Ok, what's your secret?! Ladies that responded to my sleep post re: how long LO goes at night...

Richardsmom_817 · December 2014

My son is 9 weeks (mainly BF) & does not go nearly as long as a lot of these babies do....5 hours at most & that is maybe only one stretch.....then it's back to 3-4....the 5 hour stretch just started, too, a few nights ago.....he'll go down around 930-1030 (depending) & then wake around 230-330, he only did this the last couple of nights, but then it's back to the 3-4 hr stretch after that...I'm happy w/ the 5 hours, don't get me wrong, but 7-8 would be WONDERFUL!!!! My 2 girls were bad sleepers & still got up once a night at 5-6 months old (they were FF). My first son though...he was great...12 hours a night (7-7) at just 10 weeks old.

alysonmh · December 2014

I'd love to hear those secrets as well because I'm in the same boat. I've tried keeping him up more during the day, letting him sleep as much as he wants, keeping him up only before bed, baths before bed, different sleeping positions, swaddled, not swaddled, different rooms, in his swing, in a basinet, with me, the list goes on! The only thing that has seemed to make a small difference is if I keep him up later, like until 12:00 and then maybe I'll get 5 hours but it's hard for me to stay up until midnight when I'm already so pooped.

missnacholover · December 2014

No secret that I know of. We put her down between 9 and 10 and have a routine:

-Change diaper
-sleep sack
-offer bottle, even if she's just eaten, while rocking in glider
-burp
-change again if she shits
-kiss goodnight
-bed

I keep all of the lights off in her room (we have a night light) and turn on her noise machine and don't stimulate her by talking to her or anything. Same with overnights.

lizzielu82 · December 2014

We just added the bath to our nightly routine and it made a huge difference. LO loves it and gets so relaxed in there.

Here's our routine/what we stick to:
- no naps after 7pmish
- bath at 10pm
- feed and rock in a mostly dark room with two white noise machines on
- tight swaddle then more rocking and last bit of boob to put to sleep
- in bed and asleep by around 11pm

so72409 · December 2014

I honestly think this LO is a freak of nature!

our older girls never slept long stretches until about 10-12 weeks. We have a loosely based night routine: cluster feeds from about 5pm-9pm; between 8-9 change into a swaddle sack, nurse, if she poops change again, nurse then lay down asleep. I really want to break the whole nursing to sleep habit but it's hard. I put her in the rock n play in our room, turn on the womb sound on the sound machine, and she's down until 6am or later.

silverwings72 · December 2014

kegcrc said:
I don't think there's a "secret".

I do the same stuff everyone else does and my kiddo is like the honey badger.

Love it

)

jjandmeg · December 2014

I do the same stuff everyone else does and my kiddo is like the honey badger.

Made this mama LOL...thanks for that.

JFH2010 · December 2014

Yeah, that sounds pretty normal. My 8-week-old does one 4-5 hour stretch then he's up every 2 hours til morning. DS1 never slept more than 2 hours at a stretch until we sleep trained at 6 months. Babies are different regardless of routine, and what you're describing is not a "bad sleeper."

mommymeg143 · December 2014

I wasn't going to give my secret away but here it is...

I have an app on my phone called "Put My BaeBae to Sleep". I hit that and BAM! She sleeps for 7 hours!! Super awesome.

mommymeg143 · December 2014

IndianaMommy08 said:
Also....I've heard a great bedtime story read by Samuel L. Jackson entitled "Go the F*ck to Sleep". Works like a charm.

)

)

***Runs off to Amazon to purchase***

Kristil2014 · December 2014

I follow the same routine night: change her, turn off the lights, feed, burp, cuddles, once she is pretty much asleep I put her in her swaddle/sleep sack, cuddle her more, walk to her bassinet, turn on her sleep sheep, transfer her to her bassinet.

I believe the only reason Kaitlyn sleeps as well as she does is because she is a formula fed baby. If we were breast feeding I am sure she wouldn't sleep such long stretches.

For BF mama's that are struggling, the only thing I can suggest is: have your hubby do the night time routine after you feed. You smell like their food source and that can cause babies to want to use you as a pacifier - resulting in not getting into a deep sleep before you put them down in their bassinet. (or whatever they are sleeping in)

howin23 · December 2014

I think the "secret" depends on why your baby is waking up. Is it to feed, to be changed, boredom, etc.?

