Bedtime?

Hiya,

We are trying to follow the HSHHC book. We feed 4hrs through the day and let them demand after the last bottle...
Obviously were finding that bedtime varies, today we are due to feed at 4.30pm and then again at 8.30pm, the book suggests an earlier bedtime but do you think sending them up to bed after the 4.30pm bottle is too early? By the time they are all settled it would be about 5.30pm whereas with the later feed we wouldn't get them put down till 9.30ish.. is this too late? As you can probably tell i'm all confuddled?!?!?!?!

 

I would start with a consistent wakeup time everyday. That will allow you to feed them at the same times every day and in turn have a specific bedtime. That was huge for us.

 

I would also start with a consistent wake up time everyday. How many times are they up to eat at night? You could start a bedtime routine (getting into sleepytime clothes, massages, bedtime lotion, quiet time, soft lullabyes and low lights, etc) at a time where you would like to be ready for their set bedtime (starting at 6pm to be ready for 7pm bedtime, for example) and eventually they will come around to that schedule. When ours were that little, we'd start getting ready for bedtime at 6:30, put them to bed and they'd sleep (once they got through the witching hour phase) until the next bottle which was usually 8:30-9:00 and after that it was feed on demand.

 

I agree with pp on wake- up time. Have they always been on a 4 hour schedule? You might could go to a 3-3.5 hour (their young enough) and that might put you at a bedtime somewhere between 6-8. I know mine are 5 mo. and still do 3.5 hours.

 

My boys were 33 weekers and I had a really hard time following HSHHC that early. I started it more into the 3rd month. I agree with the others that getting the same wake up time seems to make everything easier and they will get into their pattern of sleep. If it doesn't work out this week, wait another week or two and try again.

 

I personally think every 4 hours is too long to go between feedings at such a young age. I would go to every 3 and then you will be able to get a more reasonable bedtime for you to get into a routine with. We didnt really start with HSHHC until mine were closer to 4 months.

 

Hi twinmum's!

Thanx for everybodies input, you've given me alot to think about!

Nancy we have kind of been doing what you did with yours by the sounds of it. Say if i put them to bed at 6.30pm i feed them again at 10.30pm then let them go on demand and just recently they have been going 2 5 hour stretches at night so i'm only really up once after the 10.30 bottle which i'm really pleased with. it's just we never really know from one day to the next what time we finish or start the day.

The girls were fed every 3 hrs in NICU, when they had gained enough weight and were taking good amounts per feed we were told to let them go as long as they liked but to wake them at 4hrs through the day. More often than not they tell me they are hungry at 4 and not before? On the odd occasion that they demand it sooner i do feed them.

So for now i should really start the day at the same time.. The night feeds would still vary so would you wake your babbas up in order to start the day at the same time every day? Would you always wake them up to a bottle or wait until it's due?

The book suggests an early bedtime at 7wks.. when i've put them up at say 6.30 it goes well but what in your eyes is an early bed time and how long are your babies "daytimes" should i be going for daytime being 12hrs?

Sorry for all the questions just takes me a while to digest things fully.. still got my preggy brain on i'm afraid lol

tia as always x

 

QUOTE(mummy2ambernruby @ Mar 20 2009, 08:10 AM) [snapback]1236505[/snapback]
confuddled?!?!?!?!


:laughing: Great word!

At that age the 'last' bottle for us was around 9ish I think. We were on a 3 hour schedule until 8 months.

 

QUOTE(becky5 @ Mar 20 2009, 04:35 PM) [snapback]1236935[/snapback]
:laughing: Great word!

At that age the 'last' bottle for us was around 9ish I think. We were on a 3 hour schedule until 8 months.


LOL i thought it summed me up quite well :unsure:

Didn't you ever send your girls up to sleep in there rooms after the 6pm bottle and then wake them for the last one at 9? I'm just wondering as this book suggest the early bedtime after 6wks? Regardless of the book an earlier bedtime would be ideal for us!!!

