Feeling the pressure...

[lalalallalala]

Hi, I have an 8 week old DD..

The time she settles in her next to me crib varies each night from 8.30-midnight. I have to ensure she's in a deep sleep before putting her in, and then I go to bed next to her. She then wakes up 2-3 times a night to feed/for boob comfort. Tends to be awake for the day between 7-8am.

I'm feeling pressure that she should now have a fixed bedtime (of around 7) and start sleeping through with a dream feed. I just don't know how to get her to sleep earlier as she seems wide awake in the evenings, and often sleeps so lightly she wakes up almost as soon as I've put her down.

Any advice appreciated!

Far too young! Your current situation is entirely normal for that age. We didn't transition to a 7pm
bedtime until at least four months and that was baby led. As for sleeping through, my DD is 9mo and still waking most nights for a feed and that's perfectly normal. Tiny babies are meant to wake up frequently.

I agree with PP, she’s too young at this age and your current situation is normal. I was feeling the same as you at the time. A little bedtime routine during the evening wouldn’t hurt (Bath, change, song, for example) but certainly don’t feel any pressure to get her off to sleep for a ‘set’ time. Up until 4 months of age DS’s bedtime was 9/10pm, this has gradually got earlier and now at 7.5 months old he goes to bed at 7:30pm. This naturally got earlier on its own as DS started dropping naps and finding more of a routine.

8 weeks is so teeny tiny! Sounds like she's sleeping brilliantly for a baby who until recently only knew life inside the womb and probably still wants to be there. My daughter didn't start going to bed at 7pm until she was 16 weeks, and that was entirely baby-led. Some nights it's 6.30pm. (I'm hoping we can push her back to 7.30 when I go back to work, but mostly I'm just going with what she needs.)

A bedtime routine/sequence does help – bath, story, sleeping bag, song, whatever – but it's tricky at this age because naps are still frequent and disorganised, and cluster feeding is still a thing.

Keep going! Where are you feeling the pressure from? If it's books, burn them.

It's a mixture of books, family and forum posters!
Thanks everyone, it makes me feel a bit better

Sounds so similar to mine. She's 14 weeks now and bedtime has only started to get earlier in the last couple of weeks. She's started going down between 6:30-7, doesn't always settle straight away, sometimes she will still wake a couple more times within the hour for more feeds. But it's a big improvement on what it was which was wide awake and wanting to party until 10ish!

Feel like I'm jinxing typing this... she'll probably be back to being a disaster tomorrow! But agree with pp, think the worst thing I did has been read the likes of Lucy Wolfe, little ones etc. I think they have some good advice for older babies but at this age I'm increasingly coming to realise we just have to go with the flow.

My DD is 5 months & we still dont have a set bedtime! Its between 8-9pm and baby led. I cant make her sleep if she isnt tired so dont worry