help with routine please!!

[jembelina]

i am really confused! can anyone help me with advice on how much sleep a 5 1/2 month old baby should be getting?? bub has never slept well during the day though slept well at night and began to sleep through quite early. however that is now all out the window - i am finding every day and night is COMPLETELY different. i am getting very frustrated and feel the need for some routine in my life! we do 'dinner', bath, book, feed, sleep routine every night at around the same time all to no avail. bub will sleep for about 40 mins then is ready to party till about 10 or 11 at night. someone mentined this could be a sign of being overtired...how do you tell the difference??

also any clues as to how may/how frequently he should be feeding?? currently he is lucky to go 3 hours between feeds ( have started solids, so i don't think that is the problem)

any advice/ suggestions would be helpful!!

[Briannabear]

You poor thing that must be frustrating!
A big thing is to look for your baby's tired signs. That could be rubbing their eyes, funny cry, going a bit quiet, or a number of other things. If you can pick up on these things before he gets too tired he will go down to sleep a lot better.

We've had the same night-time routine for Brianna from day one. She has a bath, gets dressed, top-up feed, pray with her, lots of kisses and then straight to bed. We dont make too much eye contact with her (It actually makes her really cranky). If she is not feeling well, had immunisations, teething, she wont settle as well.

Has anything changed in your baby's diet? That can affect him too.

My DD went through a period of about a week (around your DS's age) when she wouldnt settle either. We persisted and she eventually got through it.

Brianna goes 4hrs between feeds (from start of feed to start of next feed). I guess as far as that goes every baby is different. I find that if Im good with her daytime routine she sleeps a lot better at night and generally goes down with no dramas. We do this: Feed (including nappy change), Play (that can include bath etc), Sleep (the time she sleeps varies.). But certain circumstances can affect this.

I hope it gets better for you - Good Luck! :)

[Kamaikia]

you poor thing. I was lucky with my son, he is a sleeper. At nine months he sleeps a good 13 hours at night - would easily go without sleep of a day time but i make him have two small sleeps.
My sister had this problem though - her advice is when your baby gets up at night and wants to play don't give in - keep the room dark and quiet - don't get him excited. She often gave in with her son and now at 2 years old he still won't sleep through, like to play for about 3 hours in middle of night and she says it is her own fault.
At around 6 months old my son had a week of restlessness of waking through the night and cryiing alot, which was really out of character for him. At first i thought he was just being naughty then the doctors said he was lactose intolerant, changed his formula and had no problems since that day. So sometimes there is a good reason for it.
As far as how often he should be feeding. From day 1 my son has gone 3 - 4 hours between bottles and is still like that now. I found his bottle routine didn't change when i introduced solids, but he hasn't had a night bottle since about 2 months old.

[mattias'mom]

I agree with Briannabear...make sure you are watching for signs your baby is tired. At the first yawn from my son I start trying to get him down and if I catch it early enough it is quite easy to put him down. Usually his eyes will get a little red and he will start to rub and he starts to get fussy and starts to yawn. If you wait to long his tired stage will pass and you will have to wait for the next one. Also a consistent bedtime rountine helps because then your baby will know that it is bedtime. We have a pretty consistent rountine for daytime and bedtime so I know around about the time that he is going to start getting tired. If you can anticipate it then you will be more prepared to set the time aside to get your baby to sleep. At 5 1/2 months your baby should be taking 2-3 naps a day around 1-2 hours each and sleeping about 10-11 hours a night although babies differ of course. So your baby should be sleeping a total of about 14 hours per day. Hope I helped :D

[Chickadee]

There is a chart here: http://www.babycenter.com/general/toddler/toddlersleep/7645.html

But it is just a general guideline, each bub is different. Yours might need more or less sleep than the "average" or may want more daytime naps and then less night time sleep.

As others have said, most bubs go through unsettled periods where there sleep is disturbed. It seems to happen around 5-6 months and then again every 2-3 months after that. It might be related to teething, new foods, just not feeling well or dropping the number of day time naps, though you may not figure out the cause and if you do it's usually not till after (when you realise there are new teeth!). Usually it sorts itself out within a few weeks and bub finds a new routine/schedule.

