Bedtime question-5 week old

[mommy2mason]

We are on a 3 hour routine. When it comes to the 7pm-ish feeding, he seems to want to go to bed for the night. That means we don't do the cluster feeding and he just goes to bed and doesn't get the last catnap instead. Last night he slept from 8pm-3am then back to bed until 6:30am. We haven't tried a DF yet either as it didn't work for my son and I was ok with that. Actually, I would prefer not to do one, but with a routine like he has, he is only eating 6 times. Is that ok or should I rearrange his routine to get another feeding in? I wouldn't mind if his actual bedtime was later because that longer stretch of sleep later in the night would be nice.

[*Liz*]

Cluster feeding only works for some babies, just like the dream feed really.

Sounds like he is doing SUPER with night feeds TBH.

Is he gaining weight OK?

[mommy2mason]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, he is gaining weight well. I'm having a hard time with his routine though and I wonder if it's because he goes to bed at 7. He doesn't nap well at all in the morning for either of his two naps. It's very hard to get him down and he always wakes during them. His first nap I got 45 minutes out of him and even tried to get him back to sleep in the swing with no luck. His 2nd nap was only a half hour then and I got him back to sleep for another half hour. I just feel like I'm constantly trying to get him to sleep all morning. It makes for a long morning with a toddler running around! He'll usually do better for his 3rd nap but the 4th nap is horrible as well...usually a tiny catnap only if we're on a walk or in the car. Then he's totally ready to crash by 7 and falls asleep at the bottle. Last night he slept from 7pm-1:30am. He's also always pretty restless after his middle of the night feeding. He doesn't cry but moans and grunts a lot. He was up again at 5am to eat then back to sleep until 7:30am.

[*Liz*]

Can you post the times for us to look at  .

I doubt the 7pm bedtime is the issue. He honestly is doing very well with only feeding at 1.30am and 5am. It really won't be long until that 5am feeding fades away. And the fact you are getting a 12 hr night period is also great.

There is a bit of a developmental issue with short napping at this age as well - but we might be able to tweak the A's to makes things easier.

[mommy2mason]

Thanks! Today has gone really well so far! I know he has bad gas and is always grunting and screams out in pain and I think that's what's causing the nap issues. I gave him gripe water for the first time today and I had to wake him from his first nap and his 2nd nap was just about two hours! He went down easily too which was such a change! I'll keep you posted but I'm hoping things continue like this! Maybe his gas is just worse in the mornings because he's still doing well at night. Last night he ate at 7, went to bed and didn't wake until 3:30am.

[*Liz*]

Wow - what a great nights sleep 

Well done mummy and baby.

I meant to say all the grunting was probably wind!! My DS used to be dreadful. I used to find it really hard to sleep as he was just so LOUD. Always from about 3am in the morning as well.

[clazzat]

Hope that you have got it sorted, but just wanted to chime in that we had all sorts of problems when dd2 was 5 weeks old because I didn't realise that her first A of the day was really, really short.  Once we worked out that she had to be back in bed within an hour of waking up, the first nap got better (ie there wasn't an hour and a half of screaming before she went to sleep  ) and the rest of the day fell into place a bit better.

And I'm very jealous of your nights - it was 9 months before we got sleep like that!

[mommy2mason]

Well after a great day our night wasn't as great. Maybe too much day sleep? What do you think?
Here's what yesterday looked like:

E-7:30
A-
S-8:15-10:45am (I know...more than 2 hours but we had company and I lost track of time!)

E-10:45
A-
S-12:00-1:50

E-1:50
A-
S-2:45-4:45

E-5:00
A-
S-6:30-7 (in swing-this nap is usually harder to get him to take, but it didn't help that we were outside and I didn't get him down in time)

E-7:20..falling asleep at the bottle.
S-Went right to sleep but woke crying after a half hour...OT I'm sure. Got back to sleep pretty quickly though by holding him for a bit.

E-12:40am (I thought he'd make it longer since he had been going until 3am. After this bottle he was super restless and was moaning and grunting a lot pretty loudly.)

E-4:00am-Again, he's always so restless after his night feeds. It's hard to tell if he's even sleeping or not. 

E-7:10am