BF/EP--looking for sleeping advice

shocked77 · January 2012

For those of you who BF or EP and have little ones STTN or sleeping for long stretches at night I am looking for suggestions. My LO is not STTN, but he is starting to sleep for longer stretches at random times/days. We've had several 4 hour afternoon naps and a couple 4 hour stetches in the evening. Even had one 5 hour nap.

At this point here are my "wishes" for our nightime. Any suggestions on what i can do to get to this i would appreciate. I've tried a number of things and had no luck.

Goals for nighttime sleep

One 5 hour stretch of sleep would be heaven.

If I could get it to start between 10 and midnight that would be wonderful.

Current Sleep Routine

Generally takes longest nap of the day from 2 or 3 till 5 or 6 pm (Generally solid 2.5 to 3 hours. Has gone as long as 5 hours in the afternoon.

Sleeps again between 7:30 and 8 usually for 3 hours. I would say this is "bedtime". He has a bath somedays, goes into jammies, has a nurse and goes to sleep.

Nurses at 9 and back to sleep. Sometimes wants to stay awake for a lttle bit.

12:00 nurses and diaper change. usually nurses for about 15 mins on one side and easily goes back to sleep.

3:00 nurses. again usually for about 15 minutes. again easily goes back to sleep.

5 or 6 am wakes up. Nurses then is ready to stay awake. Usually back to sleep between 7 and 8 for a 2 hour nap.

Typically takes another nap starting at noon for an hour to 90 mins.

Little extra info--I feed on demand and LO has eaten every three hours like clock work since he was born. except for cluster feeding during growth spurts.

Magriet · January 2012

I try to 'cluster feed' before bedtime. Feed at 5,6,7 pm. Bath at 8 pm and then a "final" feeding, where I feed him till he is about to fall asleep. This can happen anytime between 9:30 and midnight and he generally sleeps for 5-6 hours straight.

It isn't foolproof, last night he did not want to cluster feed and we were up every three hours during the night, but that is what generally works for me.

smilelari · January 2012

Honestly, a 5 hour stretch starting 10-midnight is a bit unrealistic. Most babies, once they settle into an early bed time (before 8) will have their longest sleep stretch first. The only thing I can suggest to help stretch that sleep out would be a dream feed a little earlier than when LO normally wakes to eat. So, if LO is waking at around 9 to eat, try to do a dream feed at 8:45 and hopefully LO would stay asleep through this feeding and keep sleeping until the next feeding around midnight.

ArcadianDreams · January 2012

Babies generally only have one long stretch of sleep per day. Your LO is taking it in the afternoon, so you have to try and shift his rhythm to taking that nap at night. I know people say to never wake a sleeping baby but I think in your case it would help to cut that afternoon nap short. During the day I limit naps to no more than 2 hours and at night he can sleep as long as he wants. Since those are the only sleeps I let go longer, that's when he takes the long sleep!

Right now the little guy is out between 7:30-8:30 and *usually* sleeps until 1-1:30AM.

sarahjames9 · January 2012

My LO eats at 5 6 and 7 and gets extra ounces during that time. Her biggest stretch is usually 6 hrs and it is from 8 to 2. If I want to benefit I would need to go to sleep at 8pm. Yeah right! Haha!!

sap05e · January 2012

This is what I did from day 1 until she settled into her own routine: Try to feed every 2 hours during the day. He needs to "stock up" on his calories for the day before bedtime. Also, do your bath routine every night, even if you don't actually bathe him. We put DD in the same place (on towel on floor) with space heater on and either bathe or do a wipe down, lotion, diaper, pajamas.. She usually wants a bottle afterwards, but even if she doesn't, we keep going with the routine by putting her in her crib, turning on her projection mobile and turning off the lights. She likes her crib and mobile so she will only cry if she needs to eat or if she poops... otherwise, she will watch it til she falls asleep.

