Confusion over bedtime routines

[wurlywoo]

Apologies if this has been brought up numerous times but am tearing my hair out..if there are previous threads similar please let me have links etc!!
My dd is almost 8 wks old, feeding during the day is fairly routine every 3-4 hrs or whenever she wants it.

However come the night time I havent a clue what to do- because she has a feed at 5.30-6ish I feed her then if she falls asleep I wake her by nappy off and stretch and a bath at 9.30 to have a feed at 10 ish. then she wakes usually at 3.30 -4am for a feed goes back to sleep till 6.30 7 ish

I did start bathing her at 6.30-7 and then feed and then to bed as in moses basket but then got confused as to whether to wake her or let her wake herself for the final feed.. I tried once to dream feed her at 10.30-11pm but then she only slept for 2-3 hrs.

Any suggestions would be welcome, I am trying desperately to get a feed in at 10.30 11 without dream feeding as it doesnt seem to work.. basically I am trying to do a consistent bedtime routine but so far every night has been different apart from the fact that I have given her a bath every night..

Thank you!

With ds, i used to bathe him as you have at 6.30 ish, then feed then bed. I didn't dream feed him as it never worked and would often wake more ffrequently in the night!? I just let him feed whenever, even though i am a routine kinda gal and it seemed to work. There was a period where he was waking about an hour after i nodded off, but gradually it got later and later then disappeared around 6/7 mths. 8wks is still very young- sounds like you and baby are doing really well at working towards a routine which will suit you both.

I would probably just do bath before first night time feed at say 6-6.30pm if you want to get into a 'normal' bedtime routine. If you don't want to dream feed you will probably just have to wait for her to wake naturally for her next feed which should be about 10/11pm but at 8wks it can be very variable and it ounds like she is doing amazingly anyway to be only waking once at 3/4am!

Think I am getting too bogged down with it this is my first so want to try and do the right thing.

Just out of interest when you bathed your ds feed and bed what happened then did you let them wake for a feed or properly wake them up with nappy off etc this is what is getting me.. I think if I got a proper feed in at 10.30 11 she would prob sleep thru till 5 with the eventuality of her going longer than that. Thanks btw nice to get someone elses view.

8wks is a bit early to be worrying re 'consistent bedtome routines' IMO - we just did pyjamas at 7pm and apart from that went with the flow and fed her on demand.

only one feed in the night seems good going!

Soph28, think you are right I am expecting alot to be fair, at least I have given her a bath every night regardless of time then A feed which is 1oz more than the others then straight to bed without talking, this has varied from 9-10pm I usually put her in the moses basket sleepy (apparently this is bad?!) she has a musical thing and then she takes approx 30 mins to get to sleep.

With my ds I used to try to wake him for a feed at 10.30pm but he would often sleep through a nappy change and whole sleepsuit change. He wouldn't dream feed cos he was too deeply asleep. The milk would just run out of his mouth! So I had to leave it until he just woke up.

With dd, she would always wake up naturally at about 11pm so we would feed her then.

Dream feeding has never worked for me because they are either too sleepy or not hungry enough for a full feed so then wake up 1-2 hours later.

Mrs Badger.. you are totally right it is too early however, as I am bottle feeding I do know of ppl getting their babies to sleep thru from this time. I am attempting to make things a bit eassier for when I go back to work in 6 wks time!!

Thanks for your input!

wurly, I was completely nuerotic this time last year re routines! You sound like yo uare doing really, really well. Let her wake when she's hungry for now. It'll probably settle into a similar time slot and you'll be able to make your routine around that. If she's sleeping this well now, you will probably be enjoying the 7-7 time off by 6 mths!

wurly, rether peoples' babies - other people exaggerate how "good" their babies are!

Thats what my dd did when I tried dream feeding her she woke about 2 hrs later altho that was about 3 wks ago so she was very very young. Think I will do what I did last night give her a bath and a bottle as late as I can then begin bathing her earlier from tomorrow.

Nickytwotimes, thanks for that,had a friends partner bragging they had their breastfed baby sleeping through at 6 wks?!?!?! hmm I was a bit sceptical given when I was breastfeeding she would feed about 3-4 times in night and after a c - section I was ready to jump off a cliff. Made a smart move moving to bottle altho felt guilty!

It sounds as though you are doing very well.

I think 8 week olds are still very unpredictable - in a couple of months you will have a completely different baby, so don't stress too much about doing the wrong thing. Some books imply that if you don't follow a method exactly you will be in complete chaos, however this really isn't the case.