So we just fed them at 5pm.. had to wake them at 4.30pm from a very long nap. We let them wake up abit on the floor, changed them, all in dim lighting with lullaby on then upto dark bedroom for bottle. Both were very sleepy after the bottle and they are now up in there beds now sleeping. I had to go up to Ruby once about 5 mins after we left the room, a couple of strokes on the nose and she was off to the land of nod. So at 9 i will wake them for the "last" bottle and then dive into bed myself hoping they sleep for a nice long stretch!!! So far tonight has gone smoothly but i think you are all right..i need to start the day at the same time so we all no more or less where we stand. We are thinking if we start the day at 7am to give the last bottle at 7pm does this sound ok?

 

I've been reading and trying to follow HSHHC, too. Great book!
I think you do have to experiment and see what seems to work with your girls, especially before 4 months. We were trying earlier bedtimes with our guys, with the last bottle at 6 or 6:30, and their sleeping seemed to regress. They'd been sleeping longer stretches at night, and their nighttime sleeping seemed to get worse when we tried putting them down that early. Also, in the past few weeks they had naturally started moving to 4-hour feeding cycles during the day, and our theory is that that messed up their nighttime sleeping even more--that and taking looong afternoon naps (around 3 hours), which were also too close to bedtime. The past few days I've had them on a 3.5-hr schedule during the day (or 3 if they're hungry sooner) and suddenly their nighttime sleep has been better again. I'm thinking they're just not quite ready for the 4-hr schedule or the earlier bedtime but I'll try again in a few weeks. They do change so quickly at this age!

 

What I did with all of mine was a pretty strict three hour feeding schedule from the beginning. (disclaimer here: of course if they were hungry sooner I fed them sooner but with the goal of getting to regular three hour feedings. My second child was an eating machine and was hungry very often. I changed him to a 2.5 hr feeding schedule for a few days then moved back to 3hrs. I did that a few times until close to 8 weeks when he could go the three hours. Just because I fed on a schedule doesn't mean I starved my babies as some like to claim about scheduling.) I would wake them at 7 to feed and then feed again at 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm and 7 pm. I put them to bed after the 7 pm bottle and let them wake me from there. No matter when they ate overnight, I'd feed them again at 7 the next morning. Not allowing them to sleep past the three hour mark during the day encouraged them to ingest enough calories during the day that they didn't need as many at night. We didn't waiver from the 3hrs until 5ish months when we added in the second solid feeding. Oh, and all of mine were sleeping 11 to 12 hours at night by 12 weeks. I credit the daytime calories!

 

Mine came home from the hospital on a 4 hour schedule and we kept that up (they were also 36 weekers, and we never adjusted their age). The only time that we didn't go the full 4 hours was the bedtime bottle. They had a bottle at 4, and then the last bottle of the day at 7. At 3 months, mine started sleeping from 7:30 to 8 am. Until they slept through, I would give the 7 pm bottle, then one at around 11--at that age. Up until 8 weeks, they got another one when they woke at around 2-3 am.

 

Sorry for the delay been very BUSY here, the days really do flyby!

Lately the girls have been waking at 4.30 to 5am and i think this is too early to begin the day so i feed them in our bedroom and put them staright back down, treating this as a night feed. However the girls are sleeping through to 8.30/9am and i haven't had the heart (or energy lol) to wake them at 7am to begin a schedule ...yet!! I really hope that this 4.30/5am feed just naturally gets later and later so that i don't have to disturb them.

Now i'm ot sure if you lovely ladies jinxed me with all this talk of 3 hrly feeds but the girls have decided that they want 2 3 hrly feeds in the afternoon?!?!

I guess i'll just try and go with the flow because all the worrying i've been doing about not being on a schedule has been starting to stress me out. It's not like i have work or anything.

When that 4.30 feed disappears i will worry about it allover again then i think lol Thankyou all for sharing your experiences xxxxxxxx