| Evening routines
 
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 Category:  Have A Baby?
 Forum Name:  First baby? Second or more?
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 URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=21310
 Printed Date: 31 October 2025 at 11:53pm
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 Topic: Evening routines
 Posted By: fire_engine
 Subject: Evening routines
 Date Posted: 30 September 2008 at 12:13pm
 
 
        
          | What are people's routines for putting their baby to bed?  We (I) tend to cluster feed from 7-8.30, putting D into his nighty at 8, then wrapping at 8.30, then feeding till nearly asleep with only a dim light.  It's not working brilliantly, so I thought I'd ask what others do .... 
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 Mum to two wee boys
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 Replies:
 Posted By: josephnia
 Date Posted: 30 September 2008 at 12:18pm
 
 
        
          | Blake normally wakes from his afternoon nap at around 4-5pm so has a feed then. We used to keep him up til his shower at 6.30pm, then final feed at 7pm in his room with low light. But I think that was too much time for him to be up and then his 7pm feed would be a struggle to keep him awake so last night we went for a walk around 6pm and he had a little powernap of about 25 min and he had a really good last feed and slept the best he ever has so I think we'll go with that from now on - try get a last little sleep in between 5 and 6.30pm. 
 So ours goes like this-
 
 5pm feed
 5.30/6pm power nap
 6.30pm shower with dad
 6.45pm nappy, dress and swaddle
 7pm feed
 7.30pm bedtime
 
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 Posted By: Shezamumof3
 Date Posted: 30 September 2008 at 1:03pm
 
 
        
          | Ours kind of chops and changes but its along the same lines each night. 
 So basicly its
 
 4 or 5- Bottle then sometimes he has a sleep if no sleep then he has his bath at 6 or 7
 6 or 7-Bath,massage and into his pj's
 Between 7 and 8 is playtime with mummy and daddy
 8.30-9-Bottle and nappy change
 Then bedtime, and he gets swaddled his mobile turned on(we have dim light while we do this) put into his saftey sleep a kiss then I leave the room and he will go to sleep usually no problems. He sleeps right through until 7 in the morning most nights.
 
 
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 Posted By: Mazzy
 Date Posted: 30 September 2008 at 1:23pm
 
 
        
          | Ours keeps changing, but in general it follows: 
 4-6pm play, feed etc. whatever she wants to do
 6pm into bed for a short nap (good timing for dinner)
 7pm up and play time, bath with DD1 followed by massage and into pjs
 7.30pm play time, feeds, whatever she's wanting
 8.30pm changed into night nappy, swaddled and bed time feed
 9pm down to bed half asleep or at least relaxed, into cot with dim light on (it's in our room so we need light to see when we go to bed!)
 
 I've been doing a dream feed at 10.30pm but it doesn't seem to do much.  She's also been doing a massive five hour sleep at 4pm which mucks it all up, but I'm just going to have to get hard and wake her up I think.
 
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 Mum to two gorgeous girls!
 
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 Posted By: catisla
 Date Posted: 30 September 2008 at 6:31pm
 
 
        
          | What is a good age to start to try to get baby into a routine? 
 At the moment i am feeding on demand and Catriona tends to want feeding much more frequently overnight (i.e. every two hours) whereas she will sleep for about 4 hours at a time during the day.
 
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 Posted By: gypsynita
 Date Posted: 30 September 2008 at 8:57pm
 
 
        
          | Susiec my DS was doing that at about that age and midwife told me to start waking him during the day for more frequent feeds so he would figure out difference between day and night better... 
 we've been trying to establish a routine somewhere along the lines of 6pm - feed if he wants one then bath with either mum or dad, after that it's a combo of feed, change into night nappy and jammies and then we try and get him down... but lately he's not actually settling until 9-10pm!
   
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 Anita
 Mum to Cian (Aug 08), Josh (Jun 10)
 
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 Posted By: emz
 Date Posted: 30 September 2008 at 9:11pm
 
 
        
          | We bookended the day, so woke DS up at 7am, put him to bed at 7 (dreamfeed at 10.30). This has helped in the transition to sleeping through I think. 
 We've never done anything except bottle, PJ's, book, cuddles and bed. Used to have a quiet house and dim lights but no more, and have never relied on a bath to get him to sleep well as I want him to be able to sleep anywhere (which he does - last week we weren't home 3 out of 7 nights lol)
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 Posted By: MissAngel
 Date Posted: 01 October 2008 at 8:19am
 
 
        
          | 5pm bath 6.30pm bottle/food, then play until we have dinner
 7.30-8pm more play then settling time
 9pm bottle
 9.30pm sleep til 7am :)
 
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 Alex, Thomas and Lily
 http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">
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 Posted By: jaycee
 Date Posted: 01 October 2008 at 8:32am
 
 
        
          | our routine is similar to emz' one: 4.30 - 5 power nap
 6 - bottle (Sophie was very sleepy as a little one so half downstair then half upstair once in her PJs).
 6.30 - PJs, bottle, story cuddles.
 (when she was under 5 months we did a dream feed at 10pm too.)
 IMO it it never too early to start a bit of a routine esp at night - it lets your little one know what is coming next and most babies seem to like that
  Don't worry if it goes pear shaped though, just try again the next day! We have also bookended our day 7 - 7 When they are small it is so tempting to leave them to sleep during the day but then you do tend to pay for it at night. 
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 Posted By: NovemberMum
 Date Posted: 01 October 2008 at 12:29pm
 
 
        
          | our 10 month normally gets up between 4pm-4:30pm (has a nap any time from 2-3pm) 
 sometimes she gets a breastfeed but most of the time she will have a play
 
 5pm dinner
 5:30pm bath
 6pm breastfeed
 6:30pm story/bed
 
 
 
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