bath then feed, or feed then bath?

My boys are 8 1/2 weeks old, and we are STILL trying to get into some sort of routine with them. I feel bad that we keep switching it, but we just don't know what would be best for them. So I'm curious, what do most people find works for them...giving them a bath, then nursing, then bed, or nurse, then bath, then bed?? We did nursing, then bath, then tried to do bed tonight, but they cried and cried, so then i decided to nurse again (only after they ate about 1 1/2 hour ago), and then put them down again. THey still ended up crying even then. It seems getting them to bed every night is this 3-4 hour long ordeal!
Any suggestions??
BTW, fed at 8:30, bath around 9, then refed at like 10. Is that too late in the day?

 

My boys are 8 1/2 weeks old, and we are STILL trying to get into some sort of routine with them. I feel bad that we keep switching it, but we just don't know what would be best for them. So I'm curious, what do most people find works for them...giving them a bath, then nursing, then bed, or nurse, then bath, then bed?? We did nursing, then bath, then tried to do bed tonight, but they cried and cried, so then i decided to nurse again (only after they ate about 1 1/2 hour ago), and then put them down again. THey still ended up crying even then. It seems getting them to bed every night is this 3-4 hour long ordeal!
Any suggestions??
BTW, fed at 8:30, bath around 9, then refed at like 10. Is that too late in the day?

 

I think that's a bit late, try starting your routine earlier and see how that works for you. It also seems like they like to nurse to sleep, so bath, nurse, bed seems like a good choice.

 

We've always done bath then feed. Our boys get sleepy with a full stomach so it's always easier for us to put them to bed right after a bottle. Also, we've found that by keeping the routine exactly the same every night, they start yawning now in the bath - they know it's the start of bedtime. We use a relaxing lavender scented bath soap that calms them them before the final bottle. We always do bath, bottle, rock and read a book for 10 minutes, bed (while awake, but drowsy). With this routine, our boys have been sleeping through the night since two months and they usually fall asleep within 10 minutes of going to bed.

I do think that 10pm bedtime is a little late. You might want to consider moving it up to 8pm - it's possible that they are getting overtired and that will make things harder for you! We start our bedtime routine at 6:30 and they are down by 7:30-8. A couple days ago, I posted a list of 5 or 6 additional things that helped us get ours to sleep well, if you're interested, PM me.

Keep trying to get them on a routine! It's sooo worth it in the end. If you make things as predictable as possible for them, they'll start to understand what bedtime is and things will eventually get easier for you.

 

I remember bathing during the day so as not to stimulate them too much in the evening. Bedtime was started at around 8p and they woke up like clockwork every two - 3 hours for feeding till around 5 mo.
I didn't change their diapers during the night only if they had a bowel movement. Again...not to stimulate them so they would go back to sleep. I didn't talk much and used low lights during the night.

They have slept through the night solidly since 5 months and bedtime is still 8p...they get up at 7a...they are now 15 mo and I always get a great nights sleep...(don't hate Me!) It gets better.

This worked for me but all babies are different. You'll eventually find what works for your angels.



Lana
Mom to Joshua and Rachel
15 mo

 

We give a bath about 6 - 7 PM and then a bottle and bed by about 9 or 9.30. They usually sleep until about 1.30AM or so when they wake for a feeding. For a while we were feeding DD before her bath because she HATED it and to avoid the screamfest we'd fill her up. She was much more placid on a full stomach.

 

We don't do baths as part of the bedtime routine for a couple of reasons. Mostly because while we DO have a bedtime routine each night, we don't necessarily bathe them every night. But also because I like to bathe the girls during the fussy period between 4 and 7 PM as something to fill the somewhat "fussy" time period before the last bottle of the day at 7. Since my girls started eating on a 4 hour schedule at 8 weeks old, (at 7, 11, 3 and 7), I always bathed them somewhere around 5:30 or so, so as not to make it a part of a specific routine for bed. Good luck!

 

At that time of the day babies tend to be fussy. We bathed in the morning until they were several months old because bathtime was not relaxing for them yet. That said, at bedtime we tried to have some sort of routine. They went to bed at about 8:40pm when they were that age. Routines at bedtime do help them know what is to come.

 

quote:
Originally posted by RRTwins:
We start our bedtime routine at 6:30 and they are down by 7:30-8. A couple days ago, I posted a list of 5 or 6 additional things that helped us get ours to sleep well, if you're interested, PM me.



You responded to my post with those suggestions and my husband and I will be implementing some of them. Thanks again! My question to you now is...how does your bedtime routine last that long? I nurse, then bath, then nurse, then bed (whatever bed means at this point in time). It doesn't seem to take very long from start to finish. Am I missing something? What seems to take the longest for you? Just curious!

 

quote:
Originally posted by IdenticalBoysNewMom:
THey still ended up crying even then. It seems getting them to bed every night is this 3-4 hour long ordeal!


I feel your pain!!! We struggle with something very similar. The other day our little ones cried and nursed for a little over three hours, it was terrible! Now it doesn't seem to take AS long, but still a struggle for us. Ours are 10 weeks old. I don't have any good advice, since I'm experiencing the same type of difficulty. I only hope that it improves for the both of us

 

babies@2: We start sometime between 6:30-7:00pm with individual baths. It usually takes 10 minutes each to get them both bathed, changed & diapered or about 20 minutes total. We turn bath into a little bonding time with some play, so it's a bit more than just a quick bath. Then we do bottles, which takes about 20-25 minutes. Then we read books and rock for 10-15 minutes, then bed. The whole process is about an hour for us and they're in bed by 7:30-8:00pm.

 

We feed then bath. As Jack is always hungry! we found if we bathed him first he would be really grumpy when it comes to feeding so we always feed first. x