Help! Can't Get Baby to Sleep at Decent Hour!

It is normal for babies to stay up late when they are new. But he should eventually start going to sleep earlier if you keep him in a good routine - in fact, he should be ready to do that in the next couple of weeks. Two great books I would recommend are the Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg (my favorite) and Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. Good luck!

You can give this a try, it worked for me. Give him his bath, dress for bed and then give him his milk. Cuddle for a little bit and then to bed with some soft music on radio. Do this for several when he wakes do not pick up. This will be hard to do, just be sure that he is alright and leave again. It does take awhile to get the days and night straight. Good luck.

Hi A.,
At 4 weeks he should not be staying up that late unless he is sleeping all day. Most infants at that age will sleep all day and all nite. Try feeding him a little something like cereal in his milk and putting him to bed at the time you want him to sleep. It will take a little time for him to get the idea, but he will.
Good luck and blessings

Get the book, The Baby Whisperer. It should be called the baby bible! Read it, follow what she says, and it works! You should be able to find it on Amazon.com pretty cheap. best of luck!

I think once you start waking him up at 3 am & get him on your work schedule, he will adjust to your hours as long as whomever cares for him while your working helps you get him on a schedule. Its hard to keep a 4 week old baby awake. They seem to sleep whether you want them too or not :)

I think at that age it may be best to go with the previous poster's suggestion to wait and let it happen naturally when you start waking him up at 3am each morning...

However...start preparing a good nap, and feeding schedule for him for your day care provider that will allow you to try to put him down at the appropriate time...it will take a week ar two for his body to adjust to the new schedule but there will be less tears on his and your side if you do it this way...

I say this because I was in a similar situation with my oldest daughter. It was just me and her back then except she was 5 months old when I went back to work and I had let her breast feeding schedule set her sleepign routine...she was a night owl and her 8 hour sleep period didn't start until 1 or 2 am and I was going to need to get up at 4:30am to get both of us ready to go, her to day care and me to work on time...I ended up changing her cold turkey to 8pm bedtimes I gave her her last bottle then put her in bed and let her cry it out...it was only supposed to be a day or two...for one full week it was pure hell...i was in tears in single parent chat rooms talking it out trying so hard to be strong so that we could get on schedule...looking back i would (and probably should) have done it differently for both our sakes...

Good Luck!!! ;-)

Please do not use "Babywise".(Letting them cry it out is harsh). Your baby needs you and he needs to eat at least every 4 hrs. When I went back to work my baby fell into my routine. I went to sleep when he did.

Start a bedtime routine and stick to it. Make it exactly the same every night and make sure all activities are quiet and calm and in dim lighting... At least that's what the book I'm currently reading to get my son to sleep better says to do. It's the No Cry Sleep solution book and I really like it and recommend it... Update: tried some techniques today for the first time and my son is blissfully asleep when he'd normally be awake and he had much more productive naps. I'm delighted with this book and my son did not cry AT ALL. Happy mom and happy baby. You DO NOT have to let your son cry it out. :). I was repeatedly told to use Babywise, but I just didn't know how to get him on that plan without some traumatic days. No Cry is much gentler on you and baby... Bless you and your little guy!

Try keeping him awake from 4pm - 7pm and then give him a bath and then get ready for bed with last feeding. Also, our ped doctor said that babies will not sleep thru the night if they are not over 10lbs. So just something to think about when you establish your new schedule.

Hope this helps!

Please do not use "Babywise". It is harsh (just let them cry it out). Your baby needs you and he needs to eat. The baby whisperer is better..also, The Baby Book by Dr. Sears is the BEST book I have ever discovered for just about every topic! I have four children and still reference it at times.

Also, do NOT put cereal in your baby's bottle without your pedi's recommendation. It is an old outdated approach and a four week old baby does NOT have the digestive capacity to properly handle cereal this early. Studies have been done to disprove that the added cereal even works.

You might try putting your baby to bed EARLIER...around 7PM. Stick to a STRICT routine...bathtime, feeding, cuddletime, dim the lights, etc. Your baby will eventually fall into his routine.

Your baby is very young and so are you. Be patient and try to keep up the routine. It gets easier..I promise!!

