Seeking Advise for Getting My 8 Week Old on a Nap Routine

Hi I'm A. and currently have a 21 month old boy who is a great sleeper from day one. How much does he sleep through the day? how many naps cos maybe what I would try and do is limit is napping time in the afternoon and maybe will allow him to sleep more at night. Good Luck

T.:

Congratulation on your new baby. Unfortunately on my experience it will be very hard to put an 8 mo old into a routine as their schedules are out of wack, babies typically start understanding routines at about 4 months. This doesn't mean you can't try. I started a bed time routine as I got home from the hospital but it was more for my own sake than for my daughter, here is what I did first a bath, then a book and then warm milk. Another thing once the baby reaches about 11-13 lbs they really don't need to eat at night so you can skip middle of the night feedings to start establishing a sleeping through the night pattern. Hope this helps you, again good luck with the new baby. As a new working mom just like you I know it can be difficult but oh sooooo rewarding. Good luck.

O.

I have one friend that forced her baby into a regular schedule so it would be convenient for her. I don't know how she did it. But I am not an advocate of it. Our son is 18 months old and he has always kept his own schedule. If he's tired he sleeps. If I think he's tired, I'll make him go down for a nap because I know he'll fall asleep within 15 minutes. (You'll find that you'll come to know your baby's signals and when he's fighting sleep.) Are you concerned about his daycare? I'm lucky that my dad watches my son, but for the few months I had to have my son in a daycare, I just told them he sleeps when he's tired. No schedule. They were ok with that. Babies do end up creating a more predictable schedule eventually. For a while we could count on 10 and 2 for naptimes. As for night time sleeping, well, your baby is only 8 weeks old so he's going to wake up several times during the night. Chances are he's hungry and/or wet. It could be a few months before he starts sleeping longer stretches--ours didn't until about 7/8 months. And as a side note, as they get older, they take fewer naps or shorter naps. Mine is down to 1 a day anywhere between 1-3 hours. They sleep more when they are growing!

I hate to say that I have yet to meet a 8 week old that does anything on mommy's time. I don't think it's natural. You can try to do things at exactly the same time everyday but don't get upset if baby doesn't go along with your plan.

He is coming up on a growth spurt and babies tend to wake more during this time because they are growing so fast. Give it a few weeks (I know this doesn't sound comforting) but he should, hopefully, go back to his old routine.

Congratulations on the new addition to your family! I am a mother of two children (22 months and 6). For me, the recipe was a balance between consistancy , schedule/routine, and taking the cues from your child.

For example, when my daughter was born, she would fall asleep around 10:00pm, so I would start the evening routine of bath, nursing, book/song around 8:30. She would wake up around 2 and 4:30 until she was 4 months, then only at 2 until she was about 8 months and then she started sleeping through the night. When my son was born(who is 22 months now), I still did the bath, bottle, book/song routine, but he was a much more serious sleeper, he wanted to go to bed around 7:30 or 8 so I started the routine around 6pm and he only woke once at night and started sleeping through the night at about 2 months.

I did the same thing with the daily routine. Generally one in the morning about 2 1/2 to 3 hours after waking in the morning and again at about 1 in the afternoon. But I would have other daily familiar activities I would do with them like tummy time at the same time, ect.

Once I tuned into their routines, I was able to tweak it by an hour or so and they would know what to do because they weren't use to the times but rather what you were doing...bath, bottle, book. Same thing can be said for the day.

As far as waking up at night, my daughter woke up more because she was nursed longer than my son and he is a more serious sleeper. But I also made sure that I didn't stimulate them at night. I had a dim nightlight, would hold them to comfort them but not talking or singing, fed them, put them back in their bed to sleep even if they woke up again and I picked them up again. And when they were two months, I only changed their diaper if it was poopy or if they had a rash.

What worked for me, won't necessarily work for you, but the right combinations of advice from people and books will. I can still remember how much work it was when they were that age. My best advice would be to hold on tight, it gets easier in a couple of months but savor ever ounce of who they are now!

Well, I have a 22 month old and a 7 week old. In my experience, it is very difficult to put an 8 week old on a schedule. As you have encountered, their schedules are constantly changing. I think I started establishing a routine with my first son around 4 months.But again, his schedule was kept for a little bit and then changed. So unfortunately, you may have to wait a little longer until your baby starts establishing a routine.

As far as my experience and knowledge goes - it's too early to really have a child on a schedule. That doesn't happen until they are 3-4 months old, and in some case even later. Not to mention that this "schedule" will change many times only within the first year of life. Try to put him down 1,5 hour from when he wakes up, don't wait till he shows signs of being tired. Try using white noise machine. Try a swing. But again, I wouldn't expect miracles for quite some time yet. Sorry.
Good luck.