We extended to four hours during the day by entertaining her (and having a few rough days) and that makes her eat enough (EBF) to do three sleeps of 4+ hours with two feeds and one change in between. We're using the 12 hours in 12 weeks book.

Separately, I've heard that "nighttime diapers" would reduce nighttime changes for just pee, but I can't find these in a size 1. Any suggestions from anyone?

BrittG13 · December 2014

No secret, just lucky. After his 3 week growth spurt he just started sleeping a little longer each night. No sleep training...in fact he's completely opposite of that eat, wake, sleep cycle.

We have always swaddled though and we do try to keep the lights dark in the bedroom.

staugustinewedding · December 2014

howin23 said:
I think the "secret" depends on why your baby is waking up. Is it to feed, to be changed, boredom, etc.?

We extended to four hours during the day by entertaining her (and having a few rough days) and that makes her eat enough (EBF) to do three sleeps of 4+ hours with two feeds and one change in between. We're using the 12 hours in 12 weeks book.

Separately, I've heard that "nighttime diapers" would reduce nighttime changes for just pee, but I can't find these in a size 1. Any suggestions from anyone?

We just put some Butt Paste on her and a clean diaper and we can skip a change if it's just pee. My pediatrician said that works fine.

TeeJ526 · December 2014

@howin23‌ I use Pamper Baby Dry diapers for overnight. They offer 12 hours of protection and are available in a size 1. If you use Huggies, their equivalent are the Sung & Dry diapers.

staugustinewedding · December 2014

Yeah I will second what everyone said on here. Our LO sleeps 5-6 hours and then every 1.5-2hrs after that until about 10am. We do the following

1. Bathtime routine around 9:30
2. Swaddle and feed around 10
3. Goes down at 10:30-11 and wakes up around 5.

She usually only takes a handful of short naps throughout the day from 11-8pm. They are each about 20-30min and then she usually takes one longer one from 6:30-8pm.

rinaealy · December 2014

Question when you put your baby down for a nap is it in a quiet room or in the living room? My DS loves to nap in his boppy on the couch. Whenever I lay him I his bassinet during the day he hates it. I hope I am not doing the wrong thing. With my DD I use to put her in a quiet room for naps she hated it and would hardly ever nap. So this is why I wanted to do something different this time around

MrsAdventure · December 2014

I was able to increase the length of night time sleeps by doing two things. The first is not changing pee diapers as often. When she was feeding every two hours, she'd get milk drunk and pass out, then I'd change her and she'd wake up again, get cranky as heck and we'd both be up for at least another hour while she told me all about how unhappy she was, when she finally fell asleep, it wasn't all that deep and she was awake again in no time. Now we just powder and cream the heck out of her tush and as long as it's not a poo diaper, we leave it be.

The second, and most important for me is leaving her in our room where it's dark while I make her a bottle. Since we brought her home, we've always been careful to distinguish night and day. During the day, lights on, curtains drawn back, sometimes TV or music. At night, most lights off, minimal sounds and it stays that way until the morning. Once I stopped bringing her into the kitchen where it is quite bright, while I made a bottle, she was able to fall asleep again easily. And fell into a deeper longer sleep, which meant she ate more when she woke up. And so on. Every week she seems to sleep anywhere from a half hour to an hour longer than the last. Edit: paragraph spacing fail

MrsLillyG · December 2014

Well my LO sleeps for 6-8 in her rnp but only 2-4 in her crib. In both situations I change and then feed her before hand. However for the rnp, I could put her in it dead awake. For the crib I have to put her in it swaddled, post gas drops, in the dark and asleep. For the crib I wait ten min after she has fallen asleep and gently place her in it. I wish she didn't have to sleep in her crib.

songbirdsinging55 · December 2014

staugustinewedding said:

She usually only takes a handful of short naps throughout the day from 11-8pm. They are each about 20-30min and then she usually takes one longer one from 6:30-8pm.

This is the same for my little guy. He doesn't sleep more than 3 times during the day for more than 15-20 min increments. I try to keep him as entertained as possible during the day. He loves music so I play loud music and have all of the lights on. As soon as 10 pm hits, we wind down. Our routine is..

