I'd like to start putting Hannah to bed at a predictable time each night. What are some good ways to encourage babies to get drowsy at a certain time? I've already decided to do her daily bath before bed, because she seems to get more tired after bathtime.

So I could bathe her, nurse her, and maybe rock her if that doesn't work.....

Any other no-cry ideas to help babies go to sleep?

A full body massage..To get my newborn adapted to night and day,I used to massage her, toes to her head in a dimly lighted room whispering very softly to her..It never failed.

I used to wrap Abby in a cloth diaper like they do in the hospital and that seemed to make her feel more secure.

That J&Js Bedtime Bath stuff is great :wink:

What about soft classical music?

Good ideas already. I would do everything I could to keep baby awake for three or four hours before bedtime, and then go for the soothing activities. Baby would often try to doze early, so I'd keep moving him/her around and only let baby doze for a few minutes at time if he/she looked uncomfortable and in need of a fifteen minute nap. [baby]

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Joy [welcomewave]

I just dim the room and put her down swaddled after a feed - that works but it does sound like something you've probably already done :wink:

Can you believe a lady I used to work with would give her son (who's now 26) Benadryl to make him drowsy! :shock: :shock:

I couldn't believe it!!! :shock:

Can you believe a lady I used to work with would give her son (who's now 26) Benadryl to make him drowsy! :shock: :shock:

I couldn't believe it!!! :shock:

Oh my! What a no-no.

Can you believe a lady I used to work with would give her son (who's now 26) Benadryl to make him drowsy! :shock: :shock:

I couldn't believe it!!! :shock:

My mum and dad put a little sherry into my bottles :shock: And no, I don't agree with that.

When they babysit Abby I put her Nurofen in the bag incase she is teething. Well, I think my dad is a little too happy to use it if you KWIM LOL He gives it to her if she won't sleep. So last time they babysat I didn't give it to them. Well, apparently when she was in the hallway screaming her head off because she wanted to go home (this was the night I was in hospital to be induced) my dad was like "where's that darn medicine?!" [rofl] [rofl]
When my mum told me about her behaviour that night I was like "HAHAHA I bet dad was hunting for that Nurofen!" [rofl]

My doc prescribed Benedryl for my daughter's sore mouth after her thrush had cleared up. I can't say that I minded the side effect of drowsiness. Many times while she was taking the stuff, I would try to plan her recommended daily doses of it around the times that I needed her to be sleepy. LOL.

My doc prescribed Benedryl for my daughter's sore mouth after her thrush had cleared up. I can't say that I minded the side effect of drowsiness. Many times while she was taking the stuff, I would try to plan her recommended daily doses of it around the times that I needed her to be sleepy. LOL.

Well i can totally understand if it's needed but to just give it for the main purpose of just making the baby drowsy is so wrong.

My doc prescribed Benedryl for my daughter's sore mouth after her thrush had cleared up. I can't say that I minded the side effect of drowsiness. Many times while she was taking the stuff, I would try to plan her recommended daily doses of it around the times that I needed her to be sleepy. LOL.

LOL Yeah I've given it to Abby at nightime before bed when she's been teething so she'd sleep all night.
We need to get our sleep too. A tired, upset, grumpy mummy is not a good thing. And one dose a day/night isn't going to hurt them.

While I don't agree with my parents putting sherry into my baby bottle at night before bedtime, I can totally understand why and where they were coming from.
I know Sophie is a newborn but when she was waking up every 2 hours at night and even every 3 hours... oh boy! I was falling asleep while feeding her at night time. EVERY time. I am lucky I never dropped her. Many times I'd drop her bottle though LOL And the lack of sleep (waking every 3 hours, feeding for 1 hour so only having 2 hours sleep between feeds) was really getting to me. A couple of times I just balled my eyes out because I was soooooo tired. And I was soooo grumpy with Paul and Abby. I just wasn't coping well. If Sophie was like I was as a baby (terrible sleeper even at a year old) I am sure I would be very tempted to give her something to help her sleep.
It would take me 5 minutes (well, it seemed that long) to just get out of bed :lol: First I had to register and wake up fully, then some moaning and groaning, then some stretching of my arms and legs, then I had to crawl out of bed trying so hard not to disturb Paul (mind you, he was always awake anyway after Sophie had been crying for a few minutes anyway LOL).
Then you have to get the bottle out of the sterilizer, fill it with water, put the scoops of formula in (NOTE: I have since started making up 500mls in a jug so all I have to do when I get up at night is to fill the bottle with formula and heat up quickly in microwave :wink: It lasts 24 hours in fridge). Then it takes an hour just to feed them. Don't forget the burping part. You are lucky if you get anything out. Then they have wind and won't go to sleep.

