"putting them down for the night" - a sleep question

mrs.cb

My twins are on a 3 hour cycle (thanks to the NICU!) of eating and sleeping.  They wake religiously every three hours and then, fall asleep immediately afterwards (they are just now at term).  I'm interested in setting up good sleep habits, so when people say they put their babies "down for the night," how would this be diffierent from the other times I put them to sleep after a feeding?

 

TIA!

MaygenDL0ve

Have you read "Babywise"?  Some good tips in there.  I've been trying a "ritual", and limit "wake time" at night, keep lights low and stay hushed, but not sure if it's doing anything.  They wake up screaming at night to eat just as loud as during the day.  

Haven1

Our pedi told us it was never too early to start a bedtime routine.  Even if it's just for your benefit.

From 0-12 weeks, they took naps in the (bright/noisy) living room and slept in their cribs at night.  We also got a fan for the floor in the nursery.  We like to think that helped signal them it was sleep time.  

OrangeSmoke

We didn't start a "routine" until they were about a month old and we transitioned them to the crib.  It took them about a month to "get it".

Between 7 and 7:30 each night, we would bathe them, put them in pajamas and sleep sacks or swaddles (we've since de-swaddled), give them a bottle and rock them to sleep with the sound machine and a low lamp on.  If they got up in three hours, we would feed and then rock to sleep.  No talking, no laughing, no activity.  It didn't seem to work at first but after a few weeks, they started to sleep longer stretches.

amanda31H

MaygenDL0ve:

Have you read "Babywise"?  Some good tips in there.  I've been trying a "ritual", and limit "wake time" at night, keep lights low and stay hushed, but not sure if it's doing anything.  They wake up screaming at night to eat just as loud as during the day.  

This.  It does do something...don't worry!!  We also have a humidifier that makes white noise that we run at night.

Temp159135562506975

we followed babywise and our boys (all 3 actually) were STTN at 8 weeks.

We did a 3-hour routine of sleep/eat/play... the play time is very limited early on - it's just a little bit of awake time, really... then they fall back to sleep pretty fast- but the main thing is that you don't want the feeding to be what they NEED to fall asleep... ie) babies who need to nurse to fall asleep- you don't want that b/c then it's a crutch they need --- you want them to learn how to fall asleep on their own by putting them down, drowsy but awake.

again, early on, they will just pass out pretty fast after eating anyway- but that will change fast.... then you can have some play time- singing to them, talking, etc... and then start to notice their sleepy signs- time to swaddle up and put down for a nap (we did naps in the swing and bouncy seat a lot early on... not in cribs until around 6mo).

at night it was different in that we fed them- then went upstairs, changed into PJs, lights low, turned on white noise machine... sing a song- and put down into crib/bassinet.

monkski

I always wondered this same thing. What's 'bedtime" when they are having numerous ones?! We never really did anything different and are JUST starting to. Now they actually do have a distinct bedtime and so we dim the lights and I nurse them, then we cuddle with them a bit and put them down. We want to start reading more to them at night, but they have been so easy that they just want to go to bed before we even get a chance to.