9:15pm- story time during baby yoga and massage, then nurse and change diaper.
10pm- lights off, only lights are the nightlights, turn on projector and sound machine (best $25 I ever spent! Highly recommned.)
10:15 - nurse and rock in dark room with song and projector. He loves to watch the images.
10:30- change diaper and more rocking. I sing to him every night. Sometimes You are My Sunshine, La Vien Rose or my favorite, to Make You Feel My Love.
10:45- nurse again either side lying or on my pillow while sitting cross legged on my bed. Side lying gets him out in 5 minutes. The pillow 10-15. Then I stroke his eyebrow or between the brows. I learned this is massage class. It is very soothing.
11- transfer him gently into the bassinet and play on my phone for about 20 min while I wait for him to be fully out. Most of the time he is laid down while partially awake. Then I switch on the lullaby music again and he falls asleep watching the ceiling images.

Sleeps until anywhere between 6-8. Wakes up, I change him and nurse him on the pillow and stroke his eyebrow again. This always makes him sleepy which makes me giggle because DH gets sleepy when I was practicing this while still in class.

As for the projector it is made by Munchkin and comes with different reels of images, different lullabies, white noise, soothing sounds, heartbeat, ocean waves and soft rainfall. It also has a timer, it is voice activated and has a built in nightlight. Worth every penny. DS loves it so much.

I agree with being lucky. MIL used to brag about how DH mostly slept for the first 4 months of his life. He would always fall asleep anywhere. It's funny because I myself am the queen of power naps. I get picked on for falling asleep through anything. I once fell asleep while getting my ears pierced lol.

lizgrace03 · December 2014

I think a lot of this has to do with their weight. Once they get to about 11 pounds they can go a lot longer without eating. Once we hit that weight, he started sleeping 6-7 hours at a time instead of 3-4.

howin23 · December 2014

@TeeJ526 Has your baby had any rash with the Baby Dry? I've seen a number of reviews of those causing a rash and our baby is just getting over nasty diaper rash (pediatrician has had us using lotrimin with butt paste and powder on top) so I'm a little anxious about it. Maybe I'll get a small package and see how she does.

@jlk6 Thanks! We'll definitely try sizing up if she can't use Baby Dry and until I manage to get out of the house to get some. We have a size up in the basement already so that's easy.

TeeJ526 · December 2014

@howin23‌ My LO hasn't had any diaper rashes. We've been using them for about 3 weeks now. I agree with @jlk6‌ that it's likely a skin sensitivity to the diapers that's causing an issue for some.

staugustinewedding · December 2014

@rinaealy‌ during the day, we let her nap in the den in her swing where it's bright and noisy

We also use butt paste at night and it's great

rinaealy · December 2014

@staugustinewedding‌ thanks!

mrs.vanillacafe · January 2015

lizzielu82 said:

We just added the bath to our nightly routine and it made a huge difference. LO loves it and gets so relaxed in there. Here's our routine/what we stick to: - no naps after 7pmish - bath at 10pm - feed and rock in a mostly dark room with two white noise machines on - tight swaddle then more rocking and last bit of boob to put to sleep - in bed and asleep by around 11pm

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!

Our LO will be 9 weeks tomorrow, and has been typically sleeping 3-4 (sometimes 5) hour stretches. We tried a warm bath like you suggested, a little baby vicks on his chest, wrapped in a fleece swaddle sleepsack, then a bottle of breast milk (instead of nursing). He slept 8 hours two nights ago, and 9.5 hours last night!.

I think the combo of the bath and switching from nursing (where he'd keep falling asleep) to a bottle, so we knew he was getting enough to eat, were the key factors. I'm crossing my fingers we are over the hump, and he's settling into a routine of sleeping longer.

Our daughter was sleeping 8-9 hours at 7 weeks (which I know is unusual), and I was hopeful our son would hit that milestone soon too.

shay611 · January 2015

How many oz of breast milk is in your night time bottle?

mrs.vanillacafe · January 2015

I'm giving him 4.5 ounces, and he's barely finishing it before falling into his "milk coma"

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Ok, what's your secret?! Ladies that responded to my sleep post re: how long LO goes at night...

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