My son has been in a bedtime routine since he was 3 months old, he is now 6 months old and I am going to share how we do it. This could be pure luck or persistence who knows? If you are reading this you are probably hoping for say 5 definitely fool proof ways to get a baby to sleep. Unfortunately I haven’t found that to be the case. What I do know is that every baby is different and sometimes you need multiple tools in your box to build a routine.
Your day routine will affect your baby’s night routine. This may come as a surprise, however if you have not worn your baby out they will still have boundless energy when it comes to settling them for bed and any attempt at calming them down to sleep ends in tears. The first thing we do is after dinner we have playtime and we make sure at 8pm (can be sooner if my son has shown signs of being tired) that we start our routine.
After playtime or as soon as your little one is rubbing their eyes get them in the bath. The one I use is from Smyths, it has a handy feature of a drain for the water once you are done. The baby products I would recommend are Aveeno baby daily care and Aveeno 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner. Make sure you do a patch test before introducing products on a baby’s skin, look for reaction signs such as redness and follow advice from the NHS. As your little one gets older you can start to introduce toys in the bath, you could start with cups or a jug to keep them occupied. A useful tip for when they are newborns is to put a flannel over the baby to help them retain heat, this has a calming effect and has been a game changer for bath time.
After bath time I wrap my son in a hooded towel and we moisturise his whole body. It is incredibly tempting to skip this step as it’s known to turn him into a screaming banshee however moisturising him daily ‘making him glisten’ has truly made a difference to his skin, for moisturiser we just use Johnson’s Baby lotion as well as Sudo Cream for his bottom and another product I would recommend is Kokoso for baby hair. We then dress him for bed usually in a sleepsuit unless it is warm. A hack that I have found very useful is to use sleeping bags. You can find them in different togs for different weather and size.
Creating the bedtime atmosphere is a really important step as without this your baby could struggle to settle to sleep. We make sure the room is dark with only the salt lamp on and that we have brown noise playing (White noise would also work) I then feed him a warm bottle whilst rocking back and forth gently singing him lullabies and different songs whilst patting his bottom to a heartbeat rhythm. The rhythm and firmness is important as it is to remind your baby of your heartbeat in the womb.
On a teething day it’s been known to go from 100 green bottles sitting on a wall rather than the normal 10.
I tend to sing around 3 lullabies before my son is asleep in my arms, now for the trickiest part that every parent dreads, putting your baby down to sleep. We’ve tried a number of ways but the most effective for us is to keep patting his bottom as we set him down into his crib and to make sure to place them either bottom first or on their side then roll them onto their back. Please follow the NHS advice for your child’s age regarding safe sleeping.
My last piece of advice is to not give up, they will eventually settle. If you need a moment then take it and place your baby somewhere safe and leave the room, take that moment and try again. Go through this list:
-Do they need a nappy change
-Do they need to be burped
-Are they too hot or cold?
-Are they still hungry?
You are not a bad parent for not managing first time and sometimes I need to pass my son to his father to settle to sleep as he won’t settle for me. Working as a team is so important and to support each other.