My baby boy will soon be 5 months old. We are struggling when it comes to getting a routine. He wont go to sleep without getting breastfed and he wont sleep before midnight. We get up aroun 9 in the morning and then he sleeps again around 12 for 1,5 hours and then he sleeps again betweek 4 and 5 for 1,5 hours and then he sleeps at midnight…He sleeps all night and wakes up only for milk. I breastfeed him every 2nd hours in the night these days which is extremely tiring…
so how do we make him sleep earlier in the night and how do we make him sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time..??
I think you should probably be grateful for what you have before other new moms come and release their wrath. :D
The fact that your child is sleeping from 12-9 is pretty great. If you want to make his bedtime earlier, try a warm bath and nursing around what you feel would be better for bedtime. He will probably wake up again in the middle and you just need to keep it dark and quiet and gently get him back to sleep. But it may take a little time.
mine is on a very similar schedule, also at almost 5 months. he was waking up every 4 hours because he was hungry. have you considered bfeeding him for longer or giving him top feed just before his bedtime? when i upped my kids' milk by an ounce, he suddenly went to eating every 6 hours- only wakes up once at night now- and sometimes even sleeps thru the night! hunger is probably the likely culprit for his waking up. his paed also said to give him his paci because sometimes they wake up out of habit... so try soothing him first and see if he settles before feeding him.
If you want to get him to sleep earlier, try putting him to bed half and hour earlier each week so he'll adjust to the new times. What I found was that I was automatically assuming my son was hungry every time he woke up at night. He was waking up every 2-3 hours. So one night instead of feeding him I started gently patting his back and making shushing noises and he went back to sleep for another 2 hours and then when he woke I knew he was hungry so I fed him .
Also he may be napping to late....you said he'll sleep at 4-5 for one and a half hour you may need to adjust .
This is the schedule we followed when my son was 5 months - of course each baby is different but just so you have an idea.
7:00 - wakeup - For the first few weeks I would wake him up at 7 because I wanted to ensure he slept earlier at night
9:30 - Nap for 1 1/2 hours
1:30 - Nap for 1 1/2 hours
7:00 - Bed time
10:00 - Wake him up for a feed
3:00 - night nurse
My son is now almost 8 and he stopped waking up for the 3:00 am feed, I still nurse him at 10:00 but he just drinks while still asleep.
What time does your son wake up ? I followed the baby wisperer book. His routine was all over the place and was driving me crazy so this is what we did. It advocates something they call E.A.S.Y (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You time). Other then the nursing advise in the book (which is wack) I found it to be really helpful.
Here's what we did to help my son adjust to a routine:
Day 1 & 2: Observe my sons routine: just made a note of his feeding time, nap time, sleep and wake up time....its really important that for these two days you sleep whenever the baby sleep cause the next few days will by crazy.
Day 3: The day starts at 7...if he's asleep wake him up, if he's a wake get him back to sleep following the PU/PD method....this is when you pick up to soothe the baby put him down and pat his back while making sushing noises....the first three days I did this for 2 hours on and off cause my son would wake up at 5.
7-7:30 nurse 7:30 to 9:15 play time.
9:15 I read him a book we cuddled and I put him in his crib....again it took at hour to get him to sleep.
11:00 - he was still asleep but I woke him up to nurse.
11:30 to 1:00 we played
1:00 - 1:30 - book, cuddle and again I put him in his crib and did PU/PD for 45 minutes.
3:00 - He didn't nap at all and at 3:00 I took him out of the crib, nursed and again we played until 6:30
6:30-7:00 - bath, book nurse.
7:00 bed time
The first few days were awful, my son was tired all the time and super cranky....there were times that I had to dance around the room with him to keep him awake or pat and making shusing noises for an hour to get him to sleep.
I would higly recommend that if you do this have someone else with you...we did it when hubby was on vacation.
Also remeber that after the first week of strict bedtimes, mealtimes and nap times you'll have to follow your babys cue, he may not sleep at the exact times but usually within half an hour of the times noted....
If you can get yourself a copy of the book its by Tracy Hogg.
By the 8th day he was sleepy at those time...I still had to put him in the crib and pat his back to get him to sleep but it only takes a few minutes.
my baby used 2 take feed after every 3 hrs whether day or night till 6 months i never let her sleep after 6 in the evening in this way at 10 she sleeps make sure u have a same bedtime rotine n it should be followed at same time whether weekends or not :)
mine is on a very similar schedule, also at almost 5 months. he was waking up every 4 hours because he was hungry. have you considered bfeeding him for longer or giving him top feed just before his bedtime? when i upped my kids' milk by an ounce, he suddenly went to eating every 6 hours- only wakes up once at night now- and sometimes even sleeps thru the night! hunger is probably the likely culprit for his waking up. his paed also said to give him his paci because sometimes they wake up out of habit... so try soothing him first and see if he settles before feeding him.
He doesnt drink from the bottle - only breastfeeding him. I have tried giving him from both breast just before bed time but he would wake up within 2 hours for more...
Day 3: The day starts at 7...if he's asleep wake him up, if he's a wake get him back to sleep following the PU/PD method....this is when you pick up to soothe the baby put him down and pat his back while making sushing noises....the first three days I did this for 2 hours on and off cause my son would wake up at 5.
could you explain this part? didnt understand this
here is my baby's schedule:
almost 9.30 - wake up, cuddle, change diapers and so on
almost 11.30 - breastfeeding, sleep - nap no. 1
almost 1 - wake up time after nap no.1, breastfeeding, playing,
almost 3.30- breastfeeding, time for nap no.2
almost 4.30 - wake up after nap
breatfeeding every 2nd hour
almost 23.30 - breastfeeding, he goes to sleep, wakes up for milk every 2nd hour during the night and goes back to sleep once he is done with breastfeeding.
could you explain this part? didnt understand this
here is my baby's schedule:
almost 9.30 - wake up, cuddle, change diapers and so on
almost 11.30 - breastfeeding, sleep - nap no. 1
almost 1 - wake up time after nap no.1, breastfeeding, playing,
almost 3.30- breastfeeding, time for nap no.2
almost 4.30 - wake up after nap
breatfeeding every 2nd hour
almost 23.30 - breastfeeding, he goes to sleep, wakes up for milk every 2nd hour during the night and goes back to sleep once he is done with breastfeeding.
Wake him up at 7:00 am....and breastfeed him, that's when both of you should get up. If he's up since 7 am and takes two naps a day he'll be sleepy by around 7-8. Your nap times seem fine. What you may want to do is, wake him up at 7 and for the first night try putting him to bed at 10:00 pm then the second at 9:00 pm, the third at 8:30 pm and so on until he gets used to sleeping at an earlier time.
Wake him up at 7:00 am....and breastfeed him, that's when both of you should get up. If he's up since 7 am and takes two naps a day he'll be sleepy by around 7-8. Your nap times seem fine. What you may want to do is, wake him up at 7 and for the first night try putting him to bed at 10:00 pm then the second at 9:00 pm, the third at 8:30 pm and so on until he gets used to sleeping at an earlier time.
ok thanks but why did you do this:
if he's asleep wake him up, if he's a wake get him back to sleep following the PU/PD method....this is when you pick up to soothe the baby put him down and pat his back while making sushing noises....??
ok thanks but why did you do this:
if he's asleep wake him up, if he's a wake get him back to sleep following the PU/PD method....this is when you pick up to soothe the baby put him down and pat his back while making sushing noises....??
My son was waking up at 5:00 am so we had to get him to sleep until 7:00 am atleast. He was tired but was waking up out of habit.