nap time). It worked like magic! Like what others said, her arms were flailing around so much that she couldn't calm herself down, so swaddling calms her down. She would close her eyes. Strangely enough that she doesn't need to be swaddled for night time, not that I complained as long as she stays asleep soundly. We do set a routine by reading to her before her bedtime. So, once the reading is over, she knows that it's bed time.

[LadyPeter]

Our little one is hyper-stimulated by baths, too, so our bedtime routine is pretty simple.

6:45pm - double up his cloth diaper, put on his pajamas and sleep sack
6:55pm - turn on the Fisher Price Zen Lullaby CD
6:56pm - commence rocking, with a bottle
7:15pm - asleep

He USUALLY stays asleep till 5:30 or 6am. We do the same thing with naps, at 9am and 1pm. Every day it's the same Bat-time, same Bat-channel. He knows the drill.