Bedtime tips please!

[skatty]

I have had Leorah in my bed because she had a medical problem and when she was in pain in the night i could sooth her but now she is just about better she is so noisy! She thinks its playtime which yesterday was confirmed! She was crying so I put on the light and faced her and got the biggest gummy grin I've ever seen!! I try sleeping and letting her get on with it but she cant even suck her dummy quietly, think Maggie friom the Simpsons and turn the volume up by 10 and add mm, mm noises! She then spits it out and shouts until someone puts it back in again! Luckily she doesn't need it when she sleeps.

Today we are going to try and put her down in her cot in her room! I am off to Toys R Us for a light show and will bath her in lavender baby bath, put her in her gro bag, feed her in her room and put her to bed wiith the light show while I tidy around her room. Is this a good idea? Any tips please? I am a zombie that only gets to sleep for a 3 hours stretch at 6am when she's exhausted us both!

 

[Keely]

they are little buggers when they smile at you in the night aint they haha

My bedtime routine didnt come into play till ellis was about 2 or 3 months old....

now he has sleep at 5 for 30 mins
bath at 6
bottle at 6.30 and watchs hollyoaks with me on my lap to chill out hehe
bed at 7
and now he is asleep within 10 mins

its the only time he is good, he hates naps etc but bedtime he is a dream. hope this helps

xxxx

 

[Nicky_Jones]

I read in one book not to use the night time light shows as they stimulate your baby right when you don't want to stimulate them. The book did recommend Slumber Bears but I haven't tried one as Ellie goes down really nicely.

My bed time routine is -make sure Ellie is awake from 6pm onwards. I take her up at 7:10 to her room, strip her and put her on the floor on her mat for some nappy off time with her teddies. I bath her at 7:20, and then dress her for bed. I then turn the main light of and stop talking to her. I then feed her (which should be 7:30 if I have timed it all correctly), once she has finished I put her in her grobag in her cot, I say good night, and turn the lamp off, go out and close the door. If I do need to go back in, I don't turn the light on, and I don't talk to her, just make shh noises.

 

[*saulino*]

Hi

I hope she sleeps better for you soon, your gonna get too exhausted
Katrina

 

[skatty]

Hi well I didn't buy a light show as the only one we could get was £50!! I don't think we need it anyway. The first night Leorah slept all night in her room just fine but last night she kept waking up with wind pains, I feel if its not one thing its another!! I realise we don't have a prob with her sleeping on her own but she is a terror for fighting sleep! We put her to bed at 8pm after a bath and feed and she stays awake until 11pm when she's fed again and then about an hour after that too!! She is so unsettled at 8pm that we give her a dummy and then keep having to go and put it back in her mouth but we don't give her it the rest of the night. How long does it take for the routine to start working? Do you think she will eventually be able to sleep when he goes to bed? She gets so overtired she just can't seem to drop off. Any advice will be greatly appreciated

 

[KatysMummy]

Katy was like this until she was at least 9 or 10 weeks I think. She wouldnt sleep til 11 or 12 at night. We just let her adjust slowly over time and she did. Over a period of around a week to 10 days she got herself to a bedtime of around 8.30. Now she goes down easily between 7 & 8. Does Leorah have regular naps through the day? I do find that if Katy doesn't sleep much in the day it is far more difficult to get her settled.

I know its tough, but she will settle down in time. In the mean time, just try to sleep when she does!!

 

[skatty]

Thanks Em, its reassuring to know that other babies are like this and settle eventually!

Leorah does nap in the day but not at regular times. She'll sleep when I go for a walk and then often she'll fall asleep in my arms in the afternoon and I'll put her in her moses basket. She definitely sleeps better when she has napped well in the day.

Last night my DH put her down at 8pm and she fell asleep at about 9pm and then woke again at 10.20pm when he gave her a bottle. She then woke around 2am and then again at 5am which is unusual as she usually goes longer between feeds at night now. she also has been feeding more often today so i am presuming its a growth spurt? We have taken the nighttime bath off the agenda, it stimulates her rather than relaxes her so she now baths in the morning. We will try the nighttime bath when she 's a bit older and can splash around a bit more.

She is such a noisy sleeper though! She actually cries out and sometimes screams and I go and check her and she's asleep! From 5am this morning I laid down in her room to make sure she wasn't upset and she slept noisily for 3 hours without waking up! I hope this has reassured me that she is fine and I can get some sleep!

Thanks for all your help

 

[KatysMummy]

We bathed Katy in the morning for a while for the same reason - again its something that seems to kick in around the 10 week mark. She now has a bath most nights before bed with a little massage afterwards.......not long now & I think you will find she starts to sort herself out!

Shout if you need to chat - I don't post loads but I check in at least once a day!!

 

[skatty]

Thanks em, my DH is putting her down as we speak as we and she is crying and fighting her sleep even though she was nearly falling asleep in the living room!

I don't want to wish her life away but boy she is hard work at the mo! Everyone says that 3 months is the turning point for most things so I am glad you say 10 weeks, it doesn't seem so far off!

Thanks again

 

[Daggers]

Hey Skatty, here is what we generally do but I guess different strokes for differnet folks! Usually Otis goes for a nap at around 3pm and then wakes at around 5/ 5:30pm at which time I feed him and then take him to his room and prep him for his bath - we have a bit of a boogie and a giggle, then bath time and then I get a bottle ready for him and try to feed him a bit more in front of the TV and wait for him to fall asleep - which is usually by 7pm, when I take him up to his bed. Sometimes like tonight he does wake and gruggles to himself until he falls back asleep, sometimes I do have to back into his room and 'plug' his dummy back in . He fell into this routine quite quickly, he does wake around midnight for a feed and then again around 3/4am and finally around 5/6am when I take him and put him into our bed - he then does the same as Leorah with his loud dummy sucking and the wild flapping of arms, it's always such a great way to be woken with a fist to the face!!!
Just keep preservering hun, also why not try have some quite classical music playing in Leorah's room we used to that with Otis. Good luck hun, hope you get lots more soon!

