my 11 week dd goes to bed too early. advice please!

[mazbogs]

i know this doesn't sound like a problem, but i can't get her to stay awake past 5.45pm. consequently am breast feeding around 11.30pm, 3/4am and 6am. she doesn'take long naps in the day unless in car/ pram

Hi there

In my experience (3 children) babies of this age do not stay in a particular stage for long at all! I expect that in 2 weeks time you may be experiencing something completely different

Is the problem that you are very tired? If so, then could you nap at 5.45 for an hour or so and then get up? Or go to bed at 9.30 so you get a couple of hours before the 11.30 feed. I have also myself a couple of times, and know of friends who have driven to a park (to get the baby to sleep) and then napped in the car.

You may pick up that I am pro-napping! It is the only way I have survived 3 very bad sleepers! All of mine, BTW, went through a stage of going to sleep very early but it did pass quickly.

Good luck!
Becky

thanks rebecca. i do tend to get to bed 8.30 ish, and dd does tend to go straight back to sleep after feeds ( so feeling quite lucky in that respect) apart from 6 am when we have a bit of a battle; if we get upand start the day, she just gets cranky and goes back to sleep til 8am, or i let her cry for 15mins at 6am and she goes back to sleep until 7.30. i just thought if i could shift her bedtime forward 1 hour we wouldn't have the 6 am battle! but nice to be reassured that this won't last, thanks again for your advice.

agree with Rebecca - phases good and bad rarely last for very long - ime at least for the first year or so - my ds changes constantly - just as you get used to one lot of timings and organise a course of outings/activities he changes!

My ds was getting up at 5am ish, so what I do now as I don't want to start his day until 6.30am is that I quickly change his nappy, give a small amount of formula about 2-3 oz (he is just 5 months), put him back in bed and put a toy or mobile on and leave him. He then talks away for 10 min and goes back to sleep. I then generally wake him about 6.30am. He has a nap at about 8.30am (45 mins) in his pram, he goes back to sleep at 11.45 ish for 2 hours in pram. Then I give him a little sleep in afternoon at about 3.45pm for 15-20 mins and he will last through until 6pm when we begin his bedtime routine of story, bath, bottle and bed. I found that if I didn't put baby back to bed day was very long and he would get very tired and go to bed about 5pm ish. If I give him a small sleep in the afternoon it allows him to last until bedtime. You can obviously have a later day from 7am-7pm. Just put the baby back after you have fed until you want to get the baby up. Only recently stopped bf in the night and give a bottle of exp or formula now. I have used GF sleep method, but slightly adapted as I wanted baby to go to bed by 6.30pm and no later.

I know a lot of people DETEST the Gina Ford CLBB routine, HOWEVER, it IS adaptable to suit your own needs! After reading the book, I abhorred the thought of putting my DD thru such a regimented routine, BUT, I soon realised that I needed a more structured day so that both Charlotte and I could work it to ensure that we made the best of our time together! I started with the feeding routine (at 6 weeks - which clicked immediately) and then moved onto the sleeping routine (at about 12 weeks) which took a few days to get into but, now works to a treat. We now know exactly where we are, Charlotte has dedicated feed and nap times. I use nap times to either sleep, catch up with housework, catch up with friends or - best of all - read a book!!!! It really is worth a giving it a whirl, just remeber, you adapt it to suit YOU and YOUR baby's requirements - you do not have to follow it to the letter!

Good Luck x x

DD (8 months) still goes to bed any time between 5.30 and 6pm .. so what? .. she gets up in the morning at 7.30am to 8am .. and occasionally sleeps through to 8.30

don't worry about it .. sounds like she's doing well atm

Consequently, DD sleeps 0900 - 0945 (ish), 1200 - 1415 (ish) and 7pm - 7am (ish)!

Ish = give or take half and hour either side of time given and up to 20 minutes more or less!

Feeds = 0700, 1130, 1430, 1815! (DD is 5 Mths and on 3 solid meals a day).

thanks everyone. we seem to have sorted it,by inducing a late pm nap by walking out with pram or car excursion, she will go down a bit later, and sleep a bit longer.still doing 3 night feeds somenights though;10, 1.30 and 5.30, so am going to give dream feeding a go.