How do I get on a schedule?

tistampsup · May 2011

I'm pleading ladies. I need help. Jake's still not sleeping through the night. We're barely getting to 3 hours. Jake's probably over 12lbs now, and he eats between 4-5ozs a feeding. How do I do this?

eturp · May 2011

Hey Lady! You're alive!! We were starting to wonder. Where is Jake sleeping? DS was almost STTN in his RNP in our room and I started to get paranoid about him getting a flat head from still being in that thing so we moved him into his crib last week and I am overjoyed to say that he is now sleeping on average from 8:30/9 until 6 the next morning! If your LO isn't in his crib yet, maybe it's time??

tistampsup · May 2011

Barely alive! LOL

He's in the crib now. He's always been in his nursery, but mainly in the RnP. I've been putting him in the crib now for the past 3 weeks maybe?? DH on the other hand slacked off more, so I had to put my foot down.

I envy you! Jake has NEVER slept that long! I think I'm going to have a melt down.

tistampsup · May 2011

BTW Eturp...we have the same bouncer. LOL

eturp · May 2011

Hmmm...do you swaddle? This was something that also made a difference for us. We weren't swaddling because DS is a baby on the move but we revisited the swaddle with this and it has added a good 1 or 2 hours to his sleep time since the day we starting using it. Just another idea, hang in there!

tistampsup · May 2011

I just swaddle him for his nap, and that seemed to do the trick. We'll go back to this and give it a try.

Thanks!

Spin313 · May 2011

Are you talking about a daily routine type schedule, or just nighttime sleep? I would highly recommend keeping a journal/record of your DS's sleeping and eating pattern for three days. Then try to get daytime naps around the same times each day. This often helps with nighttime sleep.

sweetpea2718 · May 2011

You're not alone! We're only getting 3 hours, sometimes 4 max. it seems like he has regressed since sleeping in the pnp in our room. He's been in his crib for 5 weeks now. We swaddle, we have a night time routine, I've tried giving a bottle of BM instead of just BFing, Nope, nothing. We got 4 hours our of him when we decided to just let him hang out with us when he fell asleep at 8:00. He slept right through his usual 10:30 feeding. Ugh!

lyzabeth · May 2011

We've found that for nighttime, it helps to have E eat consistently every three hours and take at LEAST three good naps a day (1hr or more). We loosely follow the Eat, Play, Sleep model. And the more she eats during the day (and the better she naps) the better she sleeps at night. I don't let her sleep through a feeding during the day. Because the more full she is during the day, the better she sleeps at night.

E isn't STTN, yet. But she does go down at 9pm, sleep until 2:30 or 3 and then wakes up 5:30 or 6, pretty consistently.

Of course, the schedule is a guideline. We don't worship it. Sometimes she gets off schedule, because she's growing or we go places and she gets distracted during a feeding. But usually, I can get her back on track by the evening. The key for us is those naps.

That's just what we do. It works for us. But I frankly think it works because of LO and not because we're so great with our almighty schedule. But reading Happiest Baby On The Block really helped me. Good luck!!

stacyslo · May 2011

Our LO started STTN about 3 weeks ago. What really made a difference for us was eat, bath, swaddle, bedtime. He goes down between 8-9 pm and sleepsuntil 3-5 am. Then he's up! Today has been crazy though, because he slept 8 pm - 5 am with a couple waking moments to be rocked back to sleep and now he hasn't napped at all today! Anyway, stick with a routine at night and that will help. Also, when I eliminated the middle of the night feeding and he started eating more frequently during the day, he started to sleep through the night. GL!

missmiss307 · May 2011

I highly recommend reading one of the Baby Whisperer's books if you haven't already. I read The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems, and it's helped us get into a better daytime routine, plus Noah (7 weeks) has slept through the night for the past three nights. Hope you find something that works for you!

hispenguin · May 2011

I have been trying to follow the EASY routine set out in the Sleep Whisperer book the pp mentioned. It has really helped us, especially with getting DD down to sleep earlier in the evening so DH and I have some time to ourselves.