6wo bedtime routine advice please

[ClaireDB]

Hi all,

Am wondering if anyone can help with some advice about a bedtime routine. Ds is 6 weeks old and have been using a similar routine since day 1 of returning from hospital which seems to work well. He has a feed then, bath, then bed and sometimes (depending on when his feed is due) he has bath, feed then bed .

Am wondering if it matters that we do a bath then feed as it does not go with the eat, activity sleep routine so is it sending mixed messages? This seems to work better for us but want to make sure!

Also for this bedtime routine do i need to wait till he shows tired signs to start wind down or do i just start it anyway? if he isnt showing tired signs and he has a play will i risk overstimulating him and possibly missing the window for him to go to sleep before he becomes over tired?

My Dh normally gets home from work about 6.30 - 6.45pm and really want him to be able to bath ds to be able to have that bonding time together (also means i can get our dinner ready so if that is the case time wise we would aim for

Bath 6.50
Feed 7.15
Bed 7.45 Asleep hopefully by 8pm

This would then make the Df due at 10.15 so to ensure he didn't wake before we would prob do it at 10. If we do it that early does that mean ds will wake earlier in the night for a feed and therefore am i risking the chance of 2 night feeds (at the moment df is at 10.30/11 he usually wakes between 3 and 4 and then again between 6 and 7) so will it mean he will prob wake between 2 and 3 and then 5 and 6 ?

Also using this time frame above what do you recommend I do if he is due a feed say between 6pm and 7pm, do i feed him a little to tied him over and then feed again at 7.15?

Sorry for so many questions, would definitely appreciate any advice anyone has 

[*Jo*]

Hi Claire!

well no it doesnt matter which order you do the feed, bath and bed thing, we did the feed last and even now at 14 months old we still give him his milk just before bedtime, we just read a story afterwards because hes older now, but for bedtime its fine to feed just before sleep as long as he isnt falling asleep on the bottle/boob.

the DF is totally up to you what time you want to give it to him as well, we experimented and 11pm worked well for us for awhile. it shouldnt affect what time he wakes in the night, but every little one is different, we all learn by trial and error so try it a bit earlier one night if you like and see what happens, he might just surprise you!

as for the feed due between 6-7pm, again its up to you, you can feed him a little earlier and give him a top up at bedtime, Tracy suggests a clusterfeed two hours apart, so one at 6 and one at 8 or one at 7 and one at 9 (we never did a cluster feed so im not able to help wtih that sorry)

[ClaireDB]

Thank you very much for your advice, it all makes perfect sense, being so new to all of this i lack confidence and don't want to make decisions that will throw all the work we have done with easy out the window, guess i need to be more prepared to try different things to see what works best for our little family.

Thanks again