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Newborn Sleep: the first 8 weeks Berkeley Parents Network > Advice > Sleep > Newborn Sleep: the first 8 weeks Questions
- Can’t get 8-week-old ro sleep before 2am
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- See also: More Advice sbout Babies & Sleep
Can’t get 8-week-old ro sleep before 2am June 2007
My daughter is about 8 weeks old and goes to bed anywhere from 12-2am. How do I get her to go to bed sooner? I’ve tried waking her during the day to play, no naps longer than 3 hours during the day.. swaddling her and turning the lights out at night. Is it even possible to train an infant this young? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. anon
My son is also 8 weeks old and he now falls asleep between 9 and 11 pm and sleeps for 6-8 hours straight without waking up. I don’t know if I should be taking any credit for his schedule or he is just naturally that way (and of course I realize that infants can change their habits for no apparent reason and my luck can disappear just like that), but in any case, here’s what I do. First of all, I swaddle him at night but not during they day (especially after 1 pm or so), so his afternoon naps are fairly short – from 40 minutes to an hour and a half. If he sleeps for more than an hour and a half in the afternoon, I would actually wake him up. And I try not to let him nap after 6 pm or so. Secondly, I give him a lot of tummy time in the afternoon, which he enjoys and this way he spends a lot of his energy holding his head up, struggling and grunting (of course, if you daughter isn’t holding her head very well yet or hates being on her stomach, I would find another way for her to exercise). I also give my son his bath around 8pm, which seems to relax him before the night (again, might not work if your child hates baths, which was the case with my first son). And lastly, I feed him more frequently after 6 pm, so the total amount of milk my son gets in the evening before going to bed seems to be enough for him not get hungry for the next 6-8 hours. I am very consistent with this schedule and hopefully him sleeping through the night is an established habit by now, but of course we will see. By the way, we did the same thing with my now 3-year-old older son, who has also started sleeping through the night around that time and we’ve never had any problems with his night routine. Good luck, Anna by the time you get responses this phase may have passed! i have 2 children under 2 years and i can tell you there is no solution to this stage of baby development. get a sleep book (”healthy sleep habits, happy child”) that defines these stages for you. it helps to know what is coming and how little you can do to change it. it is a phase of development that is normal in all babies. in regards to training the earliest i could get #2 on a schedule (8am nap, 1pm nap – both about 1.5 hrs, bedtime at 5pm and up at 6am) was around 5.5 to 6 months (she is almost 7 months now). just keep pushing for that earlier bedtime. that will take a couple weeks for 10pm, couple more for 9pm, etc. but that earlier bedtime drives nap schedules, etc. don’t waste time waking your child during the day – it does nothing. get rest while you can. beth Eight weeks–oh, my! Your daughter is too young for sleep training. Let her sleep when she sleeps during the day (this will do wonders), accept when she won’t sleep at night. Take her into the sun when she is awake during the day if you think her day/night cycle is off.
And wait. She will settle in, and in a few more months, if you are still up late, you can start adjusting her sleep. It’s a tough time for you, but it will get better! let’em sleep
Yikes! First of all, 8 week olds are still supposed to sleep some huge percentage of the time, so I think what you are saying is that one of her lengthy awake times is in the late, late, late evening. And it is not really possible to do any kind of ”sleep training” at this point, all you can do is kind of get her on board with the rest of the planet with the day/night thing. In other words, it’s not a question of ”wearing her out” so she’ll sleep more, it’s just switching her sleep times around. One thing you didn’t mention trying is making sure she is in the sunlight during the day, of course not in direct sun getting a sunburn but some time outside and curtains and blinds of the house open. I’ve heard that it’s especially helpful to get out of the house and in the sunlight in the afternoon. So try that and make sure you are not wearing her out too much, letting her snooze as much as she wants at least one other time in the day, so she is not over-tired, since that disrupts sleep. A good time for an extra long nap might be the morning, since that will power her up for the day. Oh, one more thing, you might try putting her down ”for the night” at 7 or whenever her last ”nap” is, even though you know she is going to get up to eat again, and nurse in the dark, and try to put her right back down. Finally, it really is early days (the two longest months of your life, though!) and this too shall pass. It is not too early to read ”The No-cry Sleep Solution” by Pantley. anon Oh, this is such a hard time! I am sure you are doing everything right. It sounds like you are keeping it mellow and dark at night, not talking to the baby or playing with her(?). The key is BORING visits. You also may need to rock her or nurse her to sleep, if you can. But you may just have to wait it out til she is done with the night owl thing.
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