Baby nights?

Question

hi my baby is 9 weeks old and she has been a brilliant baby. she only ever woke up once a night and slept really well. up until now her last feed was at 11.30ish when i wud put her to sleep and go to bed myself and she would wake up next at 8 am for a feed. everybody then at 8 weeks said we need to get her into a routine because we have bottle fed always and she needs a earlier bed time. so now she is on 5 feeds a day her last one at 8pm and put her to bed between half past and 9 depending how long her last feed takes and for the past week since doin this she wakes up at 5am wanting attention or general maning. she doesnt cry for food just messes about and my husband says she should go into her own room now maybe to help her settle and so we dont get disturbed at 5amm?
any advice on this? or any help with routines? or what ages they work best at and what time is best to be on their own? she is in moses basket next to me.
Our friends baby was sleeping 7-7 from 8 weeks old

Answer 1

Hi! Listen!! First of all, every baby is different and had their own needs. Perhaps your friends baby is a perfect angel and sleeps perfectly all the time but personally I don't buy into it! My daughter has generally been a good sleeper but she has had periods of disturbed and irregular schedules. A 9 week old is going to wake up whenever she feels like it and it doesn't matter what room she is sleeping in because if she isn't sleeping then no one else will. I know it is frustrating to be up at all hours of the night but she is a newborn and newborns have their own clocks. The best advice I can give you is don't try to put her to bed at 'x' time every night. It just doesn't work that way. Instead have a routine that she will have a bath before bed and her bed time bottle and simply put her down when she is ready. I don't recommend that she be put in a separate room firstly because of the risk of SIDS and other accidents but also because its a lot of trouble to run from one room to the next all night. My daughter has slept in the room with me (but in her own bed) and she is a year old and within months she will be in her own room but this is because we are expecting another child and it will disrupt her rest. But if I had it my way I would want the baby bed in my room until my child is toddler age and more independent. The choice is really up to you. But beside that the major point is that your baby is most secure with you and will naturally go through many different sleep phases. Just do what works for you and babies have a tendency to follow the same sleep habits as their parents so she will go to sleep. Go to bed when she does turn off the lights and she will understand its time for sleeping. Do whatever it takes to get a good nights sleep because your baby will let you know what she needs.

Answer 2

I have a brilliant sleeper and found similar problems when I gave the last feed at 8pm. I began putting baby to bed around 7.30 ish and then getting her up just before we went to bed at 10.30 for a "dream" feed. The first few nights she was awake for this feed and then after a while she would appear to sleep whilst feeding. Around 5 mths I cut this late feed out and baby was not at all bothered by this and continued to sleep until 7-8am.

Our baby has always been in her own room and this has meant that when she wakes at different times in the night we do not hear her. I can tell you for a fact the she wakes briefly around 2am and puts herself back to sleep and then wakes again around 5am when the sun comes up and again outs herself back to sleep. However as she is in her own room we do not hear her and do not get up to her, she only complains to get out of bed after 8.15am and that is after 13hrs sleep.

I read about dream feeding on the internet somewhere and gave it a go and found that it was the best thing for both baby an myself. I know that everyone says it but all babies are different and it is all trial and error until you find what works best for your household.

Answer 3

That is good that you started doing a routine but that may be too long for a baby at 9 weeks to sleep through the night with no more milk. My son is 11 months and still wakes up 1 time & and wants milk. I give him his bottle and he goes back to sleep but If I talk to him or give him any more attention then just his bottle he thinks its play time and wakes up.

Answer 4

I have never met babies that sleep like this. It's incredible! Our nursed, so they woke up every night to nurse. No problem, because they slept with us.

I believe your child already had a brilliant routine, her own. Why would you have adjusted it because others say you should have her on a schedule? The bedtime of a 9 week old is irrelevant to the bedtime of a preschooler. Children really are not quick-dry clay; they don't need to act as infants the way they act as grade schoolers, you know.

An 9 week old infant's life should pretty much look like - sleep, nurse, get held, look around at things, nurse, sleep, get held, look around at things, chat with mommy, nurse, sleep and on and on. The routine that fits your family's preerences works best.

I could never tell you how many 'feeds a day' my babies were on because they nursed on demand. I didn't tell them when to eat (who knows better than the person herself when she needs to eat?) and I certainly never had a schedule for eating. Frankly, to me, it sounds nutty.

This whole notion of infants sleeping alone sounds crazy, too, when you strip away our cultural expectations and really think about an infant mammal of the primate class (the other members of which do not ever PUT DOWN their infants) being left alone in the dark. It's truly anti-human.