What do you do in this instance? | ExpatWoman.com
 

What do you do in this instance?

276
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 February 2013 - 14:53

We have started a bedtime routine for DD a couple of weeks ago with a bathtime which is going well (apart from the fact that she screams when we take her out of the bath - Im not sure if this is because she is overtired or because she doesnt want to get out of the bath!).

However, what do you do when LO gets very tired BEFORE bathtime? For example, if bathtime is 7.30pm and from 6.30pm she starts to get tired? Its too early to put her down for the night.... do you let her have a little sleep? I would be afraid that when I wake her for bathtime, I would end up putting her down later as she may not be tired?

Same for her last bottle.... if she is due a bottle at 6pm / 6.30pm, its soo soon before her last bottle for the night.... what do you experienced ladies do in this case please?
Tnx so much!!!

186
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 13 February 2013 - 09:31
TDB my DS would always cry after bathtime it became quite stressful but we just preserved brought some toys and teddys in when we were drying him and now he is ok. he gets cranky every now and then but not every night like before...
2
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 February 2013 - 21:38
Hi all and hi Mmmmmm, Although i was against it in the beginning - I have followed a book called "save our sleep" after my 8 week old wouldn't settle on his own and would wake up 3-4 times a night. He settled into the routine the first week, woke up once during the night till he was 6 months old and since then (now he is 13 months old) he hasn't woken up during the night, not once. Eventually i got my head around the routine, so i tweaked it to accommodate my sons needs, for example, the book suggested putting him to sleep at 7pm, but as he grew older there was no way he was ready for bed at 7 pm, so i would do his dinner, bottle, bath, bottle, bed routine starting at 7 and have him down by 8pm. He would sleep till 8 am next morning. His bed time routine was always heavily influenced by his day time routine so later in the year i started to base his bed time on that. Now i know he can last up to 5 hours between naps/sleeps so some nights his in bed by 8, some nights by 7 before he is over tired, but tired enough that he "crashes"... I think if you have a day routine sorted and follow it as best as you can, (takes 3-4 days to get in the swing of it) it works like magic for night time... Hope this helps.. Cheers, Al
200
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 February 2013 - 20:37
Hi Mmmm, I agree with shifting bedtime earlier. When DD was younger, I used to try and stretch her out for a 7pm bedtime because the books said so but it never really worked out. She was so overtired and bathtime was awful. I started to move bedtime to 6-615 and it was so much better. I also found she clusterfed around this time, so she was usually hungry before her bath, which made her extra cranky if we rushed off for a bath without feeding her! When she dropped her late afternoon nap, she started to go down around 545-6. All the while, her morning wake time was between 6 and 7. Interestingly, the earlier she went to bed, the more likely it was she would wake later in the morning. It really was true that sleep begets sleep in our case. My husband doesn't see DD at night, but he gets up when she does at around 6:30am, i keep sleeping :-) and they play for 60 to 90 minutes, depending on what time DH needs to leave for work. DH loves this time and DD wakes and looks for him straight away. It's truly precious and far better than DH seeing her at bedtime when she is tired. Good luck.
4062
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EW MASTER
Latest post on 12 February 2013 - 17:58
Thanks ladies for your responses, That makes sense! The reason we were starting bathtime at 7.30pm was so that my husband gets to spend a little time with her when he comes in from work. He doesnt get in until 6.30 or so so if we were to do bathtime at 6pm / 6.30pm, then he would never see her and vice versa... :( That's tough Mmmmm, my husband doesn't get to see our children in the evening either and I always feel bad that they miss out on that time with each other. On the plus side, it makes the weekends even more special. Or maybe you can tell him he can spend some time with her when she's up in the night ;)
276
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 February 2013 - 16:55
Thanks ladies for your responses, That makes sense! The reason we were starting bathtime at 7.30pm was so that my husband gets to spend a little time with her when he comes in from work. He doesnt get in until 6.30 or so so if we were to do bathtime at 6pm / 6.30pm, then he would never see her and vice versa... :(
186
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 February 2013 - 15:25
agree with meagle- my son is almost 9 months and we start bathtime at 6/6.15 and he is in his room feeding at 6.30 asleep by 6.45/7 the latest. he sleeps until 7/8am. as meagle said a well rested baby sleeps better.
849
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EW GURU
Latest post on 12 February 2013 - 15:06
If baby is tired at 6:30, I would move bathtime and the last feeding much, much earlier. Clearly if baby is tired already, keeping baby up another hour is just getting the baby overtired. An overtired baby sleeps worse than a well-rested one. Why do you consider 6:30 too early for bedtime? "Schedule" baby's sleep based on baby's needs not on some arbitrary decision made by us adults. My 9.5 month old is consistently in bed no later than 6:30pm. She sleeps until 4:30am or so when she wakes for a quick feed and then right back to sleep until 7:30am or so. My son was the same way. There are times both of my kids were both in bed before 6pm when they needed it due to early or poor naps.
 
 

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