Bath and bedtime question

[Bex09]

After all my posts and questions yesterday I am trying to get back on track today with 3hour EASY for my 10 week old DD. We had a rocky start (another story though!) but things seem to be going quite well so far. She is still AP to be got to sleep as I wanted to get my routine sorted again before I put us both through sleep training.

Anyway, what I am looking for is some ideas on bath and bedtime routines as although I think ours is good I am not sure on the catnap and the timing of it all. So often things go a little wrong at this time. I also find because she gets up at different times each day it can knock everything out.

What I have been doing is bottle around 5-6pm ish, upright quiet A for 30 mins due to reflux, then bath and massage to relaxing piano music CD, pjs on, close curtains and say goodnight to Mr Sunshine!! and Daddy, dummy in and wrap in blanket, cuddles with shush-rub and she falls asleep about 7pm. I am working on the whole put her down in the cot thing! lol The thing I find is that if she wakes and feeds at 5pm or earlier she is up too long until 7pm and is hard to get to sleep due to OT. In this case should I let her catnap and do bath and bed later? And how does this work?

Sorry to go on but really want to get her routine right so we are all happier. Thanks in advance. x

[Jiinx]

hey sweetie,
 I'm unsure of your current routine but at this age she should be getting a catnap to hold her until bedtime. Is she already getting three long naps? Is her catnap ending at 5pm?


I didn't do a bath time at night for those early months. It was way too stimulating. If she did have a good day and I managed to get a 30-45 minute nap before bed, I may have done a quick bath. However, it  was a short ride until bedtime, and with her reflux, I barely had time to do anything.

I'm not sure if I helped. I'm sure you know that 5-7pm is quite long for your 10 week old. If you can get a catnap in around 6-6:15 then you can do a bath and bedtime would be around 7:15-7:30pm.

Have you taken a look at some routines?
* http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164253.0

[Bex09]

She has been having 3 sleeps in the day but these are very hit and miss, we have huge sleep issues! She has not been having a catnap though as I didn't know how to work it in. I have looked at the samples but for my LOs age they mostly seem to have cluster feeds in the evening so I assume these are for BF babies and my LO is FF. I think the prob is I have always done bottle bath bed due to reflux instead of bath bottle bed as most seem to do. So it seems to be extending our day especially if I put a catnap in too.