A couple random questions. Advice needed.

IA2TXGirl

First, DS is just shy of 8 weeks and is still awake every two hours or so feeding and has no "bedtime" at all to speak of. Am I alone in this? If so, any tips on how to get him to sleep longer? He is currently formula fed and sleeps in various places: RNP, PNP, and between the hours of 2am and 6am, usually with me in a recliner (only way he will sleep during that time).

Second, I am set to go back to full time work in two weeks and in my household I will have the responsibility for getting DD (2 1/2 yo) and DS off to daycare on my way to work. I can't even fathom how I am going to get all of us ready and out the door. What works for you guys?

Thanks in advance!

jenn43

My LO is 4.5 months, and it wasn't until about month three that he really developed a bedtime.  It sucks, but he'll grow out of it in time.   I only have one child to get ready in the morning, but things that helped for us:

-the first couple of weeks I wrote out a morning schedule (e.g. Wake up at 5:30.  Breastfeed 5:30-6:15.  Pump 6:15-6:45) so that I had time to get everything done.  It helped us fall into a routine.

-I made a list of tasks that needed to get done in the morning and at night so DH and I could coordinate.  So for example he walks and feeds the dog while I nurse LO in the morning.  I load the dishwasher and run it after work so he can unload it before bed.

-I pack lunches the night before.  If we were really pressed for time I would probably lay out clothes the night before as well

- I restock the diaper bag right when we get home from DC. I also repack my pump parts at night after washing them

-I have a checklist on the fridge to make sure I don't forget anything in the morning.  I have another checklist at work for the evening.

missilini

DD is 9 weeks old and she has had a bedtime routine for about a month now. Between 9:00-9:30 we start. She gets a bath every other night then we do lotion and massage, jammies, swaddle, then bottle while listening to lullabies. I turn off the lights and I use a dim light in the corner while we are doing our routine. I swear the key to her sleeping is putting her in the swaddle me wrap. That way she can't move her arms. She sleeps from about 9:30-10:00pm to 5:00-6:00am then eats and we sleep until about 8:00am and then get on with our day. The day I started her routine I made us stick to it. Now she is used to it and starts getting really cranky about 9:00 so I know it's working for us. For about 2 weeks we didn't do anything to mess it up. Now we occasionally have date night or something else so her schedule gets a little off but she is easy to get back on.
As far as going back to work I have 3 more weeks and I have no idea how we will ever leave the house on time. I like the checklist idea.

kd&cd

As PP said the Swaddle Me is how we get long stretches of sleep. Since DD was about 8 weeks we have been doing bath every other night around 8, pjs at 8/8:30, bed time/last feeding at 9/9:30 and as soon as she closes her eyes (while feeding or after), she goes into her crib and is swaddled. She usually sleeps 9:30/10 - 5/5:30, then again until 8:30/9. I know this works because last night I heard her up twice and found her out of her swaddle both times. Needless to say tonight's swaddle will be tighter! Good luck!

Canofamily1

Keeping the baby on a feeding schedule helps and not doing any in between. During the day my babe wats every 3 hours. She eats , keep her awake for 1 hour if possible then sleep until next feed time. At night we do bath eat routine and I started using the woombie wrap. It's amazing!! She sleeps 8 hours at a time in it. She's now 8 weeks old and has been doing this for about a month now. Good luck

clwheel

DD broke out of her swaddle at first so I gave up. When she was about 5 weeks she had a couple nights of 2 am - 5 am wide awake so I tried the swaddle again and it's worked until now (12w tomorrow). I'm starting to give her one arm for a week or so then two so she will get used to it and we can get out of the swaddle.  I also do a routine. In the swaddle and feed at 9 she's usually asleep within a few minutes and sleeps 9p - 3a, then 330a - 7a.

clwheel

PS - do people do pajamas in the swaddle mes? I've been doing no pjs in there because she is so warm

alanaw121

When DS was that age, he would be up all night. The doctors just said around 3 months is the peak crying and fighting sleep age. It got better around 6 months then worse again at 1.5years because he didn't want to sleep in general. The one thing that did help him sleep was adding a tiny bit of rice cereal to his bottles at night. He had pretty bad reflux so laying flat was causing excess gas and vomiting until we added the cereal.

As for getting ready and out the door, I still haven't fully mastered it. I don't know if any mom really has because there is always the chance of an unexpected poop explosion or vomiting incident as your going out the door. The best you can really do is add up the time it takes you to get yourself and each child ready. Then give yourself a 20 minute cushion on top of that. I found the hardest part was not hitting the snooze button knowing you built in the time cushion