Sleep patterns & routine Update

A&J

Ok, I know every baby is different and I seriously have not expected to be sleeping through the night or have a perfect routine. Just wondering how things have happened or are happening for others.

Anna and I are very fortunate to have such an easy-going overall smiley, happy baby. My only complaint is that I am tired and would of course love a little extra sleep. Each night we either bathe Olivia or wipe her down with a warm rag, we put a fresh diaper on and some pjs. She usually hangs out with her momma and listens to music while I take a quick shower, then we all do a story together and at some point either before or after the story I nurse her. I then put her down to sleep in her rock n play. She consistently wakes up every 2.5-3 hours to eat. This is the part that is difficult for me; never sleeping more than 3 hours at a time. I constantly hear about others' babies that sleep anywhere from 5-11 hours per night regularly and cannot even imagine! Olivia turns 2 months old tomorrow. When did your child start sleeping several hours at a time regularly? Also, do you have a specific time that you start your night routine with your baby? I know that as she gets older it will be more important to have a set time for bed, but at 2 months we've just been putting her down when it works for us--Anna's schedule varies, so in order for her to be part of the night routine we haven't established a bed time...

So, just wondering what your nighttime is like.

UPDATE
So, last night Olivia woke up once, well twice depending on how you look at it:). I had kind of hit my max without sleep, so I pumped a bottle and Anna and I switched sides of the bed so she would be next to Olivia's sleeper. I bf Olivia for the last time at 10 pm, we put her down for the night and A heard her making little fussing noises right before 3 a.m.! She made it almost 5 hours, which is STTN!!! So A grabbed her and tried to feed her with the bottle ( this was the hardest part). She ate then went back down until 5ish this morning, A grabbed her and tossed her into bed with us and she slept until 9 am! The most difficult part of the night was Anna feeding Olivia with the bottle. So, tonight we are going to have A sleep next to Olivia again, and just wake me and have me feed her. Waking up once or twice through the night would be an amazing change for me. So, I am wondering if one of the sleeping issues is that I somehow wake her, or maybe she smells the milk, or who knows, I am just so excited that I slept nearly 5 hours straight! Oh, and did I mention how smiley and cute she is this morning, even more than usual! Sleep is good for all!

K&H

We had a pretty variable night for a long time. She would go to bed in just about the same way, but the time varied. Around 4 months we started getting more strict with what time she went to bed, and she went to bed at 5:30pm at that point. She would sleep four hours, then three hours, then two hours, two hours, two hours, maybe three. We decided for our sanity to bring her into bed after the first two hour wake up. So, what worked for us to get more sleep was that H fed her at 5:30, then pumped at 7:30 and then fed her at 9:30. Then she went to bed. When E woke up at 12:30, I got up and gave her the bottle of pumped milk and put her back in her crib. Then, when she got up at 2:30, she came in bed with us for the rest of the night. This slowly stretched to 3, and then 4am. Then she started to sleep thru the 9:30 and not get up til around midnight. So, probably around 6 months she was going to bed around 6:45, sleeping til 12:30, then coming into bed with us around 3:30 or 4am. Around 7 months she stopped getting up at 12:30, and now, at nearly 8 months, she sleeps from 7:30 to 4 or later, then comes to the bed with us. One night she slept til 6am!! :-) but that doesn't happen very often.
We consider this to be sleeping thru the night, especially as she sleeps in til 7:30 during the week with us and 8:30 or 9 on the weekends.
Technically it's considered sleeping thru the night when they sleep 5 hours, which is complete craziness to me.. I don't consider that to be a full night's sleep! I think a lot depends on their weight and what they're eating as well. I've had lots of formula fed babies that were bigger and slept 10 hours at 4 months, but for breastfed babies that's rare.

jenoglv

Ever though about cosleeping? Until teething and sickness came along about a month ago, Rhys had always slept through the night. My trick was sticking a booby in his mouth, and letting him comfort nurse all night. Not for everyone, but it worked for us.

michgirl

Sorry to tell you this but my boys are 16 mo old and Jax sleeps through the night every night. Jorddan has slept through the night TWICE!

Goobie

I'm another party pooper... my kids were awful sleeper, neither slept through the night till they were over 3 years old. BUT Tay (my stepdaughter) said that our granddaughter slept 5 hours 2 nights ago (at 5 days old) because she slept on her dads chest all night, so maybe co-sleeping would work for you? I was never able to co-sleep with my older kids, and don't plan on doing it this time round either, I am an insomniac so when I sleep I sleep HARD and I thrash about a fair amount, to me thats not safe, but if you can sleep "normally" then go for it if it allows you a few more hours of shut eye.

