Bedtime?

[Weezie85]

Can you help? 9 week old dd goes to bed 9.30-10pm. Routine starts at 9pm. She gets up at 3-4am then up for the day 6-7am. She gets very overtired at 7pm as she won't nap after 5pm. DH doesn't want to move bedtime as he is afraid she will wake more often. She is breastfed. I think she will wake when we go to bed anyway and could have her food then. When did you start bedtime for your babies and what time was it? Thanks

put her to bed at 7pm. There's no point having a grouchy two hours. Likelihood is that you can feed her (maybe a very sleepy dream feed, low light, minimal moving around) at 10-11pm and then just have the one wake-up. Your DP is being unrealistic to hope for one or less wake-ups at this point and should be aware that many many babies are waking several times at that age. By about 9 weeks DS was into a sort of pattern of feed at six, bath then bed at 7. DD followed suit once she got over her colic which kept her up screaming between 7-9

Thanks. I dont mind the idea of getting up a few more times as I think it would be better than the 2 hours of her being over tired. I know its easy for me to say though as I dont have to go to work.

At that age i was BFing DS on demand so the 'bedtime' moved accordingly depending on when a feed co-incided with a rough bedtime. So, say he was feeding every two/ three hours and had a feed at 4pm, then we'd co-ordinate bedtime to begin at 6pm for DS to go to sleep around 7pm. If he fed at 5pm, we'd move it to 8pm. At that age it's hard because they're not really yet feeding in a regular pattern as such. So some days it's 7pm and some days it's more like 9.30. Some people believe in a dream feed at the rough time you go to bed - i.e. put your LO down for their bedtime at between 7 and 9 and then feeding the baby again at 11pm ish almost in their sleep. This never worked for us as DS was a law unto himself but many swear by it. We preferred to just go with what DS needed and when, despite some inconvenient midnight/ 1am feeds. Tbh i don't think your DH need worry about her waking more often - you're BFing anyway, so it should be on demand and sleep is not a linear progression in babies - more like peaks and troughs! They will naturally go through periods of regular waking coinciding with growth spurts etc. At that age they'll take whatever sleep they need, whenever they need it, so you're best just getting them into the rough idea that night is a quiet time for sleeping, day is for being awake more often. And i wouldn't stress it too much - patterns will eventually emerge. Fwiw, DS began 'sleeping through' (i.e. 12 hours) around 7.5 months. Now, at 20 mo he sleeps 7.30/8pm till 7.30/8am and he naturally fell into that as he got older. He also still has 2-3 hours naptime per day and is an excellent sleeper on the whole. I put this down to us listening to his natural rhythms and guiding him more when the time felt right.

HTH

Agree with trixie - my 3mo DC2 recently decided on a 7pm bedtime! Nowt to do with me
He sleeps for 4-5 hours before needing his first night feed (ebf)

I would put her to bed at 7pm when she is starting to get tired but before she is getting overtired and grumpy.

I think its a common misconception to try to keep her up in the hope she will sleep through longer....the saying goes, the more a baby sleeps the more a baby sleeps!

My DD2 also started sleeping through the nght by around 10 weeks (from 7 till 7) so you may find you are not too far away from this point (fingers crossed)

Thanks guys. She is fed on demand but sleeps well at night, think she takes after daddy as he likes his sleep. I just hate seeing her so worked up when she is clearly just tired. Will start the routine at 7pm. I think she will settle into it eventually and I really dont mind the night feeds as she still does the drunken baby look. Haha.