9 week old sleep advice...

[Mae34]

Hello wise MNetters - looking for some help/ possible ways of helping my DD (just 9 weeks) get into a better sleep pattern. Currently she sleeps in the day in a bedside crib quite happily and sometimes self settles but at night I have always had her in our bed to maximise everyones sleep! She has just about got into a pattern of about 6 hours of naps in the day (hour or so in morning 3-4 in afternoon) but is awake all evening and doesnt fall asleep til midnight by which time I am shattered! She then does til 9 am ish with one or two feeds (which I tend to do lying down and suspect she, like me, falls asleep, perhaps before shes properly full).

Whilst this is all ok and I am managing (tho sad that DH is stuck on the sofa bed!) I would love to,

1. Have her in her crib for the first bit of the night at least
2. Have her in bed earlier in the evening and wake up earlier (I just dont need to be in bed at 9 am and would love some evening back!)

Any tips/possible ways to achieve this? Btw she is EBF and I am guilty of feeding her to sleep at 12 (so tired at this point!)...Will she just start sleeping more in the evening and less in the day herself at some point? Thought about waking her earlier but its v hard to keep her awake! (and seems mean)

Sorry for long post - ideas gratefully received! :)

x

She'll probably keep shifting and wont quite get to where you want until around 12 weeks (that's when my DS worked day from night out properly). In fact her sleeping pattern sounds like my DS!!! In the end he actually needed quite an early bedtime of 6.30pm.

You could take her out to coffee/friends etc when she's napping in the afternoon so you're not forcefully waking her but she's aware of the sun/sounds etc if she happens to stir.

In the mornings at what time you want her to wake, perhaps make sure there's plenty of sun coming in the room and you're all making noises (not deliberately loud of course, just getting ready noises). I used to bring DS downstairs and have him in the living room while we got ready.

Ah thats a good tip - so not actually waking her earlier but gently encouraging it with daytime noise etc...thanks!

Hello there. In our house I'm known as the Maggie Thatcher of sleep, so strongly do I believe that there is a kids bedtime and a grown up bedtime! I have a 9 week old and a 2.5 year old and I like them both in bed by 7pm (DD2 only makes it 6.30, so I can have story time with DD1 which is working out quite well.)I always feel that no matter what has happened during the day, no matter how manic, busy, stressful it's been, I can cope knowing that I'll have a bit of peace by 7pm!

Currently our routine is bath for both girls at 6.00pm ish, DH takes DD1 into her room, dresses her for bed, gets things ready for the following day and starts story time off, whilst I get DD2 ready for bed. I then feed her in relative darkness (irrespective of what time she lasts feeds, I just top her up, then I know she'll comfortably get till 10.30pm and settle her. She goes in her cot, in her own room and nods off after 5-10 mins of 'talking'. (Sometimes she needs a dummy, but less so as she's getting older). For all I don't feed her to sleep, I don't see why that wouldn't work if you chose to do it that way - I used to feed DD1 to sleep all the time - she was just that kind of baby and she just gradually stopped falling asleep as she got older, so I wouldn't worry hun.

She then sleeps until 10.30pm, when I go in, wake her up, change her nappy and feed her again. I do this in semi dark, with no fuss, just lots of cuddles! She'll then go down in her cot (again own room - she's a louder snorer than her dad) and wake at between 3 and 4 for a feed, then back down till 7ish.

For me, I've always found getting a night time routine set in stone works well. For the first months I'm a bit crazy - I allow no flexibility at all!!! But then, it pays real dividends as they get a bit bigger and you can become a bit more flexible; letting them stay up later etc. I've found the rigidity suits my two. DD1 is a doddle at bedtime and quite often takes herself off to bed a bit early if she's tired. I know not everyone agrees though.

As for the daytime, I always think that the better they sleep in the day, the better they sleep at night. My little one tends to sleep an hour morning and afternoon and 2 hours over lunch ish. She can;t stay up more than 2 hours in total before getting over tired, so I try to make sure she naps until (but no later than) 5pm, so that she's tired, but not over tired for a 7pm bedtime.

It takes a bit of working out, and a bit of jiggling, but the house (and me!!) are a bit calmer for it I think. Phew, that was a long one, sorry!!