Will an earlier bedtime lead to a longer stretch of sleep?

My babies are a little over 12 weeks old and are currently going about 4-4.5 hours between their evening feed (around 8pm) and their next feed (midnight). Is is possible that if we try and put them to bed earlier (closer to 7pm) they might still wake to eat at midnight? I am looking for a way to get them closer to STTN

They are exclusively breastfed...not sure if I am wishing for too much at this point for a longer duration between feeds??

 

For mine bedtime hasn't made a significant difference one way or another as a whole. There have been two periods they slept through so far, and each of them started a day when they went to bed at 6pm because they hadn't napped very well during the day and were exhausted. Go figure! But usually whether they go to bed at 6pm or 8pm (which is rare, it's usually 7-7.30pm), they sleep as long at night - but they only go to bed earlier if they didn't nap very well, and later if they napped too long, so who knows! They're getting the same amount of sleep either way.

Hope it makes sense... I think I confused myself.

 

If you find out, let me know.

It doesn't seem to matter what time they go to bed whether it's 8 or midnight. They always seem to wake up at 5 or 5:30am. Maybe one or two times they actually slept till 8am.

 

For me it usually does. I think children tend to wake up at the same time pretty much regardless (give or take of course) when you put them down. My oldest was going to bed at 7 pm at 3 months, sleeping til 7 am when her naps got worse. At 4 months, I was advised to put her down earlier, put her down at 6 pm still slept until 7 am and napped better. She napped 13 hours straight until 2 yo when we slightly pushed her bed time later. My twins started going to bed at 6 pm at 2 1/2 months or so, didn't change anything for the night, but it kept me sane, no more crying in the evening, it was one of the best things I ever did. We slowly pushed them a little later and now at 22 months they still go to bed around 6.45 pm.

Earlier bed times usually result in better rested children en better rested children sleep better. If they start waking up at night, I put them down earlier the next night to solve the problem, has always worked ...

 

Does it matter that they are only getting breastmilk?? My DH's coworker keeps insisting that formula will add the extra hours to their sleep.

 

I know that my boys sleep much better when they've had good naps. They go to sleep about 6:30 every night and if they've napped well they'll go to 4:30 (when they get a bottle then back to sleep til 6 or 6:30- which we will soon be eliminating.) For us getting the earlier bed time routine down was key to sttn.. if they're overtired I don't think they sleep as well. Your babies are still pretty young, too, so be patient. I know there are plenty of babies who have long stretches of sleep at this age, some who even sttn, but there are just as many babies who don't (like mine- they were up every 2-3 hours until 6 or 7 months- and they only sleep this long now because we did CIO at 8 months.) Good luck!

 

QUOTE(SMax @ Oct 9 2008, 07:05 PM) [snapback]1019689[/snapback]
Does it matter that they are only getting breastmilk?? My DH's coworker keeps insisting that formula will add the extra hours to their sleep.


Absolutely not. Ask us over in BF this same question, and I guarantee you'll get similar, passionate responses.

I've always heard that sleep begets sleep. FWIW, mine were STTN consistently at 4 months, with a bedtime between 7 and 7:30 and a wake-up time around 6AM.

 

I honestly think the only way to get them STTN is just let them grow into it....my babies will be 11 weeks tomorrow and they eat every 3 hours during the day like clockwork and I put them to bed at 9:30 and they uaually get up around 3-4 they were getting up at 12 then again at 3-4 but I think you just have to let them grow out of it they quit waking at 12 around 3 weeks ago.

 

QUOTE(SMax @ Oct 9 2008, 11:35 PM) [snapback]1019620[/snapback]
My babies are a little over 12 weeks old and are currently going about 4-4.5 hours between their evening feed (around 8pm) and their next feed (midnight). Is is possible that if we try and put them to bed earlier (closer to 7pm) they might still wake to eat at midnight? I am looking for a way to get them closer to STTN

They are exclusively breastfed...not sure if I am wishing for too much at this point for a longer duration between feeds??


Mine have been on this routine since they were about 7 weeks and still are. I FF and they get one spoon of cereal in their first and last feeds every day and we´ve been told to give them an extra bottle a day with cereal in once they´re 4.5 months. I´ve often wondered, if we didnt wake them for the 11.30pm-midnight feed, how long they would last. With the last feed, my DS goes through to 7-7.30am and DD goes through to 9am. They both go to sleep about 8-9pm (it depends) and we wake them for the last feed. I hate waking them but if we don´t then they wouldn´t last that long. We eliminated the 4-5am feeds 2 months ago and I dont want them going back to that. I just figure that once they´re eating more then they´ll gradually last longer. We will have to go cold turkey at some point and see what happens!

 

I am bfing, and I used to give one bottle of formula in the middle of the night since they were about 6wks old, and they slept the same amount of time (I think at about 2months old they were going about 4-5hrs between feeds at night) whether they were just bf or ff. So for me doing a ff was about me skipping a feeding and getting some sleep, as it did NOT help them sleep any longer.
At 2 months old mine were going to bed at 8pm, by 3months it was 6pm, and by about 4months it was closer to 530pm! And they still go to bed at 530pm every night! Do you have a nighttime routine, this helps them get ready for sleep and know that it is bedtime?
And, mine always wake up around the same time, between 530am-630am.
I would suggest implementing a nighttime routine if you aren't already, and try to put them down to bed maybe a bit earlier.
I was not successful in getting mine to sleep longer between feeds at that age, I tried, but nothing worked for us, I just had to do the feedings until they outgrew the need. We just did a few nights of CIO at 8mnths old and now they are sttn.

 

mine were sleeping late till last week and i decided to change the habit..... so i kept them on bed early ... but till now no difference in waking time they always wake up early