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Talk me through your bedtime routine/nighttime pattern with your 2-3 month old...

11 replies

bean612 · 18/04/2013 20:14

DS is 11 weeks tomorrow and so far we've had him in the living room with us in the evenings, alternately dozing and being awake on my lap before we all go to bed around 10-10.30. He'll then go down in his Moses basket till around 1-1.30, then wake approx every 2-2.5 hours until I give up and get up, usually about 8.30am. After the first feed we end up co-sleeping as he won't settle again in his basket, but I'm not too worried about that for now.

What I would like to change is his bedtime, partly to claw a couple of hours of evening back, and partly because he's awake much more than he's asleep now in the evening, and won't really sleep/nap beyond 4pmish, so is just getting overtired, I think. I'm just worried that if I put him to bed at say 8pm he'll sleep his 'best'/deep sleep till around 11 (i.e. wake up after I've only been asleep myself for half an hour or so), then do his lighter sleeping after that and then wake for the day much earlier, meaning I get much less and even more broken sleep than I do now. Or might he actually sleep better by going to bed earlier and avoiding the dozing/overtired evening? Argh, I just don't know. He usually naps in the day from approx 10-12 and 1.30/2-3.30, sometimes with a power nap of about 15-20mins around 5ish.

How about you? What's your bedtime and nighttime with your LO like at this stage??

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bean612 · 19/04/2013 12:59

No one? Is everyone else's 3-month-old now sleeping through 7-7? Angry Grin

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BonaDea · 19/04/2013 17:03

I'd also like to know the answer. DS is one month and I'd like to start gearing up into some sort of routine in the next month or so!

Have started reading the no cry sleep solution and she advocates early bed time for longer better sleep rather than being counterproductive.

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FreeButtonBee · 19/04/2013 17:26

My twins are 10 weeks and I am ebf.

Routine is pretty relaxed - bath between 5.30 and 7 depending on how tired they are and what else we are up to. Quick (and I mean ultra quick!) massage. Then into sleep suit and gro bag, downstairs for a long breast feed until they sleep. That can take 30 mins or in the case of DTS, can be cluster feeding for hurs and hours. He didnt cluster feed last night for the first time ever! It was a total novelty to eat dinner at the table without a little guest!

They sleep in the pram downstairs and then I lift them at about 9.30 for a quick nappy change and top up feed. If they have been cluster feeding I don't bother obviously!

Then once they go to sleep following 9.30ish fed, up to bed, they wake every 3-4 hours overnight, usually at least twice each.

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FreeButtonBee · 19/04/2013 17:30

Daytim3 - we are normally up by 8 - I feed on demand but normally they will sleep 30 mins or so at 9, long sleep at lunchtime, another power nap in the afternoon. Sometimes one or other of the short naps will be skipped if they are cranky.

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MooneyRara · 19/04/2013 17:37

mine's 14 weeks (or is it 15 - cannot remember!) We go to bed at around 9, that's me, the older ones and him - he usually falls asleep fairly soon, well it can take up to an hour - but once he's gone off, he'll sleep till at least 1am, usually - sometimes more like 9-3 and then he'll mess about and doze and squeal and struggle till morning.

It's fairly random but we do generally get that good 3-6 hours at the start of the night. At the moment, that is - might be all change next week!

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lazzaroo · 19/04/2013 18:38

14 week, ebf, DD here. Used to stay up with us, feed at 8.30ish and the sleep downstairs till we came to bed. Would then sleep till 1ish.

Decided to start bedtime routine about a month ago. Just started giving her a bath at time that fitted with dd2 bedtime. Pj's & gro bag on, Then give her last feed upstairs in her room. Bath tends to be 6ish. Last feed about 6.30/7ish. Try to aim for 7 but depends when she last woke. She doesn't nap as well as yours. Just has lots of 40min naps throughout the day.

This does mean that first wake up has also shifted. She wakes at 10.30/11ish. Then what happens after that is anyone's guess! She's usually up between 6 & 7.

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lazzaroo · 19/04/2013 18:39

This does mean both are asleep by 8 & we get some time to ourselves (before I go to bed....usually at about 8.30!!!)

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lazzaroo · 19/04/2013 18:41

Oh, and lots of people warn of the 4 month sleep regression so, yes, you'll probably get it all sorted and then DD will scupper your plans!

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scampidoodle · 19/04/2013 19:17

Our nearly 12 week old goes to bed some time between about 6.15 and 7pm, depending on how she's been during the day and when her afternoon sleeps have been (she can't stay awake happily for more than hour towards the end of the day and can't get to sleep for ages if she's overtired). She has a bath then a bottle then a bit of a cuddle in her room, in the quiet, and then into bed. She sometimes gets to sleep easily and silently, other times she has a bit of a cry and we might have to go in and reassure her or pick her up - she then usually settles quickly.

Last night she slept through till 6.15 apart from waking for a couple of minutes at about 4.30am and giving a couple of cries, but then she settled herself. Her usual routine is to wake at 11/12ish and again at 4ish for a bottle both times, so not great.

I always leave her a couple of minutes to see if she is properly awake and actually crying for a feed - if her crying isn't constant I leave her and she will sometimes settle herself. I realised with my son (ebf) that he sometimes just woke, rather than being hungry, and would get back to sleep without a feed. Once I'd worked that out he soon started to sleep through regularly because I wasn't disturbing him by getting him up!

I think the proper bedtime helps them sleep better and I don't think you'll miss the deep sleep - I think by this stage they're having much more deep sleep and a quiet room helps.

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theblushingpeony · 20/04/2013 10:14

I think we started a rough bedtime routine at around 8 weeks - nappy change, feed, cuddle and a few lullabies, then DD down in moses basket with Ewan the dream sheep and dummy between 8 - 9pm. To begin with it could take her an hour or two to properly fall asleep and we had to keep going back to pick up the dummy and soothe her but gradually she got better at self settling and now she falls asleep pretty much as soon as we put her down (or if she doesn't, she just stares at Ewan until she drifts off to sleep).

DD is now 18 weeks and has started to get tired earlier so she goes to bed between 6 - 7pm. Her routine now also includes a bath every other night and a short bedtime story. She is ebf and feeds two or three times a night before waking up for the day at 8ish. Sometimes she's awake at 7 but I stay quiet and just put Ewan on and she goes back to sleep for another hour.

This was working brilliantly and DD usually did a longer stretch (5-7 hours) after first going to bed but she's now hit the 4 month sleep regression so her sleeping pattern is all over the place. I'm hoping she'll go back to her old routine in a few weeks though!

DD also used to nap really well (3-4 longer naps during the day and always going down easily) but she's started to fight her sleep in the last two weeks and can get really worked up sometimes if she's overtired. I've found that taking her out in her pram or turning the hoover on always helps her to go to sleep when she's really fighting it.

I definitely think that the more they sleep during the day the better they'll sleep at night. I also wouldn't worry about putting your DS to bed earlier as he will get used to the new bedtime quickly and will sleep better in a quiet room. You could do a dream feed just before you go to bed so that DS doesn't wake you up as soon as you fall sleep. Once you start a new routine just stick to it and he'll get used to it in a week or two even if in the beginning it feels like it's going nowhere. Good luck!

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TwitchyTail · 21/04/2013 19:49

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