[mum2maddy]

Hey,

I am having the same problem with Maddy. It's been going on for a couple of months now. She used to sleep from 6pm to 6am with 3 x 45 min - 1hr sleeps a day. But all of a sudden she dropped her lunch time sleep and went down at 6pm and wakes 45 minutes later to party on till 10pm. She also wont settle by herself anymore and either cries herself to sleep in our bed or I have to feed her to sleep. She wakes about 5 - 10 times a night if she's sleeping in our bed or about 2-4 times a night if she's in her own bed.

I am totally at my wits end.... I feel as though I've got no "me" time anymore coz if I'm not asleep I'm trying to keep my DD entertained. I hate co-sleeping but I don't know what else to do.....

Sorry I can't help but it's like we are hving identical sleep issues and I keep thinking I'm alone so it's good to know there are more confused, frustrated, sleepy mums out there.

Peace

[bobtob]

How quickly we forget those earlier days of little sleep!

I feel for you and can recommend a book that saved my sanity and worked wonders with both my boys! It is called " The contented Little Baby Book" by Gina Ford, it gives you routines and great advice for babies month by month up until one year. I struggled with my first baby until a friend put me onto this wonderful book and since then we have had great sleep! (7pm to 7am every night My second was a "contented Baby" from the word go and has slept though since 9 weeks...............................I cannot recommend these routines highly enough!!
You have to ignore some of her advice (i found her expressing and feeding routine completley unrealistic!!) but without gushing too much if you really are lost as to how to set up a routine or get one going, have a look!
Good Luck
Tamsin
Bob Oct 01
Toby Oct 03

[jembelina]

thanks all for your sympathy and suggestions!

i have since decided to just go with the flow as i though what is the point in being stressed when bub is clearly happy. also MCHN reassured me that this stage will pass by itself and a routine will form once bub is established with solids. as soon as we stopped trying bub has been going down by 8:30pm and only waking once during the night, so things are looking up :)

this brings me to our next dilemma... we have been happily co-sleeping since birth but bub has begun to shimmy down the bed during the night so we have decided we must move him to cot for safety's sake. he goes down fine but when he wakes for his night feed he WILL NOT go back down. we end up bringing him into our bed after an hour of him refusing to go down in the cot as we are all tired and frazzled.(i then lay awake making sure he doesn't suffocate himself!!) i think this will send the message that 'if you refuse to go down you will be brought to our bed'. We are anti controlled crying and love rocking or feeding bub to sleep. so what to do???

jem &zack(09/02/05)

[superbaby]

I have a 7 mth old, who has been reducing his day sleeps of late. I would like to hear from any parents who are following the contented baby book successfully. My baby doesn't seem to be tired at 12.30pm - do I just put him down according to the routine at this time or do I wait say till 1pm. Cutting back on the morning nap doesnt seem to be making much of a difference either. He is also waking earlier in the mornings. I just need confirmation of whether strictly following Gina Ford's age based schedules really work.



How quickly we forget those earlier days of little sleep!

I feel for you and can recommend a book that saved my sanity and worked wonders with both my boys! It is called " The contented Little Baby Book" by Gina Ford, it gives you routines and great advice for babies month by month up until one year. I struggled with my first baby until a friend put me onto this wonderful book and since then we have had great sleep! (7pm to 7am every night My second was a "contented Baby" from the word go and has slept though since 9 weeks...............................I cannot recommend these routines highly enough!!
You have to ignore some of her advice (i found her expressing and feeding routine completley unrealistic!!) but without gushing too much if you really are lost as to how to set up a routine or get one going, have a look!
Good Luck
Tamsin
Bob Oct 01
Toby Oct 03

[weisje]

hi i know exactactly had very simillar thing going on, i was told to resettle and re settle, when it first started then i tried just geting her up but that was worse so persisted with sleep settling everytime i thought she was tired and i found it hard to tell when she was tired too, when her little arms were out in front of her it was too late she was overtired then i knew she was going to be hard to settle, i have found since she is now 1yr she goes to bed when i tell her no dramas so far and she is still have a good 3 hour sleep through the day and it also works when we are out to cause i do the same settling thing, i don't think it matters wat it is as long as they know wats coming. good luck ther will be an end to it.also we have co slept to when you think it is a problem (which i somtimes wanted to sleep bymyself)it took 3 nights to get her back into it, cause things happen and they are up set or sick, i just did same settleing routine hr after hour, day after day cause a tiered mummy is a grumpy house, good luck.