No matter what I do little one goes to bed at 12! He can be up 8-12, still midnight. It's been this way for a couple weeks, he's a month old Monday. After he goes to bed he's out for 4 hours, then who knows. He's been going through a growth spurt this week so I've just been going with it. I really want to work on a routine. I know it's early, and it will have to be super flexible. I like the idea of eat, play, nap. He often falls asleep after he eats. Let me know what worked for you. And I'm aware he is too young for a schedule, hints the word routine. We go at his pace and he is fed when he is hungry. If you cant tell I can already imagine some of the responses I will get:) It wouldn't hurt to lead him a bit.
also I dont want to wake him during the day.
What worked for you? Any other advice?
Newborns have their own schedule. Many a night I was up late with DD but now she has a regular bed time and sleeps well. She's 3. For the first couple of months, I really wouldn't sweat a schedule. I picked a daycare for DD that wouldn't put her on a fixed schedule. I wanted her to ease into it, since it was hard enough that we would be apart.
I recall cluster feeding my daughter while watching late night tv. I would just hold her from about 11 o'clock on and she would nurse a while, then nap, then nurse a while, then coo and play for a few minutes, then nurse a while, etc, until about 1 or so. At that point i would put her in bed. Mind you, both my kids nursed every 2 hours until I let them cry it out at about 7 months when the doctor said they were heavy enough to sleep through the night and feeding that frequently was just a habit. Good luck, I do not know who moms do it that go back to work, I was a wreck during the day from lack of sleep until they slept through the night (only about 6 hours but that was soo much better than 2).
Most newborns sleep about 20 hours per day so he does not have a bedtime, he has periods of awake time...lol.
He is going to wake up and eat and then play a bit then go back to sleep. He will continue like this for several more months. My grand-kids and most of the kids I have ever had in evening or nighttime child care woke up each and every night until they were about 20-22 months old. They have growth spurts and wake up starving.
I always let our children tell me what they need when they were babies. One of them ate every 2 hours and another one ate every 3.5 hours. They all self-weaned by around 16 months. We have amazing kids who are flexible, but also can follow a schedule. Our kids slept through the night (6 hours) from birth on....but my births were all drug free, at home and no bright lights. We started them with dark and silence from the day they were born. I've always taken lots of a quality calcium (no calcium carbonate or oyster shell) so that they slept well...and increased it during their growth spurts.
We use liquid calcium and it works wonders! It may take 2-7 nights before you notice a difference. Bluebonnett or Lifetime blueberry flavored calmag. Give it at night, as it is a natural muscle and nervous system relaxant.
We never woke our kids up to eat or anything else. If they were tired, we let them sleep.
I think you need to keep him awake more duing the day. He doesnt know what night is yet. It is ok to schedle him. He doesnt need to eat more often then every 2 or 3 hours. THen space out his bottles at night.
I don't know if this will help you, but to get my son to sleep a little longer at a clip, we really slathered his hiney with A&D ointment to keep him from feeling the poop for a little longer. We also made use of the vibrate feature on the bassinet overnight. He went to bed at ten as a newborn after nursing straight for 3 hours. phew. I am due tomorrow with #2. I had forgotten the nighttime marathon nurse. We watched a lot of jeopardy. But I digress. The Calcium jennifer p mentions is a good idea.
To be honest with you, I used to really like it when my newborn would go to sleep late. That way, I was exhausted and fall asleep immediately and get at least a few solid hours of sleep. YOU may like the idea of eat, play, nap but babies love to fall alseep with full bellies. My son always fell asleep while nursing..sometimes 5 minutes into it. I think you just need to go with it. Trust me, he will change and adjust sooner than you think all by himself. Personally, I think you are lucky that he will sleep 4 hours at a time at just 1 month!
I believe there isn't much you can do at this age. He WILL eventually settle into a better routine. Just try to get rest when you can.
I was shocked when my daughter would be up until 11-11:30 when she was very young like your son.
I think it's just the way their clocks run. She did the play, eat, nap thing throughout the day, but starting around 5-6 in the evening she was awake until much later than I thought any newborn would be.
Have you made sure it's light & noisy during the day in your home, and quite & dark at night? He may still not be on that normal day/night rhythm yet. Also remember that babies at that age still sleep & eat a lot, so the routine may not happen for a whiel.
It sounds like you don't have a job to get to. I did, so we fell into a "normal" schedule pretty quickly. Since you have freedom, I wouldn't worry about it so much, as he will figure it out eventually.
this is normal for a newborn. at about 4 months.. they start to get a sort of schedule..
try to not have the baby stay awake more than 2 hours at a time or he will bo over tired.
if hes under a year then i wouldnt worry about it over a year hes just got to have some sleep training and keep at it. now with that being said my 8 year old still doesnt sleep thru the night some people just have diff sleeping habits
