8 week old and routine?

I have an eight week old who for the past two weeks has decided to take two hours to get to sleep after her 10pmish feed. I know a routine is not 100% usefull to an eight week old but a rough guide from any mothers out there would be great.

Such as how many feeds? Day and night?

Most importanly any tips for getting past this.

Oh she sleeps great during the day and once she is feed we play then once there are tired signs I put her to bed and she will often go to sleep without any help.

BUT - when it comes to this 10pm ish feed I don;t play with her, I rock her partly to sleep but she sleeps for ten minutes and then wakes. This continues on and on.

There have been nights when if she goes down and stays down she will sleep through, but if she keeps waking she will feed around 2amish and the cycle contiues.

Ahy thoughts and tips would be very much appreciated. My Husband works night shift so it makes it even harder to have a crying baby and no one else to take her for even five minutes.

Hi... hugs to you.. It is very hard to get an 8 week old into a routine but it can be done. Is she BF or FF? My DS is fully BF and I feed on demand so it could be 5-10 feeds in 24 hours just depending on what he feels like. The things that I make sure that I do before bed is give him the sleep time cues such as bath, story, feed, sleep. I ALWAYS put him to sleep awake in his cot - I never rock him to sleep as when he wakes after the first sleep cycle (45 minutes) it is exactly the same as when he fell asleep. This is probably my number 1 advice... Sometimes he crys but it is only for a minute or so and then he falls asleep on his own. I also have a 2.5yr old and he still can't put himself to sleep so my second bub is completely different... All bubs are different!

This is generally my daily routine... My bub is 4.5 months old but I have been doing this from day one..:-

6:30am - 7:00am - he wakes on his own and i give him a feed and then he has a play

9:30 - 10:00am - he will usually be displaying tired signs about now so I will give him another feed and pop him into bed he will generally sleep for 1.5-2 hours. Sometimes he doesn't sleep too well during the day but because he gives me a full 12 hours at night I am not too concerned, it's just hard to get stuff done during the day thats all.

1:00pm - wakes and I give him a feed. He will generally stay awake until about 3:00pm - 4:00pm and go back down for a "nap" so really only about 45 minutes.

6:30pm - I will bath, story and he will be in bed no later than 7:00pm.

Sometimes if he is really tired and missed his afternoon nap he will be in bed by no later than 6:00pm and still sleep until 6:00-6:30am.

I think when they are this little you just have to go with the flow.

Do you have another child or is she your first? I would just relax, not get too stressed over it especially if she is your first child. Just give her your attention, kissess, cuddles, songs, books and she will eventually understand that night time is sleep time..

Good luck and sending heaps of *sleeping vibes****.... LOL xxoo

Thanks for that MickynDan. Just a quick question. How early was your little one sleeping twelve hours?

This is my first so I am a little cautious to do things right. Doctors and Midwives tell you one thing, but I would prefer to hear from those who have put it into practice recently.

I'm just afraid of having a child that still wakes during the night when they are older.

I guess the sooner I have some sort of structure (although I understand it must be flexible) the better I will feel.

Thanks again

Hi - I understand how you feel COMPLETELY! My DS is also 8 weeks and sleeps pretty well during the day but it's the early morning feed (somewhere between 2 and 4am) when he seems to have trouble getting back to sleep and wanting to play. Is yours in your room or in his own? We've just moved DS to his own room because of all the noises he makes when sleeping or going to sleep (mind you the monitor still means I hear most of it but DH is sleeping better now...) I've also just stopped even patting his bum to sleep at night and straight after a feed I re-wrap him so his arms can't get out and wake him and I just put him back in his cot. It seems to be getting better - it worked beautifully last night... but like everything so far I'm not holding my breath as he always changes just when I think I've worked something out... What do you do during the day that may be different to the 10ish sleep? I have a loose routine going because I'm a routines and lists type of person but it's hard not to work to a clock for the first time in my life... While I am breastfeeding, in theory on demand, we seem to have fallen into a pattern of 3 1/2 to 4 hourly and I try to distract him with other things if he wakes earlier, not that that happens often.

My eldest still wakes at night, can't put himself to sleep and I partly blame myself because I believe this is what we have taught him to do from day one. We used to rock him to sleep, always put him in his cot asleep so he NEVER learnt to actually do it himself. Now we are stuck with him sleeping on our floor on a matrass in our room. This is a step up because he used to sleep with us, even when I was pregnant with DS#2. The only thing that I can stress to you is to put him down to sleep awake so that he learns to put himself to sleep. This is what I have done with DS#2 and it obviously works because he has been sleeping through since about 7 weeks (by sleeping through I mean longer than 5 hours). He has been sleeping 12 - 13 hours a night from about 12 weeks old.

There is nothing worse than midnight feeds and wakings. I seriously don't know how I ever survived with my first one. He woke up to 5 times a night until he was about 18 months old... OMG - I just can't believe I survived it but I did and now I have an "angel" who sleeps extremely well.

The second thing is it is okay to let your little one cry... If he is tired he is going to cry but if he is hungry he will have a different cry. Have you worked out your little one's different crys? If you can pick these it will make it a lot easier for you. I let my little one cry for a couple of minutes to get himself to sleep and he will put himself to sleep. If I keep going in there it delays the process. I obviously don't let himself get worked up to a point where there is no way he will go to sleep but I monitor his cries and listen to them so I know where he is at - does this make sense?

I used to post on this website with my eldest because he just wouldn't sleep and people used to tell me the above and I could never understand how people ever did it but trust me it does work and it does get better if you get them to put themselves to sleep.

Anymore questions feel free to post or you can private message me or email me as well (mickyndan@optusnet.com.au), I will be happy to answer any of your questions and give you more hints and tips because I know how stressful a non-sleeping baby at night can be... Good Luck xxoo

hi there
i am not v good at a routine all day and night - i tend to just watch DS and see what he is up to and follow those cues...
but i do have a night bed time routine - play time with me and DH, shower, massage, feed, rock, sleep. he had been sleeping through (about 9-10 hrs) since 8 weeks until the last week or so when he has started to wake again... (so i am now reviewing what we do..). i must say i used to be able to feed him and put him in cot awake and he would drift off, but now he seems to need rocking to sleep. maybe i need to get a bit more hard core!!!
however i def recommed a bed time ritual/process - this has worked well for us and DS def goes off to bed for along sleep at night as opposed to the day.

I'm wanting to try letting mine cry himself to sleep so he learns, starting with day sleeps which have gone a little bit weird lately, but I have 2 problems/questions. Firstly my problem is my MIL... if she's here she goes straight to him - how do I let him cry, while monitoring it obviously, and get people to mind their business... I've never been good with saying what I really think with her and she drops in a fair bit... The other question is how long do you let them cry at a young age? I'm getting to know his cries but he manages to get wound up pretty quickly and then they become almost unidentifiable.