I am looking for some advice on bedtime routines, something that is different than the daytime routine for naps, to help him settle down for the night.
At this point I know that he gets grumpy at around 1 hour and 20 minutes after he last woke up. So I start the naptime ritual at 1 hour so that he can be in his bassinet before he shows fussy signs. My naptime routine is to read one of the Bright Baby picture books Ginna got for Scooter. Then I pick up a Hymnal and I sing some of the songs, I try some new songs too. The amount of songs depends on how quick he becomes placid. Sometimes its 2 sometimes its 4 or more. When he starts wiggling thats when I pick him up, go over to the glider and rock him while singing “I am a Child of God.” He gets groggy there and I sing “Families Can Be Together Forever” while walking over to the bassinet. He is well on his way to being sleepy-although he doesn’t sleep and hence my next post “To Cry or Not to Cry that is the Question.”
But what can I do for nighttime. The top two that have been suggested is a bath and a story. I already read him stories for naptime, will this seem too much like naptime? And as far as a bath, being only 10 weeks old, won’t that dry his skin out even if I don’t use soap?
Right now Cammon feeds him a bottle, we change his diaper, put him in his pajamas and rock him till he is groggy and then lay him down. I am wondering though if we could do something different or more pronounced as “bedtime.” A lullaby might work, but once again I sing for naptime. Maybe with Cammon and I singing it might be different?
Suggestions?
OK, here’s what I’m thinking. A bath would be good. We did that for a while with MAx, just to help him get the daytime vs. nighttime thing figured out.
And just be sure to slather him with baby lotion when he’s done.
Another thing that might help make nighttime different could be something like a white noise machine or a little fan. Just a different sound. Esp. if he’s a light sleeper, a white noise machine might be just the ticket.
I’m sure you’ve tried this too, but have you tried swaddling him for naps? My friend’s baby is just younger than scoots, and he was having a tough time sleeping until she tried swaddling him and now he sleeps great. Just thought I’d at least mention it!
Other than that I don’t think there’s too much you can do to differentiate for a guy that small. Even if Cammon’s there and he’s not usually during the day I’m not sure that’s really enough you know?
Good ideas Ginna. Maybe after the bath I can learn some massage techniques and use the lotion with that.
As far as noise, the wall his bassinet is up against is the bathroom wall. We turn the bathroom fan on at night-which might not be as good as white noise…
Swaddling-hehehehe, we stopped swaddling him when we figured out he thought it was a game. He would use his nap time to try and figure out how to get out of the swaddle. Right now, there isn’t a swaddle Cam or I have done that he hasn’t gotten out of. The longest it has taken him to get out of a swaddle is 10min max. We could try it again now that he is old, but he is stronger so it might be even more futile! :0)
I did forget to mention that for night time cammon does put a blanket over both their heads in the bedroom so that there isn’t any stimulation, and we have covers over the window so that it is dark when we put him down at night.
Hey Lorri-
I agree with doing a bath before bed. I do that with my boys. I actually do it only every other night, but when you first start off, you can do it every night to get him used to a bedtime.
Anyway, I thought I’d tell you what I do for my boys to give you an idea. For naps (for the baby) I lay him on the bed and read him a story then sing him a song and lay him in his crib with his pacifier and blankie.
Then for bedtime I give him a bath if it’s bath night, then he has his bottle, says goodnight to Ryan if he’s home, I read him his story on the bed, say a prayer with him, sing him his song, put him in the crib etc. It’s almost exactly the same as naptime but somehow he just knows it’s nighttime.
Oh, and he’s 9 months old, so I can expect a little more from him
But I’ve been doing this routine since he was like 6 months old. Before that, I rocked him to sleep for naps and bedtime. He’s pretty much always slept from about 7pm-7am. And he just switched from breast to bottle so that didn’t really have anything to do with his sleeping. I read your post about “To cry or not to cry” and my personal opinion is that he’s too young still (although if it’s working for you then I’m not saying you shouldn’t). I look back on my first boy and remember thinking he was getting SO old and grown up when he was 3 months old and then looking back I wonder why I didn’t realize he was still such a small baby. If I can’t get my kids back to sleep when they’re that little, I feed them until they are well established on solid food. That way I don’t really have to worry about them getting enough. (Although FYI, I’m not really a CIO type of person, except for in certain circumstances.)
I haven’t read through all of your posts, but do you keep it dark in the room for naps too? Maybe making it a little lighter than nighttime would help him distinguish the difference, or maybe making it darker than daytime-playing would help him sleep longer.
You probably already do this but just make sure you limit interaction at night and interact lots during the day and he’ll know the difference after a while. My 2 year old was a horrible sleeper until he was 9 or 10 months old and my husband never helped at night so I know it can be hard!
Ok, I’m getting off track here. My main point was to say that even if you do the same things for nap and bedtime, it should work out fine, and he’ll know it’s bedtime rather than nap time just by other things you do during the day (dinnertime, Cammon being home, etc). The main point of the bed/nap routine (in my mind, anyway) is to get them sleepy enough to fall asleep on their own.
Anyway, I have had a bad sleeper and a good sleeper and lots of fresh experience with getting kids to sleep and such so email me if you’d like. bobbmf@gmail.com
Oh, and I was going to also ask if he sleeps well if you hold him? If he does, it might be worth it to have him sleep with you so that he sleeps well for a couple of days (and catches up on some needed sleep) and then start again with trying to get him to sleep longer for naps and nighttime in his bassinet. Or if he is overtired and just not sleeping in the bassinet, holding him for a nap just to get him to sleep is well worth it to me! I’ve spent HOURS (5, 3, etc) in the rocker just to not disturb a very tired baby!
Have you read the book The No Cry Sleep Solution? You might want to check it out if the CIO stuff doesn’t help.
Good luck!