What time do you put your baby "down" for the nite?

[Anonymous]

My DD is three months. She will have a late afternoon nap but generally will not go to sleep for a long stretch until 10 pm. Is this normal? We are EBFing and suring the night she will sleep 3-4 hours, feed, go back to sleep and then sleep two more stretches of 2-3 hours with feedings in between. I'm still waiting for the 5-6 hour stretch of sleep and am starting to think that I am doing something wrong. Thanks all.

[Anonymous]

It actually sounds like she is doing pretty good at night with only two wakings? All babies are different, of course, but the sleep experts say that an earlier bedtime (around 7) comes more naturally.
Does she nap well and how many naps does she have and how long? how late is the last nap? Maybe the last nap is too late or you are missing her sleep window?
Just ideas. I'm certainly no expert as my EBF 8 month old still wakes AT LEAST twice per night! Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Try putting her to bed earlier. 7/7:30. Around 3 months we started doing that - and at 5 she still goes to bed at 7:30. It's been amazing and I've had two wonderful sleepers. With our second we made the mistake of not starting the early bedtime soon enough - and she would stay awake until midnight! But then I realized that I needed to start the bedtime routine and stick to the 7 timeframe. They do sleep better in the long run.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

OP, here. Thanks for the responses. PP, I was wondering how long DD slept for when you first started putting her down at 7/7:30. I am definitely going to give it a try but I have a sense that she will probably wake up another 1-2 times between 7pm and 10pm. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, here. Thanks for the responses. PP, I was wondering how long DD slept for when you first started putting her down at 7/7:30. I am definitely going to give it a try but I have a sense that she will probably wake up another 1-2 times between 7pm and 10pm. Thanks!

I am not the PP, but I recall that with our son, we started putting him to bed earlier and earlier (8:30, 8, finally 7:30), and amazingly, he slept better the earlier it was. I read somewhere (perhaps on these boards) that counterintuitively, a baby would sleep later if you put him/her to bed earlier, and it worked for us. Try it and see how it goes. Our son was supplemented with formula, so I expect an EBF baby would be different, but the first time he "slept through the night," which was 9 p.m. to about 5 a.m., he was 2 months old and had spent most of the day in the carseat on our way to Va. Beach. I was terrified that he'd be up all night because he'd slept so much, and instead got the best sleep (him and us) since he was born.

He is 15 months now and goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00, and usually sleeps until 6 or so.

[Anonymous]

I know everyone says that putting babies to bed earlier will result in more/better sleep, but that hasn't been the case with my DD. However, keeping her up late doesn't help either. At any rate, to answer your question, 3 mos is around the time when DD (now 8 mos) began to let us know she required an earlier bedtime. We had been keeping her up with us until 11 or 12, but she was starting to get cranky being up so late. So we made the switch to an earlier bedtime - around 8 pm, and it has been a good move. Overall, she gets more sleep and seems happier in the evenings. It took a few weeks for us to get into a good rhythm with the bedtime routine and final nursing, etc. And yes, there were (and sometimes still are) some wakings in that period between when she goes down and her first feeding. For us, making this change did not result in longer stretches of sleep initially, as she still woke up about every 4 hrs to eat. It is only now at 8 mos that she is sustaining those 5+ hour periods of sleep at night, and she still usually wakes up once to feed.

[Anonymous]

I also have a three month old who is EBF. I will say that she has always been a good sleeper (sleeping about 4 or so hours at night as soon as she got home from the hospital), but she started really sleeping through (8 or so hours) when she started stretching the time between daytime feedings. She now eats every 3.5-4 hours and usually goes "down" around 7:30 or 8:00 and wakes around 4:30 or 5:00 to eat (sometimes a little earlier, sometimes later but usually no earlier than 3:30). Could be coincidental, but it seems that the sleep improved with more time between daytime eating. I do also notice that she sleeps better when she gets a couple of good (around 2 hour) naps during the day.

[Anonymous]

At around three months, our DS was going to bed around 9:30-10, sleeping until 3, feeding and then sleeping until 6. He gradually started falling asleep earlier and earlier, so we scooched bedtime back - by 4 months it was usually 8:30/ 9 and the 3am feeding was gone, so he'd sleep 9-6. He's 9 months now, and for the last couple months we've been putting him down between 7:30-8:30 and he wakes up between 6:45 and 7:30. One day last week I had to wake HIM up at 8:30 am so we could get to daycare/work - so take heart, it WILL get better!

[Anonymous]

Our DD first started "sleeping through the night" at about 4 months when she would sleep from about 9:30 or 10 until 5 in the morning. She now (at 9 months) sleeps from 6:30pm to 6am most nights. So I don't think 10:00 is necessarily a strange bedtime for a 3-month old, and it WILL get better.

[Anonymous]

I also like the info in Weissbluth's "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." He says earlier bedtime often develops around weeks 7-8--it's not true for 20% of babies, but he still recommends to try soothing to sleep an hour earlier.

[Anonymous]

We did not find that the earlier bedtime worked. Your baby sounds normal. We enjoyed the time with the baby up a little later. She was pretty easy to be with and that time is so brief! My baby woke 2 to 3 times a night through at least 6 or 7 months and then worked to 1 to 2 times per night until around 11 months, then 1 time through around 13 months. My point is to hang in there! It DOES get better! Go with your gut on sleeping!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, here. Thanks for the responses. PP, I was wondering how long DD slept for when you first started putting her down at 7/7:30. I am definitely going to give it a try but I have a sense that she will probably wake up another 1-2 times between 7pm and 10pm. Thanks!

At 12 weeks (and 16 weeks w/ our second) she was sleeping 7:30-1/2am. Feeding then sleeping again until 8am. I formula-fed, btw. One thing I did do, was going in around midnight (when she first woke up) and just rubbed her back and walked out (or my husband did). She ended up going back to sleep and dropped her midnight feeding around 14 weeks! Consistency is a key. Establish a bedtime routine - have your husband pick up the leg-work in the middle of th enight (b/c they WANT mommy) and just figure out what works for your baby.

Good luck - and DO trust your instincts. I don't always agree with my friends instincts, but we are all good mommy's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try putting her to bed earlier. 7/7:30. Around 3 months we started doing that - and at 5 she still goes to bed at 7:30. It's been amazing and I've had two wonderful sleepers. With our second we made the mistake of not starting the early bedtime soon enough - and she would stay awake until midnight! But then I realized that I needed to start the bedtime routine and stick to the 7 timeframe. They do sleep better in the long run.

Good luck.

I'm not the OP, but have a similar problem. My DD is just over 2 months and will not go to bed before 11pm. I try to put her down earlier, but she just cries and cries (and I don't have the heart to let her cry it out that young). How did you put your kids to bed earlier than their natural clock? Did you let them CIO or is there some other method that you used?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try putting her to bed earlier. 7/7:30. Around 3 months we started doing that - and at 5 she still goes to bed at 7:30. It's been amazing and I've had two wonderful sleepers. With our second we made the mistake of not starting the early bedtime soon enough - and she would stay awake until midnight! But then I realized that I needed to start the bedtime routine and stick to the 7 timeframe. They do sleep better in the long run.

Good luck.

I'm not the OP, but have a similar problem. My DD is just over 2 months and will not go to bed before 11pm. I try to put her down earlier, but she just cries and cries (and I don't have the heart to let her cry it out that young). How did you put your kids to bed earlier than their natural clock? Did you let them CIO or is there some other method that you used?

We pretty much went by the "Baby Whisperer" by Tracey Hogg. http://www.babywhisperer.com/babywhisperer.html
I would definitely read it, if only to get some ideas. WE started a very strict bedtime routine (dinner, bath, book, bottle, bed). I didn't allow them to go to sleep on the nighttime bottle, by the way. Starting that first night of the routine I put her in bed. Yea, they will fight it. I just went back in again and again, but didn't pick her up. It took about three LONG nights, but it was so worth it. Read the book - you'll get a better idea of why this works. When babies KNOW what is supposed to happen next it's so much easier. She also talks about having a routine during the day. Please note, it's not a schedule, it's a routine. She explains it in the book beautifully...the difference, I mean. I"m sorry, I'm in a rush but wanted to give you the book reference.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

My son is almost 3 months and I don't put him down until around 10/11 each night. He usually sleeps for 1 stretch of around 6 hours and then another shorter stretch (2-3 hours). I actually prefer to put him to sleep late so that his six hour stretch coincides with my sleep. I assume that as he starts sleeping for longer stretches at night, we will gradually make bedtime earlier.

I hope, however, that he won't need to go to sleep as early as 6:30 or 7! That seems hard on working parents...we would have so little time with him when he is awake.