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| First Time Moms |
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| Can somebody please give me some advice. I have a 2 and a half month old daughter and i'm not sure when is a good time to put her to bed. I read that book Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child and it says to put them to bed early. I put her to bed tonight at 6:45 and i am so worried that by 3am she'll want to be up and playing. Anybody out there with babies about this age or now past that and have some advice for me? I really don't know what to do. She is obviously tired, but i don't know if at this time she should take another nap and stay up a little then go to bed. Any advice would be great. Thanks. Colleen |
| Posted by Colleen on 12/09/2007 06:59 PM
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Hi,
She is still so young and will probably still need to eat during the night. If she is tired then let her sleep. When my daughter was that age she didn’t have a sleep schedule, and she didn’t sleep through the night. She would go right back to sleep after a bottle. After about 6 months she started sleeping more through the night, getting up at about 5 or so. Hang in there, you will notice that babies sleep patterns change so much the first year. From teething, learning, dreaming etc. |
| posted by on 12/09/2007 07:27 PM
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Hi there,
When my daughter was 2.5 mths we would put her to bed around nine. (Now she's six mths and we start her bedtime routine at around 6:45. Why the switch? We just learned that her body started shutting down around 7:00-7:30. If we tried to feed her at 8:45 or 9:00, she'd freak!!! I think it was something that evolved as she grew older.) Nine o'clock sounds pretty late for a baby (I realize, though, that some moms and dads put their babies to sleep later), but it's just how it worked out. She'd wind up getting what I would call a "light snooze" before the 9:00-ish bewitching hour. The best advice I can give you is to take cues from your baby. There are countless books out there purporting their own ideas and agendas. Also, I just feel that babies are just so young at that age that you're not going to be shaping a long term sleeping schedule for them. Many of them still need to eat in the wee hours. I think if you're looking to get as much undisturbed shut-eye as possible, then put her to sleep for the night much later on.
Curious: do you swaddle? I just found at that age using a swaddle really helped keep her quiet and snug in her crib. On our video monitor I would wake in the early morning hours (you know, being paranoid because I didn't hear her), and I would see her awake, just swaddled up and looking around. Maybe she thought she was still the in womb or something, with all the white noise in the background... That might help to keep your little baby girl contented through the night.
Good luck!
Tara :) |
| posted by Tara on 12/09/2007 11:06 PM
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| My daughter is almost 5 months now adn we have a pretty good routine but she is usually in bed at about 9 or 10...then up anywhere from 2 to 9 hours later...depends on whatever she decides! If she is up in the middle of the night, she nurses then goes right back down usually. We do have a routine in place but sometimes she still messes it up. Once she is consistently sleeping through the night, we will start moving her bedtime back depending on what time she is waking in the morning. I think it is whatever works for your family...that is what you should do! |
| posted by kendra on 12/10/2007 06:54 PM
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| Your baby might be too young still to put her on a sleeping schedule but it doesn't hurt to try. My daugther is 6 months now and sleeps through the night. She goes to bed at 7:30 p.m. and wakes up at 6:30 a.m. She's been on that sleep routine since she was 3 months old. At 3 months I started bathing her every night at the same time (7:00 pm) and the bath helped her relax and she fell asleep every night by 7:30. However before her 3 months, she would usually go to sleep by 8:00 and would wake up every 3-4 hours a night for feedings but would go right back to sleep after that. I guess you'll just have to let her sleeping patterns develop a bit more. When your daughter turns 3 months you should probably try to develop a sleeling routine for her and hope that she adheres to it. Best of luck! |
| posted by Rita on 12/11/2007 08:42 PM
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| My daughter (now 5 months) started sleeping through the night at 2 months. What we have consistently done since she was born is lay her down about 9. She would wake up for a feeding, but then she just started sleeping through till morning. We have changed the routine a little going by her cues. She was going to bed about 8:30 for a while, but recently she has started telling me that she is really getting tired by 8 or 8:15. I would say if you are worried about her waking up through the night, to let her take a catnap and then about 9 (or whetever works for you) give her one last bottle before bed. She will be the overall judge of what happens, but that method worked for us. Do you have a bedtime routine? They really do help get the baby to realize that it is time for bed. |
| posted by Ashley on 12/12/2007 10:02 AM
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| Thank you everybody for your advice. It has been great. She actually is going to bed a little better the past couple days if we put her to bed around 9:30. I guess i get a little confused with the breastfeeding if she eats at like 8:00 and then is tired by 9pm then do i feed her again? She seems to do better going to bed if i feed her first, but i don't know if i should when it hasn't been that long. And will there even be any milk there. Sorry so many questions. Any advice on this one? Thanks! |
| posted by Colleen on 12/12/2007 01:01 PM
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| Yes there will be milk there after only an hour! Also, she probably nurses herself to sleep and just needs to top herself off before going to bed. She may not eat/need much but just that little bit will help her sleep longer and better. Hope this helps and I hope she sleeps well for you! |
| posted by kendra on 12/12/2007 01:10 PM
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Colleen,
A great book, (I've read many, i was looking for any sort of advice, or things to try before I met the online community of moms, and only liked one book btw) is the SLEEP EASY SOLUTION. It tackles issues about naps, what time and how much a baby needs to sleep at what age (it goes up to 5 yrs) how to wean the baby at night (I loved this part!) Everything you could possibly think of. It really is a great book. It even goes into how to handle time changes and potty training.
I hope u get it, it's 14.95. (I am in no way connected to anything in this book, just a big big fan lol)
Hope this helps |
| posted by Cara on 12/15/2007 07:35 AM
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