What time did/does your 11 week old sleep? Should bedtime be sooner for my DD?

[user666555]

Hello,

First time mum here. Have a DD who has had a bit of a difficult start. Born at 37 weeks (although not premature - not sure if it holds any weight in regards to sleeping habits!). She's got a suspected CMPA (on a trial of prescribed milk).

Up until about a week ago my DD was sleeping at between 10:30-11:30pm every night. This was when she would naturally fall asleep (despite the bath, bottle and bed routine). I just went with her lead.

Recently, she's started to become extremely fussy from 8:45-9:00pm onwards. She will be crying hysterically. Previously I thought it may have been colic, a tummy ache/constipation (she's on omeprazole for bad reflux issues).

However, today I decided to put her to sleep in her Next2Me crib at around 9:15pm. She fought it for a bit, I think she fights bedtime because she's quite a sensitive baby and needs to see me next to her, have minimal noise for her night sleep, white noise and a red light on. But eventually she fell asleep around 10ish minutes ago. I'm starting to wonder whether or not the fussing for the previous days was in fact her wanting an earlier bed time or was this just a coincidence today? Can bedtimes for babies change week to week? When did your LO go to sleep at 11ish weeks old? When should I start a gentle night time routine? I do give her a bath and a bottle every night but it's mostly baby led and the timings used to be quite a bit later for that?

TIA - sorry if some of my questions are stupid or self explanatory - FTM syndrome

All babies are different but it does sound like she now wants to go to bed earlier - so go with it and see if it works! I’ve had a bad sleeper who never really settled in to a routine and a good sleeper who did similar to your daughter and would fuss from early evening until I realised he just wanted to go to bed. Good luck!

My DD started getting like this at 16 weeks and my DS at 12 weeks; it became a natural bedtime so I started a bedtime routine and would put them to sleep at rhe times I’d noticed they’d started to settle

Thanks @DownWhichOfLate and @Bkjahshue I think I'll try to start putting her to bed earlier. She's a VERY light sleeper though so looks like I'm going to have to sleep earlier too as if I stay awake and make even the slightest noise she'll wake up 🙈

It sounds like she might be tired yes. And she's not sensitive for wanting to be close to her mother, she's a newborn fgs. All she wants is mum. All the time.

@TheBeesKnee I don't recall saying she was sensitive? I do believe that every newborn is born with an innate need to be close to their mother. However, I also believe that there's a spectrum when it comes to how much closeness a baby requires.

I'm not saying that it's necessarily a bad thing but it does take some navigating as things do still need to get done (showers, dinners etc) and I think that it's about navigating doing these things whilst still reassuring a newborn that you're still there. Not a bad thing that some babies require moe reassurance - but it requires navigation.

You literally said she was sensitive in your OP.

Newborn babies have poor eyesight and as far as they're concerned they're one and the same with their mother.

Anyway.

My DS found bath time too stimulating, so even if he was tired if I bathed him he'd be wired, so I bathed him earlier in the day/morning. You could try a different bed time routine to help wind down.

But also brace yourself for the 4 month sleep regression 😬

Mine was in bed 7pm at that age. Was In bed after a feed at 7 from around 3/4weeks

But I'm a mn and I like routine and she slept 7/7 by 17w

She still loves her sleep now at almost 7

The blissful baby expert has a book and it gives you a rough routine for babies going up in ages and when it changes. Really helpful and timings work so well as when a baby is over tired it can really effect sleep. It's on Amazon really recommend.