Bedtime???

Devon

I'm at a loss for how to get my head wrapped around conquering bedtime. I'm trying to keep my expectations realistic here too... I have a 6 week old.

I know we should be doing a "routine"... I try to bring him upstairs when he's sleepy, swaddle him, have his white noise machine on, make sure he's fed adequately, and sing/rock him a little bit. We only so a bath a few times a week at this point. I'll get him into an eyes closed-pacifier-falls-out kind of sleep pretty quickly then 5 mins after he lays asleep in the pack and play he's up. I try to let him settle himself for as long as possible, only letting him cry 5ish minutes and then soothing him. The rest of the night he sleeps great in the pack and play giving us more regular 4-6 hour sleeps here recently.

He wakes up at 7 each morning which we started a while ago. Naps ok during the day depending on what's going on...

One day he goes down at 645 super easy (until midnight!) Then the next night he fights sleep for hours and it's a back and forth for us to get him settled, which makes bedtime feel like a nightmare ... I follow his lead at night, when he's running his eyes and starting to yawn, anywhere from 645-9 maybe 10.

Is this just normal for his age and I should just keep this up until he regulates his own schedule?