We have had Ford on a flexible sleep schedule since he was only a few weeks old and it’s honestly one of the best things we could have done. He is such a great sleeper and while naps took a little while to follow suit he figured it out a few months ago.

One of the most important parts of him having a great night of sleep is his evening routine. We do the same thing every night so he knows that bedtime is coming. We make sure to keep him relaxed and calm so he is ready for bed. Sometimes when he is teething or has a stomach ache he gets stressed before bedtime but we do our best to keep his evening routine as stressfree as possible for him.

Here is the rundown:

5:00 pm

We let him swing for a bit! This is one of his favorite things to do. Ford cannot sit still ever and this is the one place where he sits still the longest and laughs and is really enjoying himself. While Brock swings him I’ll normally pick up a bit if the kitchen is messy. I do the dishes so the sink is empty for his bathtime. Or I’ll start cooking dinner for Brock and I.

5:30 pm

Dinnertime for Ford! This boy loves to eat but we try to not feed him too much at dinner otherwise he drinks way less of his bedtime bottle. At this age eating is still for fun and he gets most of his nutrients from milk. But we do feed him a small dinner every night and he loves it!

5:45 pm

We will give him a frozen paci or fruit to suck on and watch Micky Mouse. Since he never really sits still on his own, we like to let him relax and watch a little tv to digest his dinner.

6:00 pm

Bathtime! This little man is a huge fan of water. He gets that from his dada! He loves to splash around and try and drink the water. We normally give him a bath every other night. And on nights we don’t give a bath, we will have a little dance party in the kitchen. I have a playlist of all of the lullaby type songs I played while he was in my belly and it’s so funny to see how he has favorites.

6:15 pm

Bedtime bottle! After we put his PJs on we give him a 6 oz bottle with some gripe water in it.

6:30 pm

Storytime! We read him 2 books. He has a favorite, You’re my little cuddle bug that we read to him every night, and then for the second book we try to read a new one every night.

6:45pm

Sleepsack/ Lullaby/ Bedtime! We put him in his sleepsack, sing twinkle twinkle little star and his bedtime song and turn out the lights. Then we let him watch us turn the sound machine on and place him in his crib. He will self soothe in his crib anywhere from 5-10 minutes before falling asleep.

Watch our video below: our evening routine with a 7-month-old and subscribe to my youtube channel!