How do you pick time to start the night routine??

[littlegrasshopper]

I'm confused about when the night actually begins? I'm trying to get a night routine down. My angel baby is now a toddler and bathes at 7pm. I was trying to bathe my 8week old with her cause they both seem to love it  but I think it might be too late since it's causing him to melt down. I think I'm thinking he's waking from a normal nap when he is actually already in his sleep mode. Schedules still vary some but he wakes around 8:30a.m. and eats.. I try and keep him up. Sometimes he goes right back to sleep though and I let him if he does cause we have a lot of meltdowns trying to get to sleep around here. So he sleeps for the remaining time to take him to two hours... on the dot! Occasionally he'll throw a three hour nap in there if he's on his belly. Yesterday he slept from 2-5 ate, had some awake time.. slept again from 6-7 and woke. I put him in the tub to get the night routine going and put him to bed and after the bath ... waahhhh. Nothing consoles him. What am I doing wrong?

[Gage and Sophie's Mom]

I dont know if I have the "answer" for you, but I am in a similar situation that has gotten better. My son (now 3.5 mths) was doing the same thing so I started giving him baths in the morning or early afternoon as he was getting tooooo stimulated. Our bedtime routine consists of a diaper change, story or two laying on the floor, white noise, swaddle, lights dim, and bottle.  I dont think you have to have a bath as part of your routine. Tweak Tracy's ideas to fit your baby.

Gage can only be up a max of 1 hr, so I have to give him a nap in the evening. As a result, he goes to bed between 8-9pm and gets up between 9-10am. If I try to keep him up then it is all over! He will not go to sleep for hours as he is overtired. It sounds like your lo is overtired. Try a longer wind down without the bath and a prompt bedtime. Maybe that will help.

Also, I have been having a hard time teaching my son the difference between a nap and bedtime. i have been doing a different routine for each so that he can distiguish the difference. He still wakes up and hour later, but has been going back to sleep after a feed.

HTH