Same bedtime every night?

mommytobe87 · January 2011

I'm kind of at a loss...our LO was sleeping a really good stretch pretty much like clockwork from 10-10:30 every night, getting up to feed around 3:30am then back to sleep until 6ish...these last few weeks have been outrageous. Some nights are good and some are HORRIBLE...for instance he was up like 3 or 4 times last night and it makes no sense to me why. I understand many babies do not STTN at this age (some do) but I don't understand what I may be doing wrong that is causing him up so much at night. It seems most of it was between 9:30pm and 1am...then again at 4am but after that slept til 8:30am. So, what I am asking is...do you all do the SAME bedtime every night or just go on sleep cues? I have been trying to do bedtime around 9:30ish which may be where my problem is.

I never would have thought 30-40 minutes would make a huge difference in him waking at night but now am thinking maybe I should stick with 10/10:30 bedtime for now. Thoughts? Advice? I'm getting those sleep deprivation headches and need some kind of relief! I can't do this up 4 times a night thing

PunkyBooster · January 2011

Am I reading correctly that your baby is 2 months old?

We have bedtime when DS is ready. Some nights it is 730, some it is closer to 10. Generally he is in bed by 930. He wakes up 2x a night most nights but he has nights where he is up every 2 hours. It is called having a baby.

Maybe he needs longer feedings?

mommytobe87 · January 2011

I clearly realize having a baby means sometimes being up more often - BUT I am looking for ways to decrease such frequent wakings at night considering he has done pretty long stretches for quite sometime but now the last couple weeks have been chaos. I was thinking maybe it was something I was/wasn't doing or possibly not sticking with a routine bedtime.

AndreaB111 · January 2011

He could be having a growth spurt.

We don't impose a bedtime on our 10 week old. Any time after 6, when he seems like he's getting tired and a little fussy, we start our bedtime "routine", and put him down. It's usually around 7, but sometimes not until 10. At this point we go with the flow and let him decide at this point.

momofmanyinthemitten · January 2011

We can't seem to get her on a set bedtime and it isn't from lack of trying. She always wakes at the same time, though-12:30, 3:30, 5:30/6, then co-sleeps until 8 or 9 usually. I'm a SAHM, so I figure she can sleep when she wants since it won't disrupt my work routine.

AnneEliz79 · January 2011

I've read that putting LO to bed earlier helps them sleep for longer stretches, so its worth trying! We put DD to bed between 7-8pm most nights (after her evening bottle), and she's been sleeping until 1-3am.

Littledeer84 · January 2011

OP - I am right there with you! I thought I had DD's sleep patterns figured out, and then she changed it all up on me. I have to go back to work soon, so I was trying to have the same bedtime every night, but I don't think that is working. Last night I just went by her sleep cues. She went down at 7pm (instead of the 930pm or 10pm that I had been doing). She slept till 10, was fussy for an hour, but then slelpt from 11pm - 3 am. Fed her again and then she slept till almost 8am. That was a big improvement for us! Hopefully she wont change things up again, but I would just watch for your LO's sleep cues - they know what they need!

hopkins5 · January 2011

It's still too early to count on your LO getting in a pattern every night. He's going to change things up from time to time, so you need to just keep doing what you're doing and he'll get back on track. Keep putting him down at the same time each night, then feed him if he gets hungry or let him sleep if he sleeps.

At this point his stomach is a little too small to hold enough food to keep him from being hungry during the night. He might also be going through a growth spurt.

Rather than complain that your baby's not STTN, embrace it when he does. Some babies don't for many, many months. It's nothing you're doing wrong. This is just the life of a two month old.

EastCoastBride · January 2011

At his age, I would be going by sleep cues, not the time on the clock. And my DS was definitely a poster child for "sleep begets sleep". I put him down at the first sign of being tired and he tended to sleep better and longer at night. I didn't worry too much about a nightly routine at a really young age. I focused more on getting him down when he was tired.

cros8380 · January 2011

Hello,

We starting a night time routine with DD when she was 6 weeks. We realize that she was young, but WE needed to start getting into the habit. She was a terrible sleeper, and although we did the routine at 6:30/7pm, she wouldn't go to sleep until 10pm. THEN we learned her sleep cues and decided to start putting her to bed based on those (and let her cry a little, no more than 5 minutes at a time) and it was like we flipped a switch. She does nap during the day, but not at the same time. I just make sure to put her down for a nap when she is tired (usually within 1h30m of waking). Her last nap is usually done by 5pm (give or take 30 minutes). We then start her bedtime routine about an hour of waking, that way she is in bed within 2 hours of waking...so that usually means bedtime routine starting around 6/6:30pm and asleep by 7/7:30pm. We started this on the 21st and she has slept from 7/7:30pm until at least 7:15am every night (with 2 feedings). If we time it right, she doesn't cry at all. On the bad nights, when we start too late and she is overtired, she cries for no more than 10 minutes (and we check on her and rub her belly every 5 minutes- on those nights, she usually falls asleep while we rub her belly). On Saturday night she slept from 7pm until 3:30am before she woke up. It was my birthday so I took that as my gift!!

hmp1 · January 2011

We go on sleep cues. It is usually between 7:30-8:30. His evening nap is usually only about an hour but yesterday he napped until 7:30 so we didn't start his bedtime routine until 9. He slept until 5 which is an hour later than usual.

watermellens · January 2011

Depending on when DS has his last nap depends on when he goes to bed. It's always between 730-930.

littlefamilyof4 · January 2011

Our bedtime for LO is usually around 10-10:30pm. Without fail she will start feeding around 9:30 and wont stop til about 10:30 or so and usually after that she is out til about 5am or so.

We tried once to get her to bed at 9:30, so that meant feeding her earlier, and I will never do that again...she and I got the worst sleep ever! lol.

Usually tho I just go off her sleepy time cues and it generally works for us...well so far it has. But as PP said he may be going through a growth spurt. HTH.

Lynn07 · January 2011

I'm one who believes in the power of a consistent bed time. We started a bedtime routine with DS1 when he was 6 weeks old. Within a week he was going to bed at almost the same time every night. To this day, all we have to do is lay him down and he is out within 5 minutes.

We started a routine with DS2 right away more out of necessity than anything else. Now he is so easy to but down for bed at night. Obviously we are not to the minute, but he is pretty much always in bed between 7:30 and 8.

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