Good luck,
D. :)

I can definitely relate. I was a single mother at 21 for about 6 years and now have a 6week old. I have found that keeping him up at for several hours before you want him to go to bed definitely helps and then I put a little lavender lotion on the upper part of his nightgown right before I feed him for bed time. This seems to work and I do the same thing everyday with the exception of off days. We put our older son to bed then start working on our 6 wk old. He usually goes down abt 10 and will sleep until 1:30. Depending on how many hours he was up before and how much stimulation he has during that time will also help. When you go back to work make sure whoever watches him that they don't get him to sleep all day. With my first son I found out his daycare was doing that so I moved him and she was really good about working on his motor skills and it wasn't long before he was sleeping through the night. She had a home daycare but now I think works at a daycare in Pflugerville. If you're near there I'll be happy to give you the location. not sure on fees though. Hang in there, schedule is everything even if it's just after 5 pm.
M.

Read the book Babywise. My husband and I followed the program around the time our daughter was about 3 or 4 weeks old and it really worked for us. I had to go back to work when she was 7 weeks old and it really made a difference.

I strongly suggest Babywise.

It works.

http://www.babywisebooks.com/babywise-method/ --- the best article I have ever seen on this topic. It shows the five leading experts/authors on this topic and Dr. Mindell is one of the five. All five are medical professionals. The article shows you the history of the concepts and who was the original author on the topic and how all five experts have many similarities on their approach to helping babies.

I found it very helpful to see what the American Academy of Pediatrics has to say on feeding and sleeping with newborns:

The AAP states that newborns "be nursed whenever they show signs of hunger..... approximately 8 to 12 times every 24 hours."

If you look at page 70 of On Becoming Babywise Pediatrician Robert Bucknam, M.D and co-author Gary Ezzo state, "with these recommended times you will average between 8 - 10 feedings a day."

Looks pretty safe to me as the AAP recommends the same exact amount of feedings for your baby and Pediatrician Bucknam/Ezzo recommend the same authority: the mom should make the call as to exactly when her baby is hungry.

When it comes to the concept of babies crying, the American Academy of Pediatrics (quoted in On Becoming Babywise on page 146 says, "Many babies cannot fall asleep more without crying and will go to sleep more quickly if left to cry for a while. The crying should not last long if the child is truly tired." The AAP goes on to say, "Sometimes you think your baby is waking up when she's actually going through a phase of very light slumber. She could be squirming, startling, fussing, or even crying-- and still be asleep. Or she may be awake but not on the verge of drifting off again if left alone. Do not make the mistake of trying to comfort her during these moments; you'll only awaken her further and delay her going back to sleep. Instead, if you let her fuss and even cry for a few minutes, she'll learn to get herself to sleep without relying on you." The AAP goes on to say, "same babies actually need to let off energy by crying in order to settle into sleep or rouse themselves out of it. As much as fifteen minutes of fussing will not do your child any harm. Just be sure she's not crying out of hunger or pain, or because her diaper is wet."

This is precisely the entire point of Babywise and from what I read, the whoe them of the book. I cannot fathom where all the rumors of "no medical backing" and "dangerous" come from as Pediatricians all over the country back what 23 year Pediatrician and author Robert Bucknam, M.D. and his co-author Gary Ezzo have written.

Moms-- enjoy this book, use your common sense..... and happy sleeping!!

You should read the book Babywise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. It is a book dedicated to teaching babies how to sleep through the night. Both of my sons were 10 hrs or more by the time they were 10 weeks old. It certainly helped when it was time to go back to work because I was getting a good night's sleep. Good luck!

Get the book, Babywise. We used that on all four of our kids and it has worked. Four weeks old is a little young to expect super great things, but you can definitely start working on a schedule with him. Our baby is now 8 weeks old, has been sleeping from his 11pm feeding (that's that time we chose as his last feeding) til 7am or so since he was five weeks old. The other kids haven't been as great, but we've had good results. For you, once you start working and get him up at the same time every morning he'll start responding to that. Right now, you should determine what time you want him to go to bed and feed him then. It may be sooner than he shows he's hungry or you may choose to soothe him with a pacifier to pass some time til you reach his bed time. Good luck! Like I said, I've done this four times so if you'd like to talk a little more, feel free to email me.