Question About Bedtime (6 Wks Old)

Hi all. Been lurking and learning and have a question.

I've got identical girls and they will be 6 weeks old in two days. We start the day at 7am and feed every three hours -- 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm. (I am tandem BF.) After 10pm, I let them sleep until they wake up. We often will get to 2:30, sometimes 3:30! Then feed and down again and they'll start waking themselves up around 6:30am, sometimes they'll get to 7am which is awesome.

My question is this: I want to start working on a bedtime routine. I'm assuming we should start putting them down for bed right before the 7pm feed. But they will often stay awake for a lot of that period. Soooo, I'm wondering if I should treat the 7-10 period with a regular eat-activity-sleep routine or if I should continue to try to get these kids to sleep for the whole period.

What do you guys think?

 

I suppose you could try to get them on a schedule. Mine would eat about the same schedule as yours at that age. The usually wouldn't really go to sleep until after the last feed. After they ate at 7, I would bathe mine, put jammies on and try to get them to settle in. Mine started sleeping through the night at 3 months. Good luck and enjoy this time because they grow way to fast. Hopefully someone has better advice for you.

 

Hi, I have identical twin boys who are 7.5 weeks old adjusted age (they were 2 months early). I haven't been feeding on a strict schedule during the day but I have been doing a bedtime routine since about 4 weeks. It has worked with varying success. Our day goes something like this: wake and feed at 7 am with additional feedings around 10, 2, 5 and then 7 pm. After the 5 pm feed we play and then about 6 we go upstairs to the nursery and start the baths and bedtime. At 7 I feed again and then it usually takes anywhere from 15 mins or so on a good night to an hour on a bad night to get them both to sleep. However, once they do go to sleep they are down for the "night". The little one (he's still just 8 lbs, 12 oz) wakes up twice during the night to feed usually around midnight and then again at 3 or 4 am and then back to sleep until 7 am. The big one (he's 11 lbs) now usually goes with only one night feeding around 2 or 3 and then asleep until 6:30 or 7 though sometimes he does wake up around 5 for a little feed. The good thing about this schedule for me is that when they do finally get to sleep around 8 pm or so the will only awake to eat and then they go right back to sleep (usually!). So my husband and I can eat a late dinner in peace and I get things done in the evening. To me it is worth it to spend a little extra time on the bed time routine to get the 11 hour stretch that is basically only interrupted for a few quick feedings. Maybe it is worth trying out. I think the key is to get in the extra feeding in. But some nights it is very hard to get them to fall asleep, especially now with the time change and the fact that it is light out at the bed time. I'm thinking of getting some black out curtains to help signal that it is "night" at 7 pm.

 

Every night we would feed, give a bath, playtime, and then they would have a bottle before bed. They usually always went down around 9 PM, and would wake around 3 AM, and then up for the morning at 7 AM.

 

:sign0016: to the First Year forum at TS! Glad you are posting!


At that age we had a late bedtime...around 9 I think, and then they gradually started going to bed earlier. I kind of followed their cues as far as a night routine, and tried to put them down on a full tummy, so (hopefully)they would stay asleep longer. We really didn't settle into a good sleep schedule until about 4 months. I think it's great to try to work towards one though!

 

Thanks for the welcomes and thanks also for your experiences. I think I may try doing bathtime and PJs after the 7pm feed and then put them down to bed. See what happens...

 

:sign0016: to TS! You are more than welcome to post more often.

My guys didn't really have a regular sleep schedule until about 5 months. I did tend to lay them down (finally) at about 9-ish with a short bedtime routine. Eventually my guys started getting sleepy sooner, now they go down at 6-7pm.