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March 2014 Moms
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advice for baby's day/night wakefulness

SassyFlatsSassyFlats member
in March 2014 Moms
Do you wake your baby during daytime hours in order to encourage them to sleep more at night instead?

Kara is getting pretty good at not being so nocturnal, but of course as a FTM I'm paranoid that I don't know WTF I'm doing. She usually sleeps between 4-6 hours sometime after midnight (after at least 2 hours of crying) and then another 3ish hours after early morning nursing.

This is pretty good, but I worry that I let her nap too long in the daytime and will end up with a screaming baby until 2am. I also worry that I'll wake her too much and make us both grouchy. I am totally winging it every day and hoping I'm doing okay.

So, how do you handle your LO's sleep pattern?

GREEN to PINK on 3.14.14 
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Re: advice for baby's day/night wakefulness

  • SassyFlatsSassyFlats member
    I wouldn't mind a 4am party if I could get a nap first... Even midnight is hard for me. What happened to the days when I could be up around the clock doing projects for school? Man, I am such an old fogie already.

    GREEN to PINK on 3.14.14 
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  • stephmsullystephmsully member
    I wake my DD every 2-3 hours during the day... And she sleeps 5-6 hour stretches at night.
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  • BrittlamarcheBrittlamarche member
    I have let my little guy sleep during the day as he wants and have only had a couple rough nights and that is also because he was insistent on cluster feeding. I would recommend trying to get her on a napping schedule during the day. One piece of advice that I learned with my first baby tho is good sleep during the day means good sleep at night. So don't try and keep her up all day but make sure she gets good naps. :)
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  • clo1982clo1982 member
    We found a great deal of truth in the 'sleep begets sleep' saying with dd. If she was not well rested during the day, she was a terror at night. If she takes a crappy nap, she will not sleep as well at night. She is almost 3 and this has been true since she was about 3 months old. Before that she was just tough. I let ds sleep whenever he wants with the only exception being about an hour before we put him down for the final time. Then I will change his diaper and if he is sleepy I leave him in only a diaper to wake him up. Thus just ensures that he gets a good, full feeding before bed. I'm not worried about a schedule yet because he is still eating on demand and just isn't ready for a set schedule.
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  • sebullowssebullows member
    I don't interfere with Levi's sleep patterns. I go out of my way to distinguish the difference between day and night. We keep it dark, have a sound machine and projector, whisper in the night. Lights on, open blinds, music/regular talking while changing and feeding, and make lots of noise while he's asleep in the day time. Like pp said, if he doesn't sleep a good few hours in the day, he'll get over exhausted and won't sleep at night. If he gets really fussy and has glossy eyes in the day, I try my hardest to get him to sleep. He's a wonderful night sleeper most of the time.
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  • SassyFlatsSassyFlats member
    I have never heard that sleep begets sleep! Our pedi recommended waking her every couple of hours during the day, but maybe I'll let her sleep and see what happens this weekend while I have DH for night time support

    GREEN to PINK on 3.14.14 
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  • ring_popring_pop member
    I never try to wake him or interrupt his sleep. However, with DS1's schedule, I do sometimes have to disturb him when he's sleeping (like, loading him into the car so we can go pick up DS1 from daycare). Luckily, he just goes with the flow! (The point of this is, don't purposely wake LO but don't freak out if you have to, either.)
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    D: Born 7.14.11
    Baby #2: BFP 9.19.12, EDD 5.24.13, natural m/c 10.19.13 at 9w
    O: Born 3.2.14 (med-free!)
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  • SassyFlatsSassyFlats member
    Well, I let her nap as much as she wanted today. Hopefully this will have a positive impact on her usual nighttime fussiness... Maybe if she's not overly tired she'll be easier to handle in the evening.

    I'm gonna cross my fingers. [-O<

    GREEN to PINK on 3.14.14 
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  • DTNZ4EverDTNZ4Ever member
    We wake up DS every 3 hours during the day up until midnight to eat. We try to let keep him awake atleast an hour after eating. Then we let him wake up on his own after midnight. The last few nights he will go midnight until 4:30am. I'm hoping that he stretches that out until 6am.
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  • BrideNamedMegBrideNamedMeg member
    Once I know she's gaining weight I'll stop waking her up during the day.  She is above her birth weight, but after our next pedi appointment I'll feel better!  

    Right now I try not to let her go more than 3 hours during the day without at least trying to nurse - overnight I let her wake me and she usually does one longer stretch (maybe 5ish hours) and a couple of shorter ones.
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  • NpironiNpironi member
    I've also found that letting her sleep until she wakes herself up helps with her nighttime sleeping..my pedi also told me not to wake her up she can sleep as long as she wants
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