Two month old and bedtime
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Topic: Two month old and bedtime
Posted By: Hopes
Subject: Two month old and bedtime
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 6:24am
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We're having some issues here with going to sleep. Once Jacob goes down, he's a little angel. But getting him to sleep is another thing...
What do you do in the evenings if Bubs won't sleep? How do you try to get them to sleep? Or does anyone else have a baby that's determined to be up all evening? I'm assuming he needs to go to bed, because in the daytime he never manages more than an hour / hour and a half awake. and he does seem tired... but I could be wrong?? He'd definitely more grizzly than usual, but happy enough when someone's holding him. At the moment, I try and put him down after he's been awake an hour or so and is starting to look tired, just like I do in the daytime (when it works great). If he cries I wait a moment or so to check he's not just going to stop, and give him a quick feed to calm him down, and try again. And if that doesn't work, I'll get him up, cuddle him a bit (half an hour?), and try again... but it does feel like I'm spending my whole evening battling to get him off to sleep. Should I just give up and keep him up? (I'd rather not, you have to hold him the whole time or he howls) -------------   
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Replies:
Posted By: E&L+1
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 8:05am
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Some babies feed on and off for a while in the evenings while grizzling in between. I would try and go with it and just cuddle as he is still little. I used to wear DD in a wrap when she was like that and often she would nap in between feeds and was happy cause she was close to me and I still had my hands free. Another life saver was our bouncer we would put her in there and gently bounce her. We mainly did this during dinner.
Do you have a bedtime routine that you use? ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: jano1
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 8:08am
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When my DD was that age we really struggled to get her to sleep before about 9pm. It has a name- the witching hour(s). What worked for us is I put DD in a front pack or a sling so I could get dinner ready etc.
Its quite common for them to be up longer in the evenings. When DD was about 3 months we started having a bedtime routine and she was in bed at 7pm, lights out. ------------- http://www.thebump.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=UBB&utm_campaign=tickers"> |
Posted By: nicandtyler
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 8:46am
Ah the witching hour - Yep Tyler was the same when he was little, wouldn't really settle until after 10-1030pm, so I'd second the sling idea, that way he'll probably sleep on you and you can get stuff done  And he'll grow out of, I think its quite common for them to be unsettled while they're still little  ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
 April '11
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Posted By: JadeC
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 9:06am
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What time are you starting?
I'd love to be putting DS down for the night at 7 like some do, but he's still eating every 2 hours then. So he just has another nap then, and we do a final feed around 9.30pm, then he's in bed for the night. ------------- http://pregnancy.baby-gaga.com/" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: londonbaby
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 10:27am
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DS goes down at 7 every night and has done since he was about 6 weeks old....I just make sure that he is up from about 4.30/5ish so that he is really ready for bed (during the day he is only up for a maximum of 1 1/2 hours just like Jacob). Then in that time between 430/5ish and 7 he gets fed, played with, bathed and then fed again then read a story then off to bed. Do you have a nightime routine? I found it bwas only once we had one in place that bedtime stopped being whenever he felt like it! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: Lucky apple
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 10:47am
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Our bub was the same. She was in the bassinet in the lounge with us - then one night (maybe about 6-8 weeks) decided to put the bassinet through in the kitchen (dark, quieter but still close enough to us that I didn't feel uncomfortable!!) She then got into a routine of going down at 8:30ish...then it progressively got earlier and earlier...she now (at 4 months) goes down every night at 6pm. She's moved from the kitchen...to going down in our room...and as of last night to her own room.
It helped me to think of those evening sessions as "tanking up" ie - more she fed at night, longer she'd sleep when she went down. |
Posted By: Nutella
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 11:52am
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We started the bedtime routine thing early on, probably almost from as soon as DS was born, tho at first it was just bath and feed! Seemed to work for us coz he has always been good at settling down around 6ish (tho this seems to be getting later now he is older sigh). However he would wake every 4 hours or so at night.
All babies are different tho and I think we might have just been lucky with our one tee hee, we never had to go through the witching hour and I kinda dread the next baby coz for sure it will be a ratbag. But if you are not doing a routine it is worth a try. ------------- 
 Oct 11
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Posted By: Hopes
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 4:43pm
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Thanks heaps We don't have a specific 'night-time' routine, although all his wake-ups have a pretty basic routine to them - feed one side / change / feed the other side / play / offer him another quick feed / bed, which works great in the day. I do his bath in the mornings, and don't really want to shift it back (because it's my favourite part of the day, he's so happy and splashy, and the times I've tried doing it at night he just grizzles the whole time).
I've been trying to have him down by 7. That works the odd time, otherwise it varies greatly between then and 1! -------------
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Posted By: Nutella
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 5:13pm
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maybe try something else for a night time routine...i know he is still young but even try reading a book or singing a song, quiet cuddles in a dark room..something different to what you do during the day so he recognises it is 'night time'. Might work?? -------------
Oct 11
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Posted By: JadeC
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 5:16pm
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Is it dark when you put him down? I'm sure DS settles so much better when it's pitch black. If I'm in the room reading by a lamp he seems to grumble and grunt for much longer than if all the lights are out. ------------- http://pregnancy.baby-gaga.com/" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 25 October 2010 at 5:18pm
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Haven't read the other posts but...
It's good to have a night time routine and keep it the same each night, even if the times adjust slightly. Evenings - most babies seem to like being up! It's kinda weird! But Lily was the same and often I would spend most of the evening feeding her and trying to put her down gently! But eventually I learned sometimes she just needed me to go away so she could grizzle and go off to sleep. Otherwise definitely recommend having a bedtime routine... Ours was at that age a bath about 7.30 (yup, quite late but it was still light outside (summer baby) and took her back into our room (her room also) and she would have a massage and we'd have the lights dim, room warm, and talk quietly and I would wrap her and feed her and put her to bed, mostly asleep but sometimes awake! And once we had a 'routine' she would settle a lot better! Hth! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: myonlineself
Date Posted: 26 October 2010 at 3:59pm
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My wee girl took a loong time to adjust her bedtime to a reasonable hour - for the first 3 or 4 months, it was 9 or 10pm... no matter what time we started the bedtime routine and the settling, we'd be in and out, up and down, feed, rock, pat, change etc all evening until the off switch at 10 or so... we would have phases of trying an early time and then get fed up with spending our evenings trying to settle her, so mainly we just followed her lead and enjoyed our evenings more with not trying to put her to bed. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: KatzWtgn
Date Posted: 26 October 2010 at 10:43pm
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DS was such a night owl for about the first 4 months -- he would be wide awake up to about 11pm. Funnily enough, this was also exactly what he was like when I was pregnant with him -- he was really active at night.
We didn't do anything because this timing suited us -- he would then pretty much sleep until 10am (waking for feeds, etc). But now he goes off to sleep about 8pm -- nothing we did -- I think it's just getting older. I'd agree with myonlineself -- just enjoy your evenings. I wouldn't assume he needs to sleep as long as he's happy and isn't giving sleepy cues. ------------- [IMG]http://lb3f.lilypie.com/rGG7p13.png] |