(Just for picture sake!)
I read in an article that once your baby is 6 weeks old, you can start a nightly routine in order to get your baby to sleep longer. This routine is supposed to help your baby distinguish the difference between daytime and nighttime. So when Hannah turned 6 weeks old, Travis and I started giving her a bath, massaging her with lotion, swaddling her and giving her the night time bottle. We did this about the same time every night.
Hannah started sleeping through the night last week (she was 8 weeks). It was exciting and it made me very happy! I was hoping this habit would stick, but sadly every since saturday night, she has decided she wants to wake up at least twice a night. I'm not sure why or what it is that is waking her up. We have the same routine and everything. The only thing we could think of was that we weren't keeping her busy enough during the day. So for the past two or three days, i've been taking her shopping, playing with her on her floor mat, holding her and talking to her and many other things to keep her busy and awake. Well, last night was the worst night we've had in a long time. She went to bed at 10:30:pm. She woke up at 12am, 2am, 4:30am and again at 5:30am.
Maybe it's just the way it is. Are babies supposed to be this fickle?? How did your baby's sleep patterns differ when they were around 8 weeks? Do you have any secrets to share? FILL ME IN! lol I'm curious to see what your nightly routines were/are.
Jen
3 comments:
Kate was sleeping 8 hours a night around 8 weeks and 12 hours by 11 weeks. The best advice I received was that sleep begets sleep- meaning that the better rested they are during the day, the better they sleep at night. When they are over-tired, they can't settle down easily and have bad nights.
We kept Kate on a schedule (the dreaded word!!) and made it fit our schedule. If you are consistent and make sure she rested during the day, you should see improvement.
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I agree with Ash about the schedule.
But I always found that when mine were going through a growth spurt they woke up in the night...even after months of sleeping through the night.
When she does wake up at night, try doing as little as possible to get her to go back to sleep. ie: Just make sure she has her paci...then try patting her back...then try holding her to calm her...then as a last resort try feeding her. You don't want to start a habit of feeding in the middle of the night.
So...maybe it's just a phase? Maybe she's growing?
Sure wish they could talk and tell you what they want :)
When Macey was a baby I read the book BabyWise. For us it really helped, for all three. I used most of the information, but changed up some to fit our needs. Hang in there.
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