Zen

Weeks 4-8 Shiloh was colicky at night but after that (and before too) she would sleep for about 4-5 hours at a time. So if she slept from 12-5 and I did too, it almost felt like sleeping through the night. At most she would wake up for one feeding. Of course, this was while sleeping in the swing. It was around 2-3 months that I realized that she'd sleep all night in the swing but wake several times in the crib. So I'd start her in the swing, then move her to the crib. And if she woke up, do it all over. By the 3rd wake up, I'd leave her in the swing. She's 2-1/2 now and while she'll sleep in the crib now, the swing is still our best friend!

twicejess

Lauren slept through the night (8 hours) around 2 weeks and then 12 hours at 8 weeks. She was a bigger baby (8lb 14 oz) and I had to supplement with formula. I never produced enough to satisfy her. She has always been a good sleeper.
We started a loose schedule with her around 2 months, bath at 7, bottle, bed. and it seemed to work for us.

Good luck!

TxMoms2B

2.5 months was the magic # for us. The most he'd sleep for before that point was maybe 3 hours. It was like he knew that he needed to start sleeping longer at just the right point, cuz I went back to work a few days after he started sleeping thru the night. He started with just 5 hours, but now he sleeps at least 8. Our routine is bath, bottle, diaper change, swing (since he hates the crib and doesn't much care for his co-sleeper anymore).

sara291

That sounds normal I think. Z was a great sleeper but Riley is horrible!!!! At 11 months he finally started sleeping more then 3 hour stretches! I had tried everything!! I got all the highly recommended no-cry & cry it out books and nothing ever helped. At 12 months for a while he was just waking once but the last few weeks he is back to being sensitive but not horrible at night. I slept in the same room as Riley last night and it sucked. He woke up several times if I barely moved he would start crying. He always sounded like he was in a light sleep or restless. I'd love to night wean but I finally got him down to one nursing and his 5-7 hour stretches are way better then before it's not worth the risk of messing that up. At 2 months I would still feed that often if she wants it but just keep doing what your doing.

cocobay

Since I have gotten pregnant, alot of older women in my family give me "advice". The most consistant bit of advice is to feed the baby cereal starting after 1 month to get a longer nights sleep. I know some women on here are probably going to be so furious with this answer, and I have yet to give birth and experience anything you are going through but I just want to say a friend of mine was going through the same thing you are describing and she started to feed her daughter cereal at 1 month and she started sleeping from 10p.m.- 4a.m. She wakes her up to feed her once in that time period but baby goes right back to sleep. I didn't beleive her when she told me but they stayed a weekend with us a few weeks ago and she is telling the truth. That was the best sleeping baby I have ever seen. I know it is not recomended by pediatricians but that is what most of the women in my family keep telling me. Good Luck, hope you find sometime to sleep soon!

K&H

Cocobay, I would really recommend that you read up on infants and feeding. Especially some of the new research on rice cereal and obesity. Additionally, the reason why they recommend waiting to feed infants solid food is because their intestines are not fully formed yet and can't process the food. It seems shortsighted to me to push food on a child's immature system just to get some more sleep. The waking at night period really is so short already, for my children I just won't push to have it over with sooner to the detriment of the rest of their lives.

cocobay

K&H, that is interesting and does make sense. Although I have yet to research I just wanted to give the little bit of info that I was given. That is all.

PtownMoms

Well Finn was sleeping through the night since birth (we even had to wake her up in the hospital to feed her). Once we got her home and got the ok to let her sleep without feeding/waking we just let her sleep...which was typically from about 10:30-6:30 or 7:00. She is about to be 5 months old and is eating a little cereal...and a couple/few weeks ago her sleep hasn't been that great. It's gotten even worse since we just moved to PA...I think she's just adjusting to a new place. BUT, she's still sleeping pretty good in comparison to our friends baby for example. She goes to bed now between 8-9....and has been getting up between 3-5....so "technically" she is sleeping through the night. Like K&H said...they consider 5 hours of sleep to be sleeping through the night. UM...for who?!?! HA. When she wakes up between 3-5 she wants to eat. We feed her, change her...and she's been sleeping till 8 or 9. She still doesn't nap for long periods of time. We didn't even attempt to have any kind of schedule until around 4 months old (so really only like 4 weeks ago). Right now our nighttime routine consists of cereal and bottle around 7:30, a bath, pj's, snuggles/story time/and if she has any bottle left we give her the rest. By 8:15 we have her in her sleep sack (sometimes she is still swaddled..she LOVES it) and we are rocking her. Sometimes she'll fall right to sleep and we can lay her down no problem. Other nights (like last night)...it took laying her down 4 times for her to stay asleep. We usually put her in the co-sleeper (in our room) and she stays there until she wakes up...then we put her in bed with us.

