when did you DC get on some semblance of a schedule?

[lmh2402]

DD continues to defy all the "rules" of Weisbluth and others

i mean, i know they're not actual rules...but more norms, i suppose

anyway she's 11.5 weeks and still doesn't go longer than 3 hours between feedings. on a good day/night, i might get a four hour stretch between the start of one feeding and the start of the next.

this really sucks at night. b/c between nursing usually for about 30 min and then holding upright for 30 min, by the time i lay down and fall asleep, she's back up in 1.5-2 hours

and there is absolutely zero predictability. she does not go down at the same time each night. she doesn't wake at roughly the same times each night.

i'm desperate for just some routine. even so that i could have a better sense of why to try to run to bed.

so. tired.

thanks.

[edurnemk]

DS became predictable at 5 months. It took him forever to sleep more tha 4 hours at night. During the day he nursed every 2 hours for several months IIRC and he was a terrible napper. He was a really slow nurser, it was a45 minute deal the furts few months.

DD is a week older than yours, she nurses every 2 hours during the day, her naps are very unpredictable still. At night she usually does one 6 hour stretch and then a 3 hour stretch (I consider myself very lucky after the way things were with DS). I think at this age it's hard to apply any rules yet. Plus the range of normal is so wide.

[rin]

I honestly can't remember with DD1, but DD2 (15 weeks) has had a rough schedule for the past 6ish weeks or so.

She goes to bed sometime between 5:30 and 7:30, usually sleeps until 10ish and wakes up to nurse and go right back to sleep. If she doesn't wake up then, I'll wake her & nurse her when I go to bed (somewhere between 11 & midnight). She usually wakes up once sometime between 2 and 4 am, nurses & goes back to sleep, then wakes up for the day between 6:30 and 7:15ish. Take her first nap starting at about 8:30 (usually a short 45-60 minute nap), then is up for an hour or two, then another nap, etc. During the day she usually takes two 45-60 minute naps and one longer 2-3 hour nap, with the time varying. Then depending on when her long naps were and when she woke up, she'll crash out for the night again between 5:30 and 7:30 or so.

Of course there are nights where she's up more, but what I wrote above is the rough norm.

ETA: Forgot to add; she nurses every 2ish hours during the day, unless she's been asleep.

[queenmama]

DD is 5mo and alllll over the place.

She had been on a schedule of waking once per night to nurse (sleeping 11 or 12 hours total), one 3-4hr nap, and a few shorter, 40ish minute naps. She nursed about every 3 hours when she was awake.

Then we hit the 4mo regression. She's back to nursing every 3 hours, including at night. It's killing me!

I tried having DH help me by soothing her with me out of the room (we co-sleep), but she would just cry. The first night was okay, she went back to sleep after crying for 2 minutes. The following night took 4. The next night, she cried for almost 15 minutes while I went to the basement and did some laundry. I couldn't take it. She was so upset that the next time she woke up she was completely hysterical, like she was already panicked that I wouldn't be there. So I gave up. I'm not strong enough for that.

It is miserable, but I keep telling myself that it won't last forever. And she's my last baby so I am trying to enjoy her, even when she exhausts me.

[AngelaS]

What helped mine become predictable was that i woke them up at the same time every morning to start our day. Then they ate every three hours and as they wanted at night. I would wake them to eat every 3 hours during the day if they didnt wake on their own.

[Katigre]

DD continues to defy all the "rules" of Weisbluth and others

i mean, i know they're not actual rules...but more norms, i suppose

anyway she's 11.5 weeks and still doesn't go longer than 3 hours between feedings. on a good day/night, i might get a four hour stretch between the start of one feeding and the start of the next.

this really sucks at night. b/c between nursing usually for about 30 min and then holding upright for 30 min, by the time i lay down and fall asleep, she's back up in 1.5-2 hours

and there is absolutely zero predictability. she does not go down at the same time each night. she doesn't wake at roughly the same times each night.

i'm desperate for just some routine. even so that i could have a better sense of why to try to run to bed.

so. tired.

thanks.

My kids' predictability always went with sleep and not feeding. I never even charted/tracked how often they ate b/c it could vary a lot. Going 3+ hours between feedings is more common in formula-fed babies b/c of how much longer it takes to digest It is NOT normative for breastfed babies who should be feeding every 2-3 hours during the day and every 2-5 hours during the night: 8-12 feedings per day is the average. There are multiple biological reasons for this. What can you do to make nursing less tiring for yourself? That can make a big difference My friends who were stuck sitting on a couch with a boppy each time they nursed resented the frequent feedings far more than my experience of nursing on the go during whatever we happened to be doing/wherever we happened to be. Yesterday we were at a water park and I nursed DS 2-3 times in the span of the three hours we were there while watching the kids.

BUT their 'sleep/wake' time was very consistent. That didnt correspond to a regular clock time but did give me predictability, and this was evident from 6is weeks old but got more established by 3-4 months old. All three of mine have followed Weissbluth's Sleep Window or whatever that was called - maybe the 2 hour window? Basically a baby wont go longer than 2 hours awake without being overtired, and often it is less than that when they are very young.

Ex DS2 is 2 months old and he goes 75-90 minutes from wake up to next sleeping time. Today he woke up at 6:45am which means that by 8am/8:15am he'll be ready to sleep and if I get his window just right he'll go down super easily. He will nap anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours so depending on when he wakes up will tell me the next time he'll go down - in another 90 minutes He's also pretty predictable in terms of night in that once its 8pmish hell be ready to sleep for the night and wont have another awake time. HE still nurses during the night every 2-4 hours but not while awake.

Does that make sense? It's not a strict schedule but more observing his natural rhythms and incorporating them into our day.

[SimonaG]

Hello everyone!

Im just about beginning to sleep train my 3 mo old girl. She naps well in the afternoons and in the evenings after a bath and her feed, she is ready to play! Ive tried to leave her in the crib for a while but the crying and shouting makes me very sad and i end up going to her bed side. I even carried her a few times but my husband made me put her down. Instead of carrying her, he has started to pat her in her crib and sing. Any recommendations? At times we are up until 3am!!!

Please HELP!!!

[SnuggleBuggles]

4-6m, closer to 6 really.

[Clarity]

Yeah, 3 months old is really too early to try sleep training. If you really want to start working on a more predictable bedtime, give her her bath earlier so that she has the time to play as she seems to want. After an hour or so of that, she'll be ready to start winding down and you'll have a better shot at getting her to sleep. I nursed my kids to sleep until they stopped falling asleep that way and then we started working on alternative ways to get to sleep. Everyone does it differently but IMHO, 3 months is too young to have her crying it out.

[edurnemk]

Yeah, 3 months old is really too early to try sleep training. If you really want to start working on a more predictable bedtime, give her her bath earlier so that she has the time to play as she seems to want. After an hour or so of that, she'll be ready to start winding down and you'll have a better shot at getting her to sleep. I nursed my kids to sleep until they stopped falling asleep that way and then we started working on alternative ways to get to sleep. Everyone does it differently but IMHO, 3 months is too young to have her crying it out.

Dr. Ferber says you shouldn't sleep train before 6 months old. But what you can do now is give her a predictable schedule during the day, and a consistent bedtime routine. Watch her cues for sleep readiness, there's no point in trying to make a baby sleep when they are in the "awake" part of the sleep to wake cycle, she'll just get really worked up. A while before bedtime turn the lights down a bit, make sure there's no loud noises, just start winding down so she can relax and mentally prepare for sleep. If she wakes during the night, just nurse or feed her without interacting much, so she'll go back to sleep more easily.