 

[skatty]

Hi daggers sounds like you have a good routine there! We have decided that leorah needs to go to bed much earlier as she is getting overtired. We have a new plan tonight! We are going to get here ready for bed at about 5.30/6 and then we are going to wrap her really snug and she will join Martin and the dog on their evening walk. When she comes back I'll feed her in her dark room and put her down when she nods off. I know it means she'll wake a few times in the evening for feeding but if she has already been to sleep she should drop off ok. I know she needs the extra sleep because at the mo' I get her up in the morning bath her and dress her and then she sleeps nearly all morning! Its nearly 2pm here and she has slept most of the morning

Last night she was awake moaning around 2am so as it had been around 3 hours since martin fed her I got up and started to feed her, she sucked for about a minute and then fell asleep so I tried winding her and nothing! I laid her down and within 10 mins she was screaming with wind pains! I wish I had just left her to fall back asleep! She then didn't wake until 5.20am so she may have gone 6 hours last night. I have resigned myself to not sleeping after the 5am feed she is just too damn noisy even in her own room!

 

[Tina & Gabs]

Hi hun

I think it is just a case of trying different things until you find the one that works for you. As you know Gabriella likes to fight her sleep; this is only during the day though. We started a routine with her quite early on for bedtime and it seems to be working; she definitely knows the difference between night and day and the daytime is when she fights her sleep (although she is getting better)

We take her upstairs about 7.30pm and she has a bath every other night; she is then changed and put into her grobag and I will feed her with the lights dimmed whilst DH reads her a story; after her feed she is put straight into her bed, normally around 8 or 8.30pm and she generally goes straight to sleep and sleeps for 4 or so hours, she normally wakes twice in the night and about 7am in the morning I feed her in my bed and then we have a snooze together for an hour or so.


Good luck tonight, I hope you all have a good nights sleep; it can be such hard work can't it?

Take care

 

[skatty]

HELP PLEASE!!!

It is 10.15pm amd leorah has only just got to sleep after we first put her down at 6.30pm!! We have had such tantrums! She is very tired but can't settle. We have both taken it in turns to rock/hold her and then try and put her down when she's asleep and within 5 mins she's screaming!

She has a ferocious sucking reflex and her dummy keeps falling out which really upsets her. I am desperate, I have just ordered a white noise CD off ebay as apparantley they help babies block everything else out. The walk before bed was great but she woke up being untucked from all the blankets. Has anyone got any advice at all on how to get an overtired baby to sleep?

I don't think it matters what time we put her to bed she will then fight the sleep. She was like this when she slept with me but I could jusst let her stay asleep on me then.

Help please, I can hear her waking again

 

[Tina & Gabs]

Oh Skatty I feel your pain hun.

We have a slumber bear and we used this and it seemed to really help, it is a recording from inside the womb and is supposed to be really soothing and calming for baby. Here is a link https://sslrelay.com/www.alpino.co.uk/s ... %3Fa%3DSB1 (you can buy it from lots of different places but I thought I would add this as it has some info).

What about playing her some soft lullabies?

When she wakes up crying have you tried just going in and putting your hand on her chest and gently saying Sssshhh? (I am sure you have!)

I really hope things settle and Leorah gets to sleep so you can get some rest.

Thinkin gof you

 

[Tina & Gabs]

Just found this as well http://www.indianchild.com/baby_sleep_tips.htm
http://www.indianchild.com/baby_sleep_problem.htm

 

[skatty]

Thanks Tina

I went and got Leorah in the end and she buried her face into me and was asleep in 3 secs, poor baby she just wants to shut everything out and can't

I did read that sleep problems in newborns tend to peak around 6-8 weeks and that week six is common for a super growth spurt which can be unsettling and I think this could be the case because she is feeding more fequently day and night the ast few days. This has given me some hop that this will pass soon.

Looking on the bright side after her 11ish fedd she goes down easy and then also after each feed in the early hours/first thing in the morning so it could be worst. Last night wa sthe first night she actually cried. She normally lies in her cot being noisy and demanding someone plug her dummy back in.

I'm trying a 5pm bath with lavender oil and putting a piece of cotton wool with lavender on next to her cot, this works for me and I used to be a terrible insomniac!!

 

[Nicky_Jones]

Skatty, if you have the same problem tonight, try using the vacuum cleaner. That creats white noise and works like a charm. It used to calm Ellie when she had bad colic attacks as well. Plug it in, in her room and switch it on.

 

[skatty]

Thank you everyone for all your advice

I had a good think today and a chat with my friend a mother of 2 and have decided that Leorah is doing really well settling in her cot in her own room from 11pm and to let her get used to this for a bit longer. She's not 7 weeks yet and also was 3 weeks early so is doing so well but I think going from spending early evening cuddling Dad and then off to bed with Mum to suddenly being in her own dark room from early evening is really upsetting for her. I felt heartbroken that she was so upset yesterday and feel so much happier with my decision. For the next few weeks we are going to let her settle in the living room and then go to her moses basket which is there and she can go to bed after dad gives her a bottle of EBM around 10.30/11pm. This means I can go to bed at 9, read for an hour and get some sleep before the next feed. I can also get up at 6am and do my exercise and have a shower before she gets up at around 8am. I think we will both be much happier as I don't want to dread the evenings all day every day!

I am sure we will all be a lot more ready when she is a bit older for the next step!

Thanks again everyone