As for the food thing...I asked our pedi if she thought it would help her sleep better. She said that most research shows that it actually does NOT improve sleep. Typically babies don't sleep better because of a full tummy...it's usually just based on their age...and if they are ready to sleep. We definitely did NOT notice a different in sleep when we introduced cereal...but we have friends who swear that their babies started sleeping better when the introduced food/cereal at 4-6 months. So, who knows?

starfish2318

We didn't feed Olivia anything but BM until 6 1/2 months, and then she got cereal, followed shortly after by purees. We have never put cereal in her bottle either, only fed by spoon and a bowl. Never used it or intended to use it to get more sleep. She happens to be a great sleeper, but even if not I wouldn't give cereal to try to get sleep, it really can mess up their tummies. Maybe it wouldn't be noticible until later on, but sooooo not worth messing up a baby's stomach just to get sleep. Very scary to me! Our Pedi told us we could introduce cereal at 4 mo. if we thought she was hungry or needed it, but she never did and was always satisfied by breast milk only. Both grandmas tried to push cereal to "get her to sleep longer" and it was soooooo super annoying. A lot of advice older generations give is completely wrong, inaccurate, false, and can even be harmful. We definitely did our research before taking any advice from grandmas, they think they know it all in our family! Olivia has slept 12 hours for a long time now, and we STILL got asked once she started solids if she slept any better....not sure how much better 12 hours can get! She has to wake up sometime LOL.

Almost everyone in our close circle of family makes fun of us and thinks we are extreme, just because we waited to feed her, make her food, use California baby products and 7th gen. diapers and wipes, swaddled her, and kept her on her back until she started rolling...among other things! As a parent, you really have to do what is right for your child, because once the baby is here EVERYONE, and I mean everyone, has an opinion.

Zen

The cereal thing is funny. When I was a baby, and when I was babysitting, cereal was added to the bottle at 2 months. Supposedly it helped babies sleep longer but it was thought babies needed the extra nutrition too. And then you started your baby on purees at 3-4 months. Fast forward a few decades and the thinking has changed. Now you wait until 4-6 months to start cereal, and purees wait another month to be introduced. I was a new mom of the 21st century so I went with the new theology. Started cereal at 5 months and purees at 6-7 months. I have to say though, Shiloh's Cuban babysitter and all my Latin friends thought I was nuts. Guess they didn't get the latest news on baby rearing!

But all that aside, 20, 30, 40 years ago? Lots of babies didn't sleep through the night! Hence the global understanding that you get no sleep once the baby comes. My personal belief is that whatever you do is right. Unless it isn't. And you'll be the first to know what's right because both you and your baby will be happy. Maybe not well rested. But happy

Kari

Justin is 22 months and I'm still waiting for him to sleep through the night. Unless he's sick, he wakes halfway through the night for a bottle, and then again about an hour before he gets out of bed. Throw teething or colds into the mix, and he wakes every hour or two. He has bronchitis right now, and it's been a crazy week sleep-wise.

FWIW, I read somewhere about a month ago (maybe Parenting magazine?) that "sleeping through the night" means 5 hours for a baby.

mommylove

I found this to be a great post to read...
I've been slightly concerned because Sebastian at nearly 2 weeks old sleeps through the night (if by definition we are saying 5hrs is sleeping through the night for a baby). We haven't of course established any type of nighttime routine as of yet, but I breastfeed him late night around 10pm and we put him down in bed with us while DP and I take a minute to read, just breathe and be quiet, etc. :-) He then sleeps until about 3am and wakes for a feeding. I breastfeed for about 20-30mins and then he goes back to sleep until about 8am.
During the day his feedings are far more regular, say about every 2-3hrs. As Carrie of Ptownmoms said we also had to wake him in the hospital for night feedings because he just slept so good, but it seems silly to do so now when seemingly he does so well and let's face it we all need any rest we can get right now.

Anyway, nice perspective to get everyones opinions on bedtime routines and sleep patterns. Eventually DP and I would just like to be able to part with Sebastian for even a few hours during the night (we have a bassinet in our room but only use it so far for daytime naps) so we can remember what it's like to have a little alone time together... ;-)

A&J

Thanks for everyone's responses. We are trying to keep things simple but switch a few things up...only one or two variables at a time though so we may know what works...

@mommylove---you brought up a good topic-alone time after the baby. Let me know how this works because we still don't have it figured out...just when we think Olivia is asleep or down for a long nap...