Poll: for those whose babies sleep at night

cmovius · November 2015

So if your baby sleeps I want to know if it just happened or if you followed a schedule early on? I have tried to do a schedule but end up getting frustrated because I can't quite get it and he's still not sleeping more than 4 hour stretches at night (he's over 11 weeks). I'm curious what others experiences have been and what methods you used.

ChelKlav · November 2015

My son kind of did it on his own. We try to have more play time/tummy time during the day to keep him awake more. At night we have dim lights so he knows its almost bedtime. He eats at 8-830 then naps for an hour or so. Eats last at 10-1030 5oz. He normally has 3-4oz but we up it for the nighttime feed. He doesnt wake up until 630-7. I also change him right before the last feed and swaddle him.

xJKxOR · November 2015

I attempted a routine/schedule at the start. I ready so many different things but eventually it came down to what I actually felt deep down (he's to little for a "by-the-clock" routine).

Right now he can only stay awake for about an hour at a time. Sometimes it's 40mins sometimes up to 1.5hrs.
I put him down when he seems sleepy and he sleeps anywhere for 40mins to 2hrs. When he gets up I feed him if he's hungry and change him when he needs it.

So, needless to say, every day looks different in the sense that I can't say what he'll be doing at 2pm for example. But we follow more or less the same pattern of events that I described above.

We start our bedtime routine between 7:30 and 8:30 depending on the night and have a bath, story, and nurse to sleep. Sometimes he's asleep by 8:30, sometimes not until 10:30. When he goes down though he'll sleep until 6 or later.

He is now 12 weeks, is 14lbs, and EBF. He's been sleeping in 6hr or more stretches since about 7 weeks.

wilcoxev · November 2015

I never stuck to a strict schedule. He went from eating every 2 hours in the night to 4 hours, then not at all. He started doing it on his own. Now we take a bath around 8:30, put on his pjs with swaddle sack, arms out, nurse him until he falls asleep. Usually goes to bed between 9:15-10:15pm and gets up around 6am. I try to limit naps to 2 hours during the day. We don't do any dimming of lights or quiet time before bed. Honestly I think that it just depends on the baby. I think there are some things that help but basically you have a baby that likes to sleep or you don't.

karapalley · November 2015

It kind of just happened for us luckily. LO will be 11 weeks tomorrow and usually will have his last bottle around 8:30-8:45 and will be in his pack and play asleep around 9:15. Lately he has been sleeping until about 7:30 am!

Once we figured out his patterns we set our "schedule" around that. He naps about 2-2.5 hours during the day spread out into a few small naps.

Some things that have helped nighttime sleep.. Making his last bottle of the day a little bigger, dimming the lights, white noise, and swaddling.

Hope this helps!

cmovius · November 2015

Thanks! I have been breast feeding at Just get hit my little guy takes a bottle great. I think I might give him a bottle for the last feeding of the day and give him extra.

mrsbacz · November 2015

I never tried to implement a schedule. I fed him when he was hungry, changed him when he was wet, and let him sleep whenever he slept.

I noticed at 6 weeks he would go to sleep between 10-11pm for 4-5 hours. As soon as I started planning for a bedtime at that time and putting his pajamas on and swaddling him, he changed again haha. At 7 weeks, he started going to bed at 9pm. Now he's 8 weeks and most nights he falls asleep around 8:30pm and wakes up 2:30-3am. He eats, I change him, and he's back asleep until 6am.

That's this week anyway. I just go with the flow!

nbuzard · November 2015

Little guy is 12 weeks and sleeping 12 hours (7-7). He was sleeping 6-8 hours by 6 weeks. I do a loose version of Babywise and incorporated swaddling, white noise, and the nighttime routine from Moms on Call. His naps are hit or miss, usually 30 mins-1.5hr.

cmovius · November 2015

How do you follow babywise when they don't nap long enough? I really struggle with naps. He is tired but he fights and usually wakes up grumpy

jennahkross · November 2015

We have a routine at night, swaddle, bottle, white noise and a dark room. It takes about 25 minutes to get her down and she sleeps for 8 hours, eats and sleeps for another 3.

jen83mn · November 2015

My 12-week-old was one of those sleep-through-the-night babies until a week ago. I think we got lucky because he did it on his own starting at 7 weeks, and was only waking once between 4-7 weeks. The week everything changed. He goes to bed then wakes up 1.5 hours later. I nurse him to sleep again and he'll sleep 4-5 hours, then wakes up again. Then will sleep 1-1.5 hours, wakes up again. Sleeps another hour, then is up for the day. I think he's having a hard time soothing himself through his sleep cycle transitions. I'm hoping it's just a phase because I go back to work on Monday and will be a zombie if this keeps up!

babs02 · November 2015

Mostly on his own... We moved him to his own room around 6 weeks. By then he was sleeping from about 8:30-3ish on his own. Then is started a nighttime routine and it helped. His 3 am feeding moved later over about a week. Now he sleeps from 8:30 to 7 sometimes later! Every once in a while he gets up around 3 but sometimes he'll fall back asleep

ForeverEverAfter · November 2015

10w old today, and we've gotten 5-6h stretches since a week old, a couple times 8h. Growth spurts as short as 3-4h.

I follow her cues for eating, and do nothing special for sleep (she goes along with my toddler everywhere). She naps being worn or in her bassinet, we bedshare at night. She's EBF and cluster feeds in the evening, but I don't track, time or schedule feeds-I'm really trying to just go with it because I was stressing myself out.

nbuzard · November 2015

cmovius said:
How do you follow babywise when they don't nap long enough? I really struggle with naps. He is tired but he fights and usually wakes up grumpy

I struggle with the same and just start the cycle over when he wakes up. Since he's doing so well at night I just follow his lead for naps. He's my third and we are on the go a lot, which makes it harder also.

ktbkitten · November 2015

We have a routine that we stick with at night. I think the biggest one is the quite time in our bedroom where he gets smaller bottles but more frequently at night. Plus bath time really helps.

