7 week old - advice needed

[lollmartin69]

Hi there, I have a 7 week old son, my first. I know that many children 'go to bed' at 7 or 8pm but I don't know how to get my baby to sleep at that time. Does anyone have any advice? At the moment he naps well in the daytime - good 1.5-2.5 hour naps three or four times a day, but is wakeful and unpredictable in the evening i.e. 8/9/10pm. I always give him a bottle at 11pm and he will sleep through until around 4am, I breast feed, then he goes back to sleep (say 4.20/4.30) until around 6am-ish.. So I can predict the night-time sleeps and the day times too, but it's the evening part that is confusing me. I give him a bath at 7.30pm but he's awake after that and not sleepy and so I can't just put him down as he will cry as not interested.. is this normal at this stage? How do I turn 8pm into 'bed time' and get him to sleep until the 'dream feed' at 11pm?

Give it time. I have 3 and always took their lead and didn't force a routine. I found by about 12 wks they were ready to go to bed at around 7/8pm (because their naps in the day had evolved so they were sleepy around that time)
7wks is still really little, enjoy the cuddles!

Very normal at this age. I think we started with more of a bath, pjs, bed type routine at around 12 weeks. As they are more wakeful in the day, nights become easier. Don't stress for now!!

Very normal .
8pm became dd bedtime at 6 months and now at 11 months it's 6-7 depending on how tired . Wakes at 7 with a 1-1.5 hour nap around 12

He still has to be always in a room with an adult or older siblings so don't stress about getting home down to sleep. Sleeping from 11 to 4 at 6 weeks is amazing. I think my DD was about 6 months before she manage that. They can't learn routine until 4 months.

You are doing a great job.

We've still haven't got to the kind of bedtime I read about here. DD is 18 weeks and has always just come up to bed with us at around 10 (ish). Her daytime naps are sort of all over the place, although she does get plenty of daytime sleep. Her night sleeping is fantastic so I've never wanted to risk changing things. Evenings are for cluster feeds and cuddles! I'll worry about early bedtime when we start weaning!

thanks everyone, v reassuring! It's a minefield out there, so much conflicting information.. he's also quite colicky which means more wakeful (and often crying) at night.. a whole other ball game..