Vieve831 · January 2012

My LO usually does do his longest sleep stretch from about 10pm-3am. About half the time he does this and the other half he doesn't make it and needs a 1am feed as well. The other night it was 11:30-5:30am and that was perfect - I felt like a new person the next day!

We didn't do anything to make his schedule - he does it on his own (and honestly i wish he would go to bed earlier). Here is his day: Takes two naps during the day that are anywhere from 1-3 hours (totaling around 5 hours of napping between the hours of 10am and 6pm). Between 6 & 10pm he takes a few "catnaps" on me or DH - like 15 to 20 minute naps. He is generally fussy during this time - sometimes its just irritability and sometimes full on screaming. He also wants to eat a lot. The latest this ends is around midnight. Then we get the night schedule I described above. We are usually up for the day around 8am or 9am. We bedshare at night.

The one night we got that awesome stretch of sleep he also took his first 3.5 oz bottle around 8pm. He then nursed from 10-11pm so he had to be pretty full for the night. Not sure if that was a coincidence or not but we are going to try to repeat that tonight.

jasnem · January 2012

smilelari:
Honestly, a 5 hour stretch starting 10-midnight is a bit unrealistic. Most babies, once they settle into an early bed time (before 8) will have their longest sleep stretch first. The only thing I can suggest to help stretch that sleep out would be a dream feed a little earlier than when LO normally wakes to eat. So, if LO is waking at around 9 to eat, try to do a dream feed at 8:45 and hopefully LO would stay asleep through this feeding and keep sleeping until the next feeding around midnight.

Completely agree with all of this. Follow your baby's cues. I tried having my LO go to bed later (8 pm) so when I go back to work I could spend more time with her, but she let me know that her bedtime needs to be 7. She is so much happier/less fussy if I start her bedtime routine at 630 and have her in bed by 7.

She generally sleeps from 7-1 or 2 (I go to bed around 9:00), feeds and goes back down until about 5 (when I will get up when I go back to work), feeds and goes back down until 7:30ish (when DH will get up because he works 2nd shift).

Things we do to help her sleep: bedtime routine, sound machine goes all night, keep room dark (room darkening curtains and keep lights off when I go in for feedings), feed at least every 3 hours during the day (usually every 2 1/2 now that she went to STTN- I feed on demand), and cluster feed in the evening to "tank up."

From what I've read though, some babies will STTN earlier than others. You can try different strategies, but some just aren't ready.

GL!

AllieCat16 · January 2012

Vieve831:
My LO usually does do his longest sleep stretch from about 10pm-3am. About half the time he does this and the other half he doesn't make it and needs a 1am feed as well. The other night it was 11:30-5:30am and that was perfect - I felt like a new person the next day!
We didn't do anything to make his schedule - he does it on his own (and honestly i wish he would go to bed earlier). Here is his day: Takes two naps during the day that are anywhere from 1-3 hours (totaling around 5 hours of napping between the hours of 10am and 6pm). Between 6 & 10pm he takes a few "catnaps" on me or DH - like 15 to 20 minute naps. He is generally fussy during this time - sometimes its just irritability and sometimes full on screaming. He also wants to eat a lot. The latest this ends is around midnight. Then we get the night schedule I described above. We are usually up for the day around 8am or 9am. We bedshare at night.
The one night we got that awesome stretch of sleep he also took his first 3.5 oz bottle around 8pm. He then nursed from 10-11pm so he had to be pretty full for the night. Not sure if that was a coincidence or not but we are going to try to repeat that tonight.

This is my DS exactly! And I also did not do anything to get him on this cycle. I follow his cues and he pretty much fell into this. I started keeping a notebook to see if there were any patterns and that's how I figured out the roundabout times he goes down for naps. I try to put him down by 930-10pm bc that's what works for us

Want a personalized experience?

BF/EP--looking for sleeping advice

Re: BF/EP--looking for sleeping advice

Choose Another Board

Search Boards