TTMA naps/bedtime

[piccyami]

What about starting bedtime around 7:30, so maybe they hit being tired enough to sleep right around when you're putting them in the crib?

A half hour makes a huge difference over here. Trying to start 30 minutes too early is awful and we wind up with 3 hour bedtimes. Trying to start when they're obviously tired is just as bad.

[mustloveerica]

YOu say they nap after every bottle but what is their AWAKE time like? We were having a horrible time with witching from 8pm to 1am until I implemented a strict EASY schedule. They eat about every 3.5 hours then they'll stay awake and actually be happy and coo and look at toys for an hour to an hour and a half. The second they start yawning I put them down for a nap and typically they'll nap for two hours (they're only 9 weeks right now tho, 4 weeks adjusted). Before this I used to just kind of let them fall asleep whenever and eat whenever. I think giving them a strict schedule has really helped.

[mustloveerica]

Oh we also started an actual bedtime routine. We have it timed so it happens right in that hour and a half window of happy awake time but right before the witching usually started. At 7:00 we do Bath/wipe down, lotion, pjs, story and then they get pacis and they snooze in the twin z for an hour. At 8 they get their bedtime bottle which I would consider a dream feed because they're still half snoozing and the straight to bed where they sleep until about 2am. I think this routine means that we bypass the witching hour we used to have because they're already drowsy.

[mustloveerica]

May 11, 2017 12:33:01 GMT -5 HeyMrsPotter said:

mustloveerica, mine often go to sleep as soon as their hunger is satisfied, so we don't always get to the activity after eating. Sometimes they sleep, then play, then eat. Also, they often fall asleep while we're trying to burp them after a bottle, so then we end up just putting them down to nap then. I apparently need to read more about EASY. I think a schedule would help. I hope so.

Also, I need to get my H on board with a bedtime routine. I was doing this religiously at first, but then he kindly started taking over from 8-midnight so I can sleep uninterrupted. He feeds them when they're hungry and pretty much just holds and tries to comfort them (in the LR with lights on) while they scream until they fall asleep. So they're getting zero bedtime cues with him. I've been asking him to read the same sleep books as me so we can be on the same page. I hate nagging and telling him what to do. It's frustrating.

I think a schedule would definitely help! If nothing else it would make everything predictable. So if you go to bed at 8 maybe start their bedtime routine at 7 (dim the lights, lower the tv volume, etc) and maybe they'll start to get drowsy before they get to that overtired witching state. At 15 weeks I think they're old enough to start understanding a sleep routine. We have a nap routine too that I started last week. E has been rejecting all naps lately and I kind of think it's because I let them sleep wherever they happen to be. So I started making naps a distinct routine (diaper, sleep sack, white noise, crib). It's been helping in getting E to take at least one long nap.

And if your H isn't on board with that then I say he gets to deal with the cranky boys while you take a bubble bath.

[callmeKD]

are they on a nap schedule at daycare? I agree with piccyami about getting them down sooner. mine have a witching hour right now from 5pm-6pm. N is ready for bed by 7pm but if I don't get her fed and down by then she's cranky and awake until 8pm.

[mustloveerica]

May 11, 2017 13:10:15 GMT -5 HeyMrsPotter said:

callmeKD, daycare will do whatever I ask but I honestly wasn't even sure what to request. So for now they're doing the same as me -- feeding and letting them set their own sleep schedule.

I found this EASY cheat-sheet that I may try to use at home and at DC with a few modifications to accommodate things like the drive time to and from daycare.

Thanks for everyone's feedback. These ideas probably should have been obvious to me but I think I just wasn't seeing the situation clearly enough on my own.

That's basically the schedule we follow except I have them eating every 3.5 hours. It just works better for our wake up and bed times I also don't always wait the full "awake" time before nap. If they're showing tired cues I put them down. Nobody wants an overtired baby

[schmella]

FWIW, EASY didn't work for my kids for a long time. Neither did the early bedtime everyone pushed (because before 12 weeks it didn't work, but people forget the beginning!). I found this site and chart to be really helpful: www.preciouslittlesleep.com/baby-sleep-what-is-normal/
11pm isn't ideal but it is in the realm of normal for their age.

[DVMmomma]

So do you guys that have a schedule wake the babies when the clock says it's time to eat? I do EASY but it's more driven by them than the clock. This results in a variable bedtime but as all of you probably know by now if you've been reading my posts where moan and whine, something has to change before I lose my marbles. Considering making this change be a stricter bedtime.

[mustloveerica]

May 12, 2017 20:09:32 GMT -5 DVMmomma said:

So do you guys that have a schedule wake the babies when the clock says it's time to eat? I do EASY but it's more driven by them than the clock. This results in a variable bedtime but as all of you probably know by now if you've been reading my posts where moan and whine, something has to change before I lose my marbles. Considering making this change be a stricter bedtime.

I did for maybe a week. Then they naturally fell into the routine. They usually beat the clock by 15-30 minutes but by the time I get everyone up, changed and bottles made it's time to eat. I almost always have to wake H up but I think she would sleep her life away if she could.

[schmella]

Yep. Wake all the babies! Really though, I would give them 30 minutes of flexibility in either direction. So if someone was starving, I didn't withhold food, and I didn't wake babies that were peacefully sleeping at 1pm on the dot. We would start the day very loose goosey and tighten up that schedule towards the end of the day, so that last nap had a hard end time, kwim?
Like mustloveerica, they started to fall into the pattern it waking them became more and more rare