Which is more important, bottle or bedtime?

Lauren&Joe · May 2011

So we're really trying to establish a strong bedtime routine with DD where we take her up at 8:00, give her a bath, a little quiet play time, a book and then finally a bottle, then bed.

Well the little stinker keeps messing with our plans! In order for her to be hungry at 8:30, her previous bottle needs to be at 5:00 or so. Well yesterday she refused to take an afternoon nap, and instead slept from 4 - 6:30 and then woke up screaming for food. We gave her a bottle.

Hence the problem, she will still get tired and fall asleep sometime between 8-9, regardless of when she eats. Should we just do the routine when she gets tired, even though she may only take a couple ounces of food, or should we let her snooze, then wake her up after 9:30 or so when we know she'll be more likely to take a whole bottle, then do the routine and put her "down" for the night. I guess I'm worried she won't sleep through the night without the full 6oz.

I'm so confused!?!?

KYmama9286 · May 2011

Hmm 4 months might be a little tricky to get set into a specific schedule IMO. Not that it cant be done but I know Nicholas was very similar and some days would nap at inopportune times or not want to eat or want to eat when it didnt align with his "schedule". We are still really big on making sure Nicholas gets a full bottle before bedtime because when he doesnt we pay for it-- he either wakes up at 2am and eats half a feeding or wakes up at like 5am and eats a full feeding but then it screws up the rest of his daily routine.

I would maybe push for bedtime being in a window of time. Like for Nicholas he goes down anywhere between 7 and 8 (or between 8 and 9 if you want to keep her up a little later). Would that work better for her? That way if she has a later nap and wants to eat later 8pm would work but for days when she skips her afternoon nap you could just keep her up all together and put her to bed earlier at closer to 7 (starting the routine at like 6:30). I am not big on waking a baby up to feed them once they are down because in our experience they start to develop THAT routine and then they "think" they need to eat at 930 every night when in reality they might not (if that makes sense). HTH!

shellbug79 · May 2011

I agree, 4 months is tricky because typically there is that "4month wakeful period" that they go through. I'm really no help because both mine started sleeping almost through the night at 6 weeks. Oliver actually would take a bottle about 30-60 minutes before bed time and sleep through the night. If he didn't sleep completely through he'd wake about 6-6:30 and I'd give him another bottle and he'd go right back to sleep. I would test to see how long she will sleep without a bottle and take it from there, she may just surprise you!

Michelle

Superchicy · May 2011

I always went with DD's cues, if she was tired, we let her sleep, if she was hungry, we fed her and she fell into her own "routine", but having a set schedule was impossible. She did do things about the same time every day, but some days it would be off by an hour here or there just depending on her cues. Her routine also seemed to change about every 2-3 months as she grew and changed, so following her cues always worked best until she was older.

kykassie · May 2011

Between five and six months, Mr. O started "skipping" his bedtime feeding. He was going to bed between 8 and 9 p.m., then started falling asleep between 7 and 8 p.m. We adjusted by doing his bedtime routine when he started showing signs of being tired. He only woke up a couple times to eat, but then started going 12+ hours without eating, taking his last feeding between 5 and 6 p.m., then waking up between 8 and 9 a.m. the next day. At first, it made me nervous, so as we transitioned from nursing to bottles, I upped his ounces during the day. HTH.

Lauren&Joe · May 2011

Thanks ladies. I guess I just need a little bit more of a go with the flow attitude. The pedi is the one that got me all crazy because she said DD should be going to sleep for the night between 8 and 9, but that doesnt' always correspond when she's hungry. Like today her last bottel was at 3:00, picked her up from daycare and she was asleep and is still asleep. So not only has she missed a bottle, I doubt she's gong to want to go down for the night when she wakes up. GRRR.

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