Sleep "schedule" for 8 week old? Pre-sleep training

alisonemma · May 2011

OK, I know there really isn't a schedule for an 8 week old, but I'm wondering what you do with your newborn before she is ready to be sleep trained? I'm afraid we're doing it wrong. THis is what we do:

She usually eats her first meal around 7 or 8 am. Then we play for a little bit until she gets sleepy/cranky. Then she'll sleep until her next feeding, about 3-4 hours after her last feeding. Repeat until around 11pm, when we all go upstairs to bed. She sleeps in a Rock N Play next to us. She has 2 night feedings, and I will feed her in nursery quietly (minimal interaction), then take her back to the RNP until her next waking.

Is this bad that we are waiting until 11pm to take her upstairs? Usually she will have her last feeding around that time, and we feed her downstairs. I'm wondering if we should be taking her upstairs to sleep alone around 7pm (we certainly won't be going to sleep at that point), so that it will be completely quiet - we're usually watching TV until 11pm. It's pretty quiet downstairs, and the lights are dimmed, but it's not silent.

What do you do for your nighttime schedule?

aubreyalise · May 2011

i'm sure others will disagree, but i don't see anything wrong with it. DS has had multiple 'schedules' as the weeks have progressed and one of those was an 11pm bedtime. i can't even pinpoint when we changed to his current 8/8:30 bedtime, but as long as she's sleeping when she wants, i think you're fine.

SoonMrsCruz · May 2011

Right now if 11pm works for you stick with it. We pretty much did the same thing. Little by little DS would get fussy earlier and earlier so we would move up his beftime. Now his bedtime is around 8:30. At that time he gets a bath and his last bottle and goes in his crib for the night. He sleeps until around 5am.

RayRay007 · May 2011

I think a lot of people do it that way. I think if my LO was getting up at 11 to eat, I'd be putting her to bed and doing the whole bed time routine thing when she goes to sleep before that feeding, and when she wakes to feed at 11, treat it as a middle-of-the-night feeding, if that makes sense. For us LO has been going to bed around 8/9 ever since early on and sleeping 6 or more hours, so we would not be waiting up until 2am to put her to bed. (Before she was sleeping 6 hours, though, I'd be going to bed with her around 9 because I was pooped!).

oliverncherie · May 2011

We were doing the 11pm time and LO has started to let us know SHE wants to go to bed earlier. Last night we stayed up a little too late and it took a bath and two rounds of nursing to get her to sleep. You'll know when it's time to change the routine!

TreblEM · May 2011

Thank you for posting this---I could've written it exactly! The responses were just what I needed to read.

SeasideBride06 · May 2011

We feed DD around 7 pm, and then she usually goes to sleep. We take her downstairs after we put DD#1 in bed and watch tv and she just sleeps on the couch with us, or laying on one of us. We go upstairs at 10:00 to get ready for bed and we feed her again. She falls asleep after eating and then we put her in her crib in the nursery. She sleeps in there until we get her up to get ready to leave (for us to go to work) at 6 am. On weekends she will sleep a little later.

ekc29 · May 2011

At 8 weeks, my LO was going to bed between 10 and 1130, but these last few nights, she has been down for the night earlier, between 9 and 930. We are doing pretty much the exact same schedule/ routine as you are, and it is working for us. Like other people said, do what works for you and go by what LO wants.

aMaNdAp12 · May 2011

We were doing the same thing and LO was taking a "nap" in her swing from 7-10 eating at 10 then sleeping by 1030/11.. Now we are turning that "nap" into sleep and putting her to bed at 8/830. We are in the middle of a crib transition which isnt working too well.. ugh!

missmiss307 · May 2011

Noah is six weeks old, and we are already doing what we can to establish a nighttime routine, even though it varies from night to night based on how he's feeling, honestly. When he first came home, he wouldn't really go to bed before 11 or 11:30, but now we've got that backed up to 10/10:30. Typically he eats a bottle sometime around 7:30, we have a little activity time or take a bath and put him down for another nap. He wakes up before time for his next bottle almost without fail, no matter what time we put him down after the 7:30 feeding, so I guess he's just not ready for an earlier bed time. We have been trying to implement a nighttime dream feed (per the Baby Whisperer ... to get him sleeping a little longer) but haven't been able to because he goes down so late!

Even so, he probably averages 4-5 hours of sleep between feedings in the middle of the night. For example, last night, he ate around 9:30 and was asleep for the night a little after 10. He woke up to eat again right at 3 and then again at 6:15. After the 6:15 feeding, he was ready to get up for the day.

hmontty · May 2011

We do a 10:30 bedtime, and she sleeps until about 4:30 or 5. Do what works.

mom4saydie · May 2011

We started out doing that too. My little one will be 8 weeks on Thursday. When we moved her into her room, 6 weeks, we started trying to establish some type of schedule. Between 7-7:30 I take her up in her room and put her down for bed. She usually lays in her crib for about 30 minutes cooing and moving around and then falls asleep. At 10:00 we do a "dream feed." This works great for us because we found that as soon as we would lay down and fall asleep, she would be up ready to eat. So we get her at 10:00 and feed her. It works great because she's still asleep the entire time. We feed, burp, change, swaddle, and put her right back in. She goes back to sleep instantly! Then she stays in there until about 2-3 when she gets up for her next feeding. If you are awake until 11 anyways, I wouldn't wake her for the dream feed, but I just am exhausted by 10 and that has worked well for us. She seems to sleep longer for us when we do that. It's all up to you and your preference. I just feel that ours sleeps better in her crib and it also gives us some time to relax and spend together as well.

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