Night owl baby

RK125 · October 2013

My dd (6 wks) is a night owl. I've tried everything I can think of and she won't go down for the night until around midnight for the past week. We start getting ready for bed at 8. She'll sleep for about 30-45 minutes and then is up for another hour and a half. I know I can't change her sleep pattern, but I'd like to go bed before midnight. Especially because I go back to work in 2 weeks. Any one else have a lo that likes to burn the midnight oil?
Eta: sleep deprivation

FeetFirst · October 2013

Ugh in the same boat. Our norm for bedtime had become 12:30 and her day will start around 10am... Not cool. We are 7 weeks today.

This weekend I started a much more recognizable bedtime routine starting at 8 by adding a nightly bath ( just water only for most days) as I noticed we had better luck the days we did one. Saturday night she was down by 11:30 and we got a stretch till 4 then from 4:30-9:30...Much better...

Tonight she was down by 10:30, up at 1:30, then up again at 5:30 ( now) and I assume will be down until 8-9 now.

I am going to stick with the routine this week starting at 8 and see if we can't get the last feed slowly worked down to 8:30 so her first stretch is 8:30-12ish, etc. Then move the start of the routine slowly down by 15-20 mins until we get to 7...ideally I want her down by 7:30 so she gets a 10 hour nighttime sleep once I am back to work.

I remember this with my son we had the same problems until we got serious about bedtime routine, he was STTN by 2.5 months once we got our shit together, lol.. Even now he has issues if we get too distracted for a few days and don't do his routine well...

Good luck!

RK125 · October 2013

@feetfirst Thanks! I'm going to just keep at it!

missmay55 · October 2013

I'm dealing with the same thing except mine goes down around 8pm but then around 1am she wakes up for 2 hours and is wide awake. It's frustrating! I'm just hoping it will pass soon!

henderson1026 · October 2013

she has been staying up later and later. Last night she didn't fall asleep until 1:30 - at least she slept 7 hours!

RK125 · October 2013

@henderson1026 that's my dd! Right now the latest we've been up in 1. My dd will give a 5+ hr stretch so I get some sleep.

RK125 · October 2013

@missmay55 They say that it will! There are some days I think they're lying! Here's hoping our Los get on track soon!

RK125 · October 2013

@msspeedymarie I hear you on bedtime and morning routines! We also still have to figure out who's going to watch her for the half hour between my dh leaving for work and me getting home!

Lilmrslay · October 2013

A strict bedtime routine fixed this for us. Our little one wouldn't go down until 9.30pm-10pm before we started doing the same thing every night and slowly pulling back her bedtime until it was 8pm. Now she has a bath, all the curtains get pulled and the lights dimmed with the tv or radio on low. She gets a full, long feed, a burp and cuddle then it's bedtime. It works almost every time. We've only had one night in the last 4 weeks since we started it that she fought sleep until 10pm for some reason. Just keep onto it and try to be as consistent as possible with what ever routine you create. Your LO should definitely be going to bed earlier to get a better sleep. And for you to have some time to yourself as well.

RK125 · October 2013

So I gave her a bath, fed her, read her a story, rocked her, and put her down. It's 9:47. We'll see how long she stays down!

RK125 · October 2013

A whopping 7 minutes...ugh...

bl190004 · October 2013

Bedtime routine is also working here. We start around 7 when he naturally starts to get sleepy. Bath (if it's bath night), baby massage, nurse, burp, swaddle, white noise and bed. When he was younger, we tried keeping him up til WE went to sleep, but had to wake him up to feed and change him... We started following his lead and one night put him down when he started to drift off around 7:30ish. He slept longer and better than he ever did with us waking him and putting him back down. Seems weird and counterintuitive but worked. I also try to make sure he gets really good feedings about every 3 hours during the day and cluster feed a bit at night starting around 5ish.

Other tips that have helped: i work really hard to distinguish night from day and only use soft voices at night (will talk and do everything at normal volume during the day); don't usually swaddle for naps; don't rely on white noise unless necessary during the day; keep all blinds open and get fresh air; etc.

I hope things turn around for you soon! Routine has been a lifesaver for us.

pb&jojo · October 2013

Yes,purposeful bedtime is key! We start our routine at 6:45-7:00, depending on how tired she is...sometimes it's a struggle to keep her up till 7:00. We try to have her awake the 2 hours before bed....even if she ate at 6, we always offer the bottle at her last feeding at 7:00, when she's done eating, it's a snuggle, swaddle, and up to the crib. Sometimes it takes 15 minutes of putting paci back into her mouth, but works like a charm!

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