Things are so much better now and Sophie is only a month old. She slept 7 hours straight last night. And then after being fed at 5am she went back to sleep until 10.45am. :shock:

Hopefully it will last. I'm a much better mummy on a good nights sleep. :)

Oh yeah does anyone else ever pretend that they haven't heard baby crying at night so their hubby would have to get up and feed baby? [rofl]
Paul won't do night feedings except in the weekends.

I think I'd rather get up myself though because when I take too long to get out of bed and Paul gets up all he does is complain about it and I'd rather get up than hear his complaining LOL

Can you believe a lady I used to work with would give her son (who's now 26) Benadryl to make him drowsy! :shock: :shock:

I couldn't believe it!!! :shock:

My mum and dad put a little sherry into my bottles :shock: And no, I don't agree with that.

When they babysit Abby I put her Nurofen in the bag incase she is teething. Well, I think my dad is a little too happy to use it if you KWIM LOL He gives it to her if she won't sleep. So last time they babysat I didn't give it to them. Well, apparently when she was in the hallway screaming her head off because she wanted to go home (this was the night I was in hospital to be induced) my dad was like "where's that darn medicine?!" [rofl] [rofl]
When my mum told me about her behaviour that night I was like "HAHAHA I bet dad was hunting for that Nurofen!" [rofl]

My cousin always boosed her babies...She rented a home from us and when she left we found tons of whiskey bottles in her trash...Her boys were always sleeping when you seen them - go figure :shock:

Can you believe a lady I used to work with would give her son (who's now 26) Benadryl to make him drowsy! :shock: :shock:

I couldn't believe it!!! :shock:

My mum and dad put a little sherry into my bottles :shock: And no, I don't agree with that.

When they babysit Abby I put her Nurofen in the bag incase she is teething. Well, I think my dad is a little too happy to use it if you KWIM LOL He gives it to her if she won't sleep. So last time they babysat I didn't give it to them. Well, apparently when she was in the hallway screaming her head off because she wanted to go home (this was the night I was in hospital to be induced) my dad was like "where's that darn medicine?!" [rofl] [rofl]
When my mum told me about her behaviour that night I was like "HAHAHA I bet dad was hunting for that Nurofen!" [rofl]

My cousin always boosed her babies...She rented a home from us and when she left we found tons of whiskey bottles in her trash...Her boys were always sleeping when you seen them - go figure :shock:

:cry: That's sad. Maybe that's why I love spirits so much HAHA Seriously though, I hardly ever drink. Because we can't afford to buy it for one. But because I know that if I did buy it I could easily become an alcoholic given my background of depression etc...
Pauls best friend told me about a lady he knows that would give her toddler alcohol in a baby bottle. Like a whole bottle. I couldn't believe it. How do you do that without having your kids taken off you?
Giving a child alcohol is wrong in the first place. But a tiny drop to get a baby to sleep compared to a whole baby bottle for a toddler...
I'm surprised it didn't kill this child. That much alcohol for a child that young? :shock:

Awww, Renee.... I'm glad that Sophie's sleeping better for you. You sound tired!

Renee - yeah I think it was quite common for ppl at one stage to put sherry etc even on the babies dummy to make them sleep (I know of ppl who did that) - someone also admitted to me (an older baby boomer woman) that she was helping to care for a set of twins and she'd put drops of wine in their mouth - don't ppl get this sort of thing contributes to SIDS ?

Paris was a coliky little thing so I understand the temptation, but I was always sooooo afraid of SIDS !! (I know two ppl who have lost babies to SIDS...)

Awww, Renee.... I'm glad that Sophie's sleeping better for you. You sound tired!

Thanks Ruth. Yeah I guess I'm just not used to waking up during the night since Abby slept through the night at a week old onwards. It's all been so different this time.
Even tonight I fell asleep while watching TV and slept for two hours on the couch while Paul watched the Abby and Sophie and cooked dinner LOL :shock:

I don't have a very good voice but for some reason singing and rocking mine always did the trick. My 3 year old still likes me to rock her and sing to her. I don't get to do it enough now that I have ds but some nights if he falls asleep before dd, and shes wants me too, I'll rock her and sing to her. They like lullaby but I personalize it "my big girl, go to sleep, mommy loves you so much, lullaby, lullaby, lullaby.... " Poor kids, lol :D I always tell dh I'm probably doing more harm then good because they are going to end up tone deaf like me. He has a good voice and can keep a tune pretty good so maybe they will take after him!