can't get her to bed

[~Karma~]

My DD is 9 weeks old tomorrow.  She's a good feeder, does (more or less) 3 hr EASY, naps not too badly.  My problem is, instead of her 12 hr "nighttime" being something like 8 pm to 8 am, it seems to have landed at 11 to 11 or 12 to 12.  Our routine is below:

~8:15  wake, eat, play
9:15 bed
11:00 wake, eat, play
12:00 bed
1:30-2:00 may wake up or I wake her up if 2 hrs, play if early
2:00 eat, play
3:00 bed
4:00 awake but cranky, sometimes will go back down for 30-45 min
5:00 eat, activity
6:00 may have 30-45 min catnap, may refuse
7:00/7:30 bath/feed
~8:00 start trying to put in bed - this is where it falls apart.


She is tired - yawning, fussy (no different from her naps for which she goes down reasonably easily).  Now, at 8 pm, she goes into some different mode where she will be on the verge of dozing off, then wake up.  This is repeated approximately 100 times. j/k but it seems like that.  At 9 or 9:30 I will often feed her again, then we continue to try to put her back to bed (using shush-pat, paci).  If we are lucky enough to get her asleep before 11, I will aim for a dream feed somewhere between 10:45 and 11:30. She is always asleep by 12 or 12:30, and, depending on last feed, usually only wakes once between 4-6 am for a feeding.  Often will be up for an hour if closer to 6 am, then back to bed.  Often exhausted by 8 am and I can barely wake her up to feed, and her morning nap is always solid.

So I feel her sleep is great between midnight and around noon.  Any ideas on how to adjust this so that she goes to sleep a bit earlier? DH and I have no alone time and spend all evening frustrated by trying to get her to sleep.

TIA!

[melindashaw]

Hi Tia,

I am having a very similar problem with my 16 week old daughter.  She sleeps really well in the morning - I had to wake her up at 10:45 AM this morning, but doesn't sleep well at night.  I have tried to put her to bed between 7 PM - 8 PM and she usually wakes up around 9 PM, and then around midnight.  She has been waking about every 3 hours throughout the night and then when I feed her in the early morning 6-7 AM, she will go to sleep for 4-5 hours+ at a stretch if I don't wake her. I usually have to wake her up after 2 hours during the daytime naps.   Tonight I am going to dreem feed around 11 PM (only if she is not already fussing and awake) and then not feed her again around 7-8 AM.  I am going to keep her up and start her day at that time and see what happens. I think she is getting too much daytime sleep, although it is very difficult to keep her awake for longer than 1h30min.  It is very frustrating!!

Good luck with your little one.  I will report back if I have any success.  Please do the same.

Melinda

[¤ Efka ¤]

For e it kind of feels, like she has been confusing he night and day.
Maybe she needs some 15 more minutes A time?

[~Karma~]

I def think she has switched her days and nights.  I don't know about increasing activity time though.. usually I put her to bed because after 1 hour she is yawning and starting to get cranky.  And she is Touchy so I don't like to push it too much or I've got a real cranker on my hands.  I tihink what I may do is start by wakung her up after 1h45m instead of 2h and I will have to be better about doing stimulating activities in the a.m. I will also try to log her days for the next couple and see what happens.

Thanks for your advice! Karma

[¤ Efka ¤]

Good idea, definitely keep daily activities in light and about and when she wakes at night then just be in dark as possible, giving he all clues possible, half time in 24 hours period is for sleeping and other or playing

[flyblue21]

My dd is now 3 months old.  She used to do this type of thing.  Sometimes she would not sleep at all between 4 and 11, at the worst.  I think it was a combination of silent acid reflux (meaning she wasn't actually spitting up but had heartburn).  She wasn't really crying just fussing and maybe sleeping 10 minutes at a time if I held her.  Anyways, she has almost completely outgrown it now and goes to bed around 8:30.  So it might just be a colic thing.  good luck!