Is it too early to start my 8 week old daughter on a sleep schedule?

Question

I am trying to establish good sleeping habits for my 8 week old daughter by putting her to sleep in her own bedside sleeper at night without falling asleep in my bed first or her swing, bouncer. I also want to start getting her down in her bed for naps too. Is this too early? It takes sometimes 5 minutes and other times an hour and half to get her down. I have been starting at 10:30pm the last 4 nights and usually get her down by midnight.

Answer 1

It may be still alittle early, depending how you want to go about it. Most sleep schedule practices are not reccomended to start until the child is 6-8 months or older, however most of these are very harsh changes like crying it out.

If you are going about it in a very gentle way then I don't think there would be to much harm in it but I also don't know how successful you will be because infants that age just don't have the physial ability to fall asleep by themselves.
However you could probably get her on a bit more of a schedule. Most kids (my chidlren all did) pretty much put themselves in to their own sleep schedual, they would nurse and sleep around the same times every day by that age, so if your child isn't doing that then you may be able to gentle urge her into one.

My suggestion would be to start by if your child falls asleep earlier then you like just try and keep her up a little extra longer, like 10 minutes, nothing to long as being to sleepy makes it harder for infants to fall asleep. As she gets used to that try incresing the 10 minutes to longer periods until shes sleeping when you want her too.

Or if she sleeps too long during the day try waking her up after her nap at a certain time. But make sure her nap was long enough that she isn't going to fall back asleep in 30 minutes.

here is some good sleep help pages.
https://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070100.asp

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0838/is_1999_Sept/ai_60947818

http://www.pregnancy.org/article.php?sid=355

Answer 2

Well, I'm sorry to say that it's probably not going to happen. A 12 hour stretch of sleep for anyone is asking a little much; you're actually really lucky. Most babies sleep for only 5 hour stretches at the most before they wake up needing to be changed or have a feeding. And be aware that every kid is different. Just because it worked for your other children doesn't mean it'll work for your youngest. Going to bed at 8 would be a good compromise, since he's already sleepy then. As for naps, that will even out with his bedtime schedule. Ideally, he should be taking two naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. But some kids have trouble with this. If you make it a routine to go down for a nap twice a day, he'll adjust. I used 9 a.m. and 2:30-3 p.m. for my cat-nap brother, and it worked well. My sister at 20 months takes one nap in the afternoon around 1. Be on the lookout for the tell-tale signs of naptime, like rubbing his eyes or getting irritable. And though it seems like a good idea, don't be tempted to keep him up later at night to make him sleep later in the morning. You'll end up with an overtired baby who will be harder to put down. Good luck! :)

Answer 3

I believe in a sleep schedule and as far as infants not having the physical ability to fall asleep on their own, that is simply not true. I have a 11 week old daughter who has been falling asleep on her own for 11 weeks now. We started a sleep schedule right from the start. Now her schedule is as follows: up at 745 or 8am eat sleep til 11am eat awake nap at 1230-2pm eat awake nap 330-5pm eat awake nap at 630-745 eat at 8pm awake down for the night by 9 or 930pm til 745 or 8am. It was hard at times because she did cry sometimes for 30 minutes, but we got through it and she is perfect and it is great to have the freedom of knowing a schedule.

Answer 4

It's never too early to start! My little girl is two days away from two months, and she's already on a sleep schedule- we go to bed at 10pm, and we get up in the morning by 9am. Keep her awake during the day when you want her to be awake, then she'll be tired enough at night. I always change and feed her right before she goes down, and the warm liquid usually helps her sleep, even if she only takes an ounce.

Answer 5

Lack of sleep in children can cause serious
health problems.If parents follow some simple
techniques for making their children sleep,
it can be avoided. I found useful information
at http://nosleep.in/sleepchildren.html

Answer 6

It's not too soon to start establishing some kind of bedtime routine. I started my boys as soon as they came home and with patience and consistancy it all came together!

Answer 7

i started my son right away and from 3 weeks on hes slept through the night except for the occasional night

Answer 8

I put both of my kids on a schedule as soon as possible. You just have to stick with it as much as possible.

Answer 9

I started my kids right away as well.
You need to start soon ..... the longer you wait the harder it will be.