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Babies: 0 - 3 Months
Question about the "witching hour"
So my dd is 5 weeks. I feed on demand so she isn't on any sort of strict schedule but it usually ends up something like this: 3-4 am and every 2-3 hrs after that. She gets naps during the day but usually around 7:30-8 she starts getting fussy. We did start a bedtime routine a few weeks ago where we do lavender bath around 10:30 then eat and she is normally asleep by 11-11:30 and will sleep about 4 sometimes even 5 hrs. Okay so now that i've given her entire daily schedule (sorry) my question is do you think I should push her bedtime back earlier to help with her fussyness or do you think she would just get up more at night if I did that? If so how should I do it and if it's still too early when do you start pushing it back? Phew that was long and I appoligize if it was rambling! TIA!
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Re: Question about the "witching hour"
The book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" says that at about six weeks babies are ready for an earlier bedtime. It also notes that sleep begets sleep (so no worry about increasing awakenings by allowing more/earlier sleep). I used to put DD to bed at 11:00. I put her down at 8:30 last night and she slept great (woke once at about 3:30 to eat and right back to bed till about 7:00). Tonight, however, not so much.
But the short answer to your question is that I think it would be a good idea to move your bedtime back earlier, though you might want to wait until she's about 6 weeks.
That is very normal for a 5 week old. She will most likely change her bedtime to earlier as she is ready. I think about 6-7 weeks my DS started going down about 9pm, and now that we are 3 months it has backed up to 8:30. You can expect one large chunk of sleep to begin with, and then will be woke up every 2-4 hours after that. The large chunk of sleep will slowly get longer and longer which will eventually cut out one of the other times you get up.
Also I found at 5 weeks when my little one was fussy if I would rock him he would fall asleep for a quick 10-30 min nap and then be happy until 9-10ish when he went to bed.
Good Luck!