Can someone help me figure out this 9 week old issue

[ezmom]

My 9 week old (almost 10 weeks now), is not sleeping early enough and i am not sure if it is because i am doing something wrong.

I tried to put her down for the night around 7:45, which is when she wants to sleep anyway.  She sleeps and them she wakes about an hour later and we have tried to keep her in the room where it is dark, so she can get the hint that she still needs to sleep.  We used to get her up and assume that was just a nap and then have her awake and try again around 9:30 pm.  Anyway, so last night we tried to keep her in the room and transition her back to sleep, and she would not fall asleep until closer to 10 - 10:30 pm.  Am i doing something wrong here?  I would like her to sleep earlier because 10 is just too late.  The night before last we successfully had her sleep earlier and then when she woke we were able to get her to sleep again right away and she had less night wakings. 

Can someone tell me what i am doing wrong and how i can get her to go down for the night earlier and stay asleep after a wake up around 9 pm?  Thank you!

[Buttonbobs]

Hi there, it would help us to answer your question if you could post a typical day in EAS format.
Would you mind?

[ezmom]

Thanks Naomi.  Unfortunately we have been all over the board, no consistent times yet but we do follow EAS format.

For example

E: 6 am
A: 6-7
S: 7-9 or 9:30 (sometimes 10 am)
E: 9:30
A: 9:30-10:30 (she only can last 1 hour max activity time)
S: 10:30-12 or 12:30
E: 12:30
A: 12:30-1:30
S: 1:30 - 2:30 or 2:45 (the naps start getting shorter)
E: 2:45
A: 2:45 - 3:45
s: 3:45-4:30
E: 4: 45
A: 4:30-5:30
S: 5:30-6
E: 6
A: 6-7:15
Last night i gave her a bath around 7 so that i could get her ready for sleep.  SHe bathed, we did massage, jammies, breastfeed, then we rocked her a bit.  She started getting sleepy so i swaddled her and put her down by 7:45 ish.  She slept for 1 hour and then was up - usually we get her up and she has another activity because it doesnt look like she wants to sleep again, and she will be up and we try to get her down and she usually finally falls asleep around 10:30.  BUt last night when she got up around 8:45, we went in and rocked her and shhh, and put the pacifier back, and it took a really long time to get her to settle. My husband rocked her like that and she was moving around the whole time, then finally around 9 i brought her to bed and she finally settled.

This was not typical though, as stated usually she will wake up again and sleep, after a lot of effort on our part to get her to sleep, and it is usually closer to 10 - 10:30 pm.

SO last night she slept about 9 and woke at about 11 pm, i fed her again, and she slept until 3 am, fed her and then again at 6 am and we were up for the day. I fed her and i put her down for a nap at 7:15 (this is the longest she has lasted).

So the pattern so far is that she wakes at 6 am, sometimes a bit earlier. What time should she be going down for the night and how can i get her to know it is night sleep and not to wake up again for activity time?  Thank you. Sorry for the long post.

[danaadell]

Is it dark in her room? We do naps with the curtains open but the blinds down so some light comes in and bedtime totally dark.

And I am jealous of your naps. 

[ezmom]

Yes, its dark in her room.  In the day she naps in her room, which has black outs, but there is one strip that has some light shining through (i am putting curtains up this weekend), and for night we are trying to start her off in her room and then move her to our room, which does not have black outs but by he time she gets in our room it is pretty dark. 

[Buttonbobs]

I don't know where you are but if you're in summertime at the moment could the light in the mornings be creating an earlier start to your day? You could try taping some bin bags or tin foil over the window in your room to see if it makes any difference before doing anything major in the way of changing your sleeping arrangements.

It sounds like you are rocking to sleep generally. This is a perfectly valid choice if it is working for you as a family, but if you want to try and teach independent sleep and remove the rock to sleep prop at this point, it may help with her ability to transition between sleep cycles and lead to longer stretches of sleep. What do you think?

[ezmom]

I think you are right, our room gets a lot of light early.  I need to get something to make it darker.

Yes i really want to teach her to fall asleep independently. What are my options, how can i do it?  I am okay right now rocking but i know from experience with my 2 year old that i dont want to do it for much longer.  WHat can i do to get her to sleep independently if i dont rock and also to get herself back to sleep  after a sleep cycle? 

[Buttonbobs]

You could start by rocking a little bit but not until she's asleep, and then shh/pat while you're holding her and then transfer to her cot and continue to shh/pat.

Gradually over time you'd move to just holding and shh:patting but not rocking and then putting her in cot awake and shh/patting and then eventually just putting in the cot and reducing the shh/pat.

You can do this for all naps/BT and NWs. Have you read this?
Shush-pat - How to