Putting baby down for bed

shar01 · November 2010

My son is a great sleeper during the day - he regularly naps for 2 - 3 hrs but is horrible to put down at bedtime. Some nights he goes to bed no problem other nights it take 3 hrs to get him settled down. We try to put him to bed around 8:00 pm but this isn't always successful. Once he goes down he usually sleeps 3 - 4 hr stretches.
We've tried keeping him awake longer in the evening, waking him up from his afternoon nap earlier than he'd wake up on his own, feeding him formula or breast milk that was pumped earlier in the day at bed time (I was thinking my milk might be fattier earlier in the day vs evening) to fill him up, rocking him, walking him, reading him a bed time story. Nothing seems to work & I am getting so tired from trying to get him to sleep - I know he's sleepy he just fights sleep at night.
Any ideas on how or what I can do so that we all can get some sleep & not be cranky?

OctoberBabyH · November 2010

When V is super fussy like that and walking her around, bouncing her and all of that fun stuff just doesn't work, we give her a bath. Then we swaddle her tight, I feed her (BF) and that usually does the trick. Every night, we have the Homedics SoundSpa Lullaby machine on. The heartbeat seems to work best for us.

I'mAcrossThePond · November 2010

He's two weeks old and sleeping 3-4 hour stretches?!

CONGRATS!!!

That's awesome. I wish my 1 month old would do that from time to time. It's totally normal and developmentally appropriate for him to be waking that often. It's hard. He's a newborn.

As far as bedtime...give it a few more weeks. Right now follow HIS schedule. Maybe starting bedtime closer to 10 or 11 will produce greater success...eventually his last "nap" of the day will turn into the start of bedtime.

Let baby sleep during the day. Sleep begets sleep in most cases.

Good luck. Welcome to motherhood! Enjoy the ride...drink lots of coffee.

kerribear1717 · November 2010

My LO was 2 months old before he went down for the night before 11pm. Sometimes it wouldn't be until midnight. He slept great so I never really tried to change him much. That was just the time he was ready.

Vet-Tech · November 2010

Are you swaddling? That made all the difference for me.

kah01009 · November 2010

DD was only doing one nighttime feeding (2-3am) from about 3-4 weeks old, and then started to STTN at 7 weeks old, but this is 10-11pm through 5-6am-ish. It's a late "bedtime" (DH and I are exhausted by then!), but if it means sleeping through to 5 or 6 in the morning, we'll take it! I would try thinking of all other sleeping as naps until as late as 11pm. It might make a difference??

polkadotsock · November 2010

My LO does best when she's put down to bed around 10. She'll usually sleep until 3:30, wake and eat, sleep till 7, wake and eat then sleep until 10. If she goes to bed any earlier then she'll be awake at 6 ready to play.

Rangergal9 · November 2010

We've found that we need to keep the girls awake after their 6-7pm feeding. If we keep them awake then they go down with no problem after the 10pm feeding. We put them on the activity mat or in boppys and play music and try to keep them stimulated.

lmkelker1 · November 2010

Um... did anyone see that this kid is 2 weeks old?!?! You are on HIS schedule, not him out yours. You can't expect him to know that its 8pm and time to fall asleep. He will sleep when he wants... not on a schedule yet. You have a couple more months until that happens.

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