Growingapepper · November 2015

8 week old started sleeping 6-8 hours during the night around the 6 week mark. We never really implemented a specific schedule, we just followed our own schedules while working around her needs. I woke up in the middle of the night to nurse whenever the baby woke. I always kept the lights down low and tried rocking her to sleep or cuddling. If she wanted to stay awake I did that too, but I didn't do anything to simulate her, I just kept her calm and tried to bore her. Eventually she just kind of started sleeping longer stretches (4 hours) until all of a sudden at 6 weeks she was always sleeping at least 6 hours but as long as 8

Sully3302 · November 2015

We have no schedule.....I wish we did! LO naps for 40 mins during the day with varying awake times. We always do a bath around 7:30 or 8:00... But she is never ready for bed and it just turns into a nap. She is 9 weeks and has just started sleeping 7-8 hour stretches. Usually down for the night around 10-11 (I have unsuccessfully been trying to make it earlier) and she wakes up around 6 to eat then back to sleep until 8:30-9:30. I was thinking about starting to wake her up a little earlier to see if that helps her go to bed a little earlier.

TingLeong · November 2015

In my opinion having a schedule would definitely be better as it's much organized. but depends on circumstances it's not for everyone. personally i have no schedule

perrysaurus · November 2015

My daughter is 6weeks, she has been sleeping through the night since she was 2 weeks all on her own. We fall asleep between 830pm and 10pm, and wake up between 8am/10am. She gets up to eat/diaper change around 2am and 6am, but we fall right back asleep so I barely count it. She just started doing this one night and it never changed. We do everything for her on demand & we cosleep. Exclusively breastfeeding as well.

nanako0 · November 2015

jennahkross said:
We have a routine at night, swaddle, bottle, white noise and a dark room. It takes about 25 minutes to get her down and she sleeps for 8 hours, eats and sleeps for another 3.

This, only mine has been sleeping from 9-4 up to change, feed, burp then back to sleep until 7-8:30. I also put her in a sleeper, sleep sack and swaddle on top of it to keep her warm.

Plumeria1214 · November 2015

Our LO falls asleep between 10 and 11:30 every night and wakes up between 4:30 and 6 then goes back down until 8 usually. I've tried getting her to bed earlier but it never works! We have no set schedule. I give bottles of pumped breast milk around 8:30pm (biggest) and then smaller one right before bedtime. I try to breast feed every 2 hours from 5pm on but she's not always hungry and often falls asleep between 7 and 9 but wakes up. Anyone have any tips that worked for an earlier bedtime? I'm so happy she sleeps through night but am looking forward to being able to get her down earlier.

For bedtime we turn down lights, put her in sleep sack, and play white noise. I'll rock her to sleep after last bottle. If we're giving her a bath we also do before bedtime since it relaxes her.

Elecin · November 2015

I follow the Moms On Call book and it's worked well for us so far. My LO is 8 weeks.

chelseajeanene · November 2015

I wait until right before he's due for his last bottle of the night and give him a bath with aveeno bedtime bath soap. I massage the same brand of bedtime lotion on him and then give him his bottle. He passes out and sleeps 6-7 hours. He doesn't have a great sense of day or night, so he goes to bed very late but he started sleeping 6 hours on his own but the bath always guarantees it

MiromiM · November 2015

I follow the Moms on Call schedule (roughly). My LO is 10 weeks but has less than an hour of awake time so I have to edit the book's suggestion a bit. So far, she's been waking up only 1-2 times (if at all) during the night since week 6 when we started her on a schedule.

nicolelynn915 · November 2015

We've had a baby led schedule but she eventually started sleeping longer on her own. We've always had bedtime between 7:30-9 pm just depending on her last nap and feeding. But usually by 8:30 she's out. She started sleeping longer and longer. I eventually noticed that when she woke up it wasn't always because she was hungry but because she didn't continue her sleep cycle. When she first started doing this I would pick her up and just try rocking her back to sleep. If she showed hunger cues I would feed her. Then eventually she wasn't hungry but just needing some soothing to help her sleep. It went from rocking her back to sleep, then just picking her up and holding her and swaying her a bit, to paci and slightly moving bassinet, then paci and hand on chest until she falls asleep. Now if she wakes I give her her paci and she sucks a bit and falls asleep. If she were hungry she always refuses paci or takes it and spits it out and continues to fuss. I think it helped break the routine of waking up, not saying it's perfect. She still wakes up sometimes but it's definitely better. She makes up for those missed feelings during the day though. But sleep at night is totally worth it. She'll be 12 weeks on Friday and EBF.

beansideirae · November 2015

it just happened for us, we don't keep a schedule at all really but LO started sleeping thro the night around 4 weeks I think! she doesn't nap super well during the day so maybe that's why? she nurses a LOT in the evening and then sleeps for 8-10 hours.

laurapaine2003@yahoo.com · November 2015

It started for us once I figured out how the "cycle" of eat, diaper change, play, nap works during the day. Once I figured it out and got her to nap every 90 min she then started sleeping amazing at night. I do literally everything during the day to ensure she naps like clockwork. Take her for car rides, walk with her in the sling for 45 min, turn the shower and overhead fan on in the bathroom and leave it going for 30+ minutes (i was so desperate). But so worth it, she has been waking only once during the entire 10+ hours she sleeps at night which is a huge improvement than the 5+ times she was waking up!!

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