🚨 Advance warning 🚨 This forum will be closing on 1st May – please see our pinned thread for more information.
Bedtimes
What are your bedtime routines with your lo's, what time do they go to sleep and how long does it take?
We start between 6 and 8 and we bath, massage, feed, cuddles then put to bed but it can take about an hour to get Riley down. That hour is filled with dummy runs, rocking moses basket, hairdryer/music playing to get him to sleep or at least to stop crying. I'm not sure whether this is due to the blackout blind not totally blacking the light out, yet he can have fairly decent naps in the day.
xxx
We start between 6 and 8 and we bath, massage, feed, cuddles then put to bed but it can take about an hour to get Riley down. That hour is filled with dummy runs, rocking moses basket, hairdryer/music playing to get him to sleep or at least to stop crying. I'm not sure whether this is due to the blackout blind not totally blacking the light out, yet he can have fairly decent naps in the day.
xxx
0
Replies
Riley wakes to be fed 3 times after bedtime and before morning usually at around 10pm-11pm. 1.30am and 4.30am-5am. Luckily he falls asleep on the bottle at these feeds so there's never much of a problem getting him back down.
xxx
I literally cant wait till she sleeps thru the night but i guess she'll do it when she's good and ready.
The theory is that it's all about over stimulation so the key is to get baby as relaxed as possible.
I don't know if it's all a coincidence and he's just going through a new phase but this is what i found has helped:
-a short nap (5pm) 2 hours before we plan to put him to bed(7pm), i can't get him to take this in his cot so we go for a walk as he always sleeps in his pram
-the next 2 hours are low key, no exciting play-we walk around the garden, sits quietly in his chair, watches us having our tea
-around 6.30 we go upstairs, all very quiet whispers. I used to bath Max now but although he tolerates it when he's happy, when he's getting tired it wires him up so i bath in the morning a few times a week.
-top and tail, massage his legs, nappy change, into pj's.
-we lie on the bed and have very quiet quick story then he has a feed if he wants one (bf on demand) then he's down in his basket.
Now this is where we were going wrong i think. The reading i did said that babies take 10mins of grizzling/crying to get to sleep. I was sshing, rocking, picking up, hairdryer the lot. The last few nights weve left him to grizzle, if he starts crying i go in pat his tummy and shhhh, if he starts crying hard i pick him up and hold him-no rocking just hold him still.
The first night we did this it took an hour, the second night 30 mins and tonight 10!! I suppose it's a gentle version of controlled crying, i couldn't leave him cry at this age but i was picking him up when he was grizzling and it was his way of getting off to sleep.
Hope some of this helps you, got to be worth a try! Now if anyone can tell me how to get him to sleep through and not wake up at 5am i'll be a very happy mummy!!xx
We are having real problems getting Ollie to sleep in the evenings. We dont have a time as such more a sequence of events we follow which goes-
Naked time, bath, massage, into nightclothes and then we try offering cool boiled water with gripe water as Ollie can be quite windy in the evenings. He may take this or may not and then may have a feed or may not (he is still totally BF on demand)
This is usually where it all goes wrong! He will get really sleepy at this time but whatever we try we cant get him to drop off and the tired-er he gets the harder it is to get him to sleep!
Last night we had him all ready for bed by 8.30pm but it took until 11.15pm to get him actually asleep!
The worst thing is this is Hubby's main time with Ollie and it is spent with him screaming and us both snapping at each other as we are both tired/hungry/wanting to shower etc.
We have tried a dummy which he will take sometimes, rocking him, cuddling him. I really dont want to leave him to cry.
Oh and Kel, Ollie still wakes 2-3times a night for feeds also!
6 - massage. He still doesn't like this very much so I do this first in case he gets wound up.
6:30 - bath with dad who then gets him into his sleepsuit and sleeping bag.
7(ish) - bottle of EBM and burp
7:15(ish) - story
If he hasn't fallen asleep during his story he is put down and his mobile is turned on. He will usually then fuss himself to sleep in about ten minutes or less, although he has been known to lie quietly chattering to himself for up to 45 min. Occasionally he demands to be fed again, usually for 10 minutes or so and will go to sleep while feeding. I'm not mad about this but he only does it very occasionally now so I don't think it is a habit.
He will then wake to eat 2-3 times during the night and is now refusing to go back to sleep after 6 am which is a bit of a pain. But I guess you can't have everything...
Pixiebob, what you said about stimulation was interesting though. I may see how I can apply that.
xx
xxx
[Modified by: Beth24 on June 03, 2009 10:29 PM]
At 10 weeks old I'm still trying to gradually encourage good sleeping patterns but I'm no good at tough love so crying out is not an option for me. This is possibly going to bite me later.
We are winning battles gradually but I'm trying to pick which ones I actually worry about. e.g. I'm assuming she'll extend the time before her 2nd feed which means eventually she'll wake at 7am for feed.
Anyway goodluck!