How to improve baby's sleep?

[Deleted]

Dd is 7 weeks. She is not a horrible sleeper but not a great one either. She sleeps so well during the day, 3-4 hours at a time, and is starting to wake up more at night (every 2-3 hours). I don't think she's that hungry because she doesn't eat much motn and goes down pretty easy after feedings. I am also trying to have a bedtime routine, where I change her diaper, feed her, lights off, swaddle, white noise, etc, but she won't go down until 12 midnight. I start this process around 9-10 pm and am so exhausted by midnight. Also, dd doesn't have her longest stretch first. She usually does 3 hours, 2 hours, and then 3-4 hours. What else can I do to help her stay more awake during the day and sleep earlier and deeper at night? Is there a book or article I can read?

Also, sometimes she cries and I try to comfort her and carry her but she would rather lay there on her swing or on the boppy staring out the window or at the ceiling fan. Does my kid hate me or what? It hurts my feelings!

[Velar Fricative]

I'm sorry! DD had a horribly late bedtime until about 2 months. It would sometimes take 4 hours to try and get her to sleep. I'm still jealous of anyone who was able to get a decent bedtime routine going during the newborn stage because I would have killed to be able to get even just 2 hours of sleep at a time if she had gone down at a reasonable hour (she would sleep a decent stretch, it's just actually going to bed that was so so hard).

This might suck to hear but honestly, it was like a switch turned on around 2 months and DD realized she could go to sleep before 11:00 pm lol. But I think one mistake I did make is that if she wasn't going to bed until midnight (that was a good night), I figured to get her asleep at a decent hour, I should start the bedtime routine at 8:00. But of course, then it took hours to get her asleep because she just wasn't ready by then when I should have just been trying to move her bedtime up gradually, 15-30 or so minutes at a time.

[ssmjlm]

I would probably start limiting naps during the day to 3 hours max and giving her a lot of time in the daylight.

[Deleted]

Apr 3, 2014 14:52:53 GMT -5 mekiakoo said:

What I did was feed E more often during the day, like every 2-3 hours and give him daylight time then start his bedtime routine at 7 (bath, feed, sleep). He used to finally sleep at 11:30 then it gradually became earlier even though the routine hasn't changed. He just started to sleep earlier on his own.

When did this happen for E?

[catbus]

Ditto mekiakoo and ssmjlm. At that age, I cut off naps at three hours (they very, very rarely went that long, though. I nursed about every two hours throughout the day (though DS chose that) and encouraged the cluster feeding in the evening. It was probably pure coincidence, but I noticed he slept best if he had had seven feedings during the day. They were roughly 7/9/11:30 AM, and 2/4/6/7 PM.

[Deleted]

We're going through this now. I keep him in a lot of daylight when he naps/around noise etc.

I refuse to wake mine. I tried and it's a hot over tired disaster.

Honestly though, they just have to grow into it basically.

Mine is just about 7 weeks as well and I'm already starting to see a bit of a change. Though now it's super early bed time party at 3am. Can't win either way.

[soozy87]

When my kid eats a ton during the day and in the evening he is more apt to sleep better at night. We noticed this at 3 months.

[Deleted]

Goat sacrifice and prayer to dark gods.

You can do everything right. It might work. It might not. DS was a crap sleeper. DD is shaping up to be a pretty good one. It might be my experienced parenting. It might be different inborn personalities.

[Deleted]

Yeah I have always heard to limit daytime sleep to 3 hours at a stretch after 12 weeks. You could start now though. Also first morning sun is really supposed to be good for them to get on a schedule. Hold them near a window or take them outside if it's warm enough right when they wake up.

Sometimes, though babies are just gonna do them. They sleep, eat and wake when they want to. We can try our hardest and sometimes it works and sometimes they laugh behind our backs.

[disappointedkittens]

I am no expert but I read the baby whisperer books and she said that in newborns to limit daytime naps, and if they are sleeping several 3-4 hour stretches they may have day and night confused. I have found that feeding lots during the day helped longer stretches at night as other posters said, and I usually feed at 5, 6 then bath time and 7 then bedtime routine. After reading the books and following her advice I've noticed a huge difference in my baby's sleep, but I can't tell you if that's because of my actions or he just got to an age where his sleep started to consolidate a bit into night time.

[cricketwife]

There are lots of books you can read and I can tell you from experience that they will all give you completely contradict tory advice. Then one day the baby will figure it out on his own. Pray you have a baby who doers this at 3 mos and not 3 yrs.

[everafter07]

Lots of stimulation during the day, lights/noise etc, and dark, quiet nights got DD on track. It takes a while for them to get used to it, it's a waiting game

[Deleted]

Apr 3, 2014 15:09:59 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

Goat sacrifice and prayer to dark gods.

Crap! I used a sheep instead!