When 2 Put to Sleep

My son was about 3 months when he started to sleep for long stretches and then at about a year he slept completely through the night. I never tried to sleep train him. I think just as they get older they are able to sleep longer stretches at a time because they don't get hungry.

I have a 3 week old and I try and keep her up during the day and feed her more often, so that she learns that she is supposed to sleep longer at night.

Hi E.,
What worked for me was reading On Becoming Baby Wise. This is a book on how to get your child on a set schedule at any age. My daughter loves to sleep but she has been sleeping through the night since she was 6 weeks old. She now goes to be between 630-7pm every night and wakes up between 730-8am every morning. Like I said she likes to sleep. This is my first and only child and the book really helped me to understand the importance in putting them on a sleep schedule so that mommy and daddy can have some quiet time. Hope this helps.
J.

I really didn't try to "sleep train" my son until he was around 6 months, and even then I wasn't super strict about it until he turned 9 months. He's a year old now, and goes to bed at 7:30pm and wakes up at 6:30am. He didn't start sleeping through the night until around 4 months.

Your daughter is still too young to really know what's going on, so I don't think you should feel the need to rush into anything. Often times children make up their own sleep schedules, and as long as it isn't completely unreasonable, you should just let her take the lead.

E.,

I would think that it is to soon to try a sleep routine. If you are breastfeeding then your daughter is going to need to wake up in the middle of the night to eat for at least another month. I have a 4 month old baby girl as well and her MD said that they can't really sleep thru the night until they are at least 10 lbs because they do not have enough body fat yet. My baby started waking up only once around 2 am for a feeding at about 3 months and just started sleeping thru the night last week. She is now 13 lbs. I think the most important thing is to develop a routine so your baby gets the hint that it is night time and time to mellow out and sleep. Also, during the middle of the night feedings don't talk to your baby or turn on a lot of lights this way they know it is not play time or time to start the day. It made it so much easier for everyone to fall back asleep in the middle of the night, including myself. Good luck!

There is other less harsh ways to "train" a baby to sleep than Ezzo (the Baby Wise guy see http://www.ezzo.info/ for more info on why his method should not be used, see the "Voices of Experience" section) Go with a more gentle approch like "The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night" or "Nighttime Parenting" by Dr. Sears.

E....Hi honney. I have a 4 month old baby girl, Kylee, and an 8 yr old, Kaitlynn. My Kylee has been sleeping thru the night since about 6 weeks. Before I put her down for the night I try to rock and sing to her and then lay her in her cradle with music on. It helps to let her start crying herself to sleep a little at a time during the day. Try for like 10 minutes at a time or as long as you can take it. It will help her sleep on her own and sooth herslelf knowing the you will eventually be back. It seemed to work with Kylee. Good luck!!

You can start beginning to put him onto a schedule right now. The best way to reinforce a nightly bedtime is by having a routine. For my daughter this means a bottle at bedtime. She knows that after she finishes, she is headed to bed, and I will sing her a lullaby, rub her head for a minute, and then she goes to sleep. She started her routine at about 2 1/2 months and she is now 1 year old and on the same schedule that we started her with. She takes two naps during the day around the same time, and then goes to bed at 10:00. She doesn't wake until 10:30 am, and I swear it's because she is on a schedule. Trust me, you will thank yourself later if you try to maintain a schedule now. Kids need consistency, it's something that helps them know that they are cared for. Don't worry if you need to change it up every now and then, schedules can be changed later if need be. It's good to be flexible, but if you want to start now, go right ahead. It's never too early. If he wants something, trust me, he'll let you know. :) Good luck!

hi mom, well I have a set of twins girls and there 19months, I started putting them to sleep when they were around 3 months,between 9pm-10pm they would have there last bottle I would change them and put them to bed and they would wake up around 7am. The thing that I would do most is just sit there and talk to them alot and they like it they get sleepy on there own, most baby's just want attention, til this day they go to sleep around the same time and wake up 8am. Hope you get some sleep try it let her know it's bedtime. baby's do understand ^-^ best of luck.

Hi E.,

I started trying to put my son to sleep for longer than 2 hours at 4 weeks. By six weeks he slept at least 6 hours a night, by 2 months 6-8 hours and now he's 4 months sleeping 8-10 hours a night. It's wonderful! I started by creating a night time routine consisting of a bath, baby massage, feeding, rocking and to the crib. He took to it really well. It was a matter of being consistant. When we would go out and come home late, he would get all thrown off and want to stay awake until 1am or later. When we followed the routine it worked great. One thing is while he woke up in the middle of the night I kept the lights low and didn't really talk to him. I wanted him to know that after the bedtime ritual it's night time, and that means sleep time.

Good luck!

D.