Sleep questions

zombiemommy

So we are blessed with good sleepers, and I'm wondering what the next step should be. Right now the boys sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night. We usually put them down between 10:30 and 11:30pm after their sixth feeding, and they sleep until 6-8am.

We need to do a couple of things, and I'm wondering on order/when we should start them...

1. Moving them from RnP to Crib: I tested this a couple of nights ago with one of the boys and he slept 7+ hours in the crib without any crying. Not sure if it was a fluke.
2. Moving from SwaddleMe wraps to SleepSacks: I'm worried that the swaddles are the only reason they STTN. The night I started using them at 5.5 weeks was the first night that they STTN, and I'd hate to undo this, but obviously the swaddles need to go soon.
3. Moving up bedtime: Ideally I'd like to see the boys sleep from 7 or 8 pm until 6 to 8 am, but I'm not sure how/when to make that transition. Start putting them down at that time, feed them when they inevitably wake up at 4am, and put them back down?

Any experience/advice would be welcome. I go back to work in 3 weeks, so I want to make some of these tough transitions before I go back, and then I have a week off for spring break in 6 weeks during which I can do more sleep experimentation.

erinruns

Keep swaddling until it isn't safe anymore.  No need to break that this early.

With  my girls, I slowly moved up their bedtime as they drank more in each bottle.  They needed to do some cluster feeding at first, but just getting them to bed by 9pm made such a difference in my evenings.  In order to do that, you need to make sure they are getting all of their ounces during daytime hours.  I did this slowly, and as they could eat more ounces at a time, we would drop a bottle and move up bedtime.  Then again, I know plenty of moms who put their kids down at 7:30 from the beginning and just went with that.  Whatever works for you! 

brookith

My boys loved to be swaddled, and I honestly thought they would never sleep without them! They used them until almost 6 months, then they started to want to move around more. What worked for us was leaving one arm out of the swaddle at a time. It was a slow process, but it was very smooth and did not interrupt their sleep. 

My boys went to bed super late for awhile (10-11pm), but we slowly moved the time up by 15 minutes every few days and now they are asleep by 8pm most days. It is so nice to have some quiet time in the evenings again! They do not STTN, usually up 1 or 2 times to nurse still. We waited until 6.5 months to put them in their cribs, so they are still getting used to it. 

Good luck! 

babycasalins

I'm not sure what RnP is so I can't offer any insight on this..

My twins hated swaddling so point two is a bust also...

With my girls some cluster feeding and nice warm bath worked for bedtime. My girls go down anywhere between 730pm-9pm (depends on what's going on that night and how they napped during the day) they wake up around 530a-6a and I feed them and they go right back to sleep until about 9-10am. Maybe they are just lazy-but I'm not complaining..

I would try a nice warm bath and offer a nice big bottle, also start putting them down and creating that it's time for bed atmosphere... At first my girls would cry but I would go in and lightly pat them and offer comfort..after a few nights they will start to get the picture...

Good luck!

mirnb

This is still early...keep the swaddles if they like it! We moved our boys from RnP to crib at 3 months and they had no problem transitioning! How we went to an earlier bedtime was starting a nightime routine, bath, bottle, book etc down by 8 then did a dream feed at 11pm...they would usually then sleep till 7!

Ruthie04

1. Around 2 months we moved them from the RnPs to PnPs. We kept the RnPs by our beds, so we could move them if necessary. We tried for several nights before the pediatrician recommended propping one side of the PnP/ crib. Our boys have reflux. After that, they slept just fine.

2. We didn't start trying to break the swaddle until three months. We started with naps only, one arm out. Then two arms out, and finally the sleep sack. Once we broke the swaddle for naps, we started breaking the night swaddle. Same thing (one arm, two arms, sleep sack). The only thing we did different at night was start swaddled, then move to one arm out after the MOTN feed. Then, we would start with one arm and move to two arms after the MOTN feed. Once they did well with that, we stayed with two arms out and left them like that for about a week before introducing the sleep sack. They haven't had any issues and have been sleeping better since they are doing their very best to flip to their bellies at night.

3. We moved up bedtime around two months. We just kept moving it up in 15 minute increments without any trouble. They now get their last bottle between 6:30-7pm, wash faces/ baths, story time, and put them down awake. They started with waking around 2 am and gradually progressed until about 4am. Sometimes they wake up, sometimes they STTN. They slept from 7:30-6:30 